Use this four-part strategy to do more of what you love every day and create a life of impact
If you’re like me, you want your life to matter, to impact others, and to reflect the potential God has woven within you. But a life well-lived doesn’t just happen by chance. Instead, it takes intention, consistency, faith, and time. And it begins with the decision to commit your days to the Lord and learn how to be more diligent.
A series of well-lived days results in a well-lived year, and a series of well-lived years results in a well-lived life. So, whether you want to grow a business, manage your health, get your degree, or treat your family to a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, if you begin by focusing on your days, your life will fall into place.
Thankfully, being diligent in your daily life isn’t nearly as difficult as it sounds. The key is to think big and start small.
What Does Diligent Mean?
A modern definition of diligent describes a person who is consistent, earnest, and hardworking. It implies a sense of focus and an innate drive to approach life with purpose and excellence.
However, if you research the history of the word diligent, you’ll discover another element to the word that is often overlooked. Within the word’s deep roots is the Latin verb diligere which is formed by combining two parts that mean “to love” and “to select.” It reminds us that it’s easier to be diligent about something if we love it and we have chosen it ourselves.
Once you know what you love – and don’t love – about your life as it is right now, you’ll be better equipped to select which parts of your day to approach with diligence and which parts to approach with less focus and attention.
Observation Before Implementation
What do you love about your current daily rhythm? Before you make changes to your expectations and routines, begin with a period of observation. Set aside a week or two to take notes on the best and worst parts of your day. Consider these questions as you reflect each evening:
- What did I do today that brought me joy?
- What tasks did I enjoy doing in the moment?
- What tasks did I find satisfaction in only after they were complete?
- What time of day did I feel most productive?
- What was I unprepared for?
- What drained my energy the most?
- What distracted me from the things I love?
- What did I do only because it was required?
- What tasks did I leave undone?
- What do I wish I had incorporated into my day but didn’t?
In my own life, this exercise helped me to notice that I get most of my best work done before noon, I’m never caught up on laundry, constant noise drains me, and I feel better when I eat a healthy lunch even though I hate packing it the night before. I also discovered that putting off things that are important to me, like reading my Bible and journaling my prayers, leaves me feeling cranky and irritable.
What about your own observations? The more you reflect, the more you will notice the tasks of your day settling into one of four categories:
- Category 1: Things I don’t love and don’t have to do
- Category 2: Things I don’t love but must do anyway
- Category 3: Things I love and am already doing
- Category 4: Things I love but am not yet doing
Once you have your day divided into these four categories, you can begin to make adjustments to your daily rhythm, approaching each category with a different strategy. Be sure to give each step several days of focus so you’re not overwhelmed by too much change at once.
Step 1: Eliminate
Start with Category 1 – the things you don’t love and don’t have to do. Your goal for this category is to eliminate these time-wasters from your life. Maybe you realized the days you spent preparing for a yard sale or listing items to sell online resulted in a very small profit. If the payoff is not worth the effort, create a new system to donate your items instead.
Perhaps you discovered you’re spending more time than you realized playing mindless games on your phone. Consider incorporating screen time limitations to help you reclaim your minutes.
You won’t be able to approach the things you really love with diligence if your time is being sucked away by meaningless tasks, so be ruthless with this category.
Step 2: Minimize
For Category 2 – things you don’t love but must do anyway – the key is to minimize these tasks by incorporating processes and avoiding perfectionism. If you hate grocery shopping, set up a standing online order instead. If you don’t enjoy household chores, set a timer to keep from getting bogged down as you clean. For some items in Category 3, you may even need to hire help or share the load with family members.
Whatever you do, don’t procrastinate doing these tasks just because you don’t enjoy them. Often, the worry and dread you experience from procrastinating takes more energy than completing the task, so don’t give these items more attention than they deserve.
Step 3: Protect
Categories 3 and 4 are where being diligent begins. Your Category 3 tasks are the ones you love and are already doing. Protect these tasks at all costs. Items within this category reveal what is truly important to you and what is already working well in your daily routines, so don’t make any changes to tasks within this list.
Instead, use this time to reflect on why these tasks have taken priority in your life. What is the greater value behind what you are doing? How does completing these tasks make you feel? What do these tasks reveal about the way God has created you for a greater purpose? Collect your answers to these questions now so that you can use them in your final step towards diligence.
Step 4: Pursue
The difference between a life of diligence and a life of mediocrity lies within this category. It takes the most effort, focus, faith, and grit, but the results are invaluable. Your true potential is realized in the things you love but are not yet doing, so choose to pursue these tasks starting today.
To begin, set aside time each day for this category. Call it your Pursue Time and treat it with as much respect as you would any other appointment on your calendar. Then take your goal and break it down into small, manageable tasks you can conquer each day during this sacred time.
Use your faith and your reflections from your Category 3 tasks to fuel your motivation. Remember how it feels when you are living up to your God-given potential and allow the greater purpose behind your goals to propel you through each day.
Review, Adjust, and Remember
Finally, remember that no plan is perfect and no one’s life is without surprises and setbacks. At times, you may even need to repeat the cycle of eliminate, minimize, protect, and pursue. Be diligent in your daily pursuits but remain flexible as well. Begin each day with prayer, acknowledging God’s sovereignty and asking Him to grow your faith as you pursue your daily goals.
End each day with prayer and reflection. Thank God for today’s successes and ask Him to help you adjust tomorrow’s plans as necessary, remembering that the most well-lived life is a life where your faith grows stronger every day.
Emily E. Ryan
Emily is a minister’s wife, mother of four, and junior high English teacher who loves encouraging women with practical advice and biblical wisdom. She is a regular contributor to Guideposts’s Mornings with Jesus, and her virtual door is always open at emilyeryan.com.
