Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for a PDF version and other notes.
If you’re new to Daily Prompts, you may want to start at the beginning of the series here.
Year______ Month_______Day______Consecutive Practice Days_____Missed Days______
Day 38
Gratitude:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vision:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Affirmations:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Action Internalizes Your Locus Of Control
I’ve explained that a daily Action Practice can foster faith and create confidence, but an internal locus of control goes beyond that.
For many years, I had claimed to take responsibility for where I was in my life. But I would also subconsciously blame external forces for my failures. I may have said that I had an internal locus of control, but I didn’t live it.
When I would set results-oriented goals, they were often beyond my control. I would essentially prove to myself that I was at the mercy of my circumstances. I would set goals for how many clients I would have by a certain date (something dependent on the decisions of other people) and work hard to see it achieved. When I would fail, I’d have all kinds of reasons why there was nothing more I could have done. It was easy to play the victim.
When I switched my focus to Practicing Daily Action, I began to internalize just how much power I have over my own life. Yes, many of the results I’d like to see are still outside my control, but the practice of daily action has helped me become more aware of what I do have control over. And the actions I can take to guide my life closer and closer to my desired vision are powerful. I’m getting there. I can see that I’m getting there.
I think the reason so many people fall into the trap of playing the role of the victim is that they’re so focused on specific outcomes. It’s the attachment to certain outcomes that essentially “proves” to them that they have no control over their lives.
Of course, people stuck in this predicament will never admit this openly, or even to themselves. This external locus of control becomes a deep-seated core belief. As long as people pin the value of their life to certain outcomes, they will forever feel they are at the mercy of external forces.
By implementing a Daily Action Practice, you teach yourself about what you do and don’t have direct control over. You have control over your actions, not necessarily the results of those actions. You get to experience the results as an after-effect of your actions, which helps you steer your future actions toward the results you desire.
Action:______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Daily: (The pdf version below contains three lined pages for your daily journal)
NOTE:
The above is an excerpt from the upcoming The Lyceum Course Journal. We will be releasing it here for free as a Daily Prompt blog post. If you would like a physical copy, we will link to it here once it is released.
Suggested Use:
I realize a daily journal prompt on a blog is a little weird. This is how I would suggest using it: Open your favorite note-taking software such as Evernote, copy and paste this post into it, and write your daily entries there.
OR
Download a PDF version of this post here. Feel free to print it out, or access it through a PDF editor where you can type in your daily entry.
Collaborate With Me!
This post series is a first draft of the future book. If you have suggestions, comments, or see errors, please reach out so that I can make the final product more valuable for you and the rest of the community. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
