By Steve Pavlina
It can be tricky to achieve a healthy balance between self-discipline and spontaneity. If you’re too disciplined, you can become overly rigid and miss some wonderful growth opportunities. But if you’re too spontaneous, then your life may become messy and unfocused, struggling to get ahead. Disciplined, focused efforts can create some wonderful long-term payoffs, such as multiple streams of passive income that render a time-sucking job completely unnecessary. It takes a careful balance between these two factors to create a life of freedom and fulfillment.
Self-discipline pays off with the opportunity to be more spontaneous. It’s much easier for me to be spontaneous when you have full control of your schedule and don’t need a job. So if you like spontaneity, you’d better fall in love with self-discipline, or you’ll probably end up stuck working hard to fulfill someone else’s desire for more spontaneity.
Being spontaneous also makes it easier to be disciplined. If all you see before you is work, work, and more work, that isn’t very motivating. But if you make an effort to have fun, take unplanned trips, and live by the seat of your pants on occasion, you’ll burn off a lot of stress, and your motivation will increase. Happiness is a lot more motivating than tension.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://www.innomind.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/steve-pavlina-profile.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers to his website, StevePavlina.com. He has written more than 1000 articles and recorded many audio programs on a broad range of self-help topics, including productivity, relationships, and spirituality. Steve has been quoted as an expert by the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, the Los Angeles Daily News, Self Magazine, and The Guardian. He is also a frequent guest on radio and Internet radio shows. [/author_info] [/author]
