The Mindset Shift: 3 Simple Steps to Master Discipline and Achieve Success

Defeat is Optional: The Mindset Shift: 3 Simple Steps to Master Discipline and Achieve Success!

In this episode of 'Defeat is Optional, Ronnie, a professional track and field athlete, explores the intersection of discipline, faith, and athletic success. Ronnie shares personal anecdotes from his Olympic journey, highlighting the importance of turning adversity into opportunity. The episode provides listeners with three key tools to enhance discipline in their lives: recognizing the interconnectedness of faith and other life areas, setting tangible process and outcome goals, and emphasizing inner change supported by biblical teachings. Through these strategies, Ronnie encourages athletes to build resilience and deepen their faith, ultimately leading to consistent performance and personal growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 11:42 Tool #1
• 16:27 Tool #2
• 22:07 Tool #3
• 32:21 Outro

Transcript

Welcome to Defeat Is Optional, the podcast dedicated to athletes determined to achieve success and overcome adversity. I'm your host, Ronnie Baker, a professional track and field athlete here to guide you through this life-altering journey. In this podcast, I'll share powerful, real, and transformative stories from my own Olympic journey—stories of turning pain into victory, overcoming injuries, and using adversity to my advantage. If you're driven, seeking motivation, struggling with setbacks, or on the verge of giving up, this podcast is for you. You'll discover the power of resilience, tenacity, and, most importantly, faith.

Defeat Is Optional is about gaining mental strength to succeed in sports, all rooted in biblical truth. Get ready to unlock your potential and defy the odds with every episode. Defeat Is Optional is not just a podcast; it's a way of life.

Real quick, before we dive into today's episode, I want to remind you that you have the ability to overcome any adversity in your life. You are more than capable of success, and in fact, that success is already inside of you. My goal is to help you grow your mental strength so that you can experience it. So dare to venture into the unknown, overcome your setbacks, and become a champion. This podcast is not about me; it's about you and your journey toward victory.

Defeat Is Optional is about gaining the mental strength to succeed in sports, all rooted in biblical truth. So take the leap with me, subscribe to the podcast, and start your own journey to athletic success and enhanced faith. Together, let's redefine defeat and fuel victory.

Hey friends, welcome to Defeat Is Optional, the place where I'll remind you of the power of resilience, tenacity, and, most importantly, faith. This podcast is all about gaining the mental strength you need to succeed in sports, all rooted in biblical truth. I'm your friend, your host, Ronnie Baker.

So I want to ask you guys a question to start out: Have you ever wondered how athletes reach the elite level? Today, I'm going to share with you why discipline is a key ingredient to success, and I'm going to offer you three easy steps on how to implement it right into your life so that you can increase your willpower and elevate your performance.

In this episode, I'll show you exactly how you can be more disciplined in your sport and how you can increase your willpower and stay committed to the goals you set out to accomplish. My goal in this episode is to provide you with practical tools to increase the likelihood that you'll stay committed to your goals and that you'll actually achieve them.

If you're listening to this episode, you're probably someone who's super motivated at the beginning of every new year or each new track season. Perhaps you've decided this is your comeback year and you've written down a bunch of goals. But honestly, halfway through your training, you look up and realize you're completely off track. Maybe you're stuck in a cycle, and you're frustrated because you keep coming up short each year and you can't stay committed. You may feel like it's a lost cause, and you're probably saying things like, "I've struggled with discipline for so long; you don't know my story. I've literally tried everything and I've listened to everyone. I've implemented a routine, and none of that worked for me."

And to be honest, I don't know your story. But I do know that if you're listening to this episode, you're still looking for a solution. And I think this is your sign because God has brought you to this moment, to this podcast, for a specific reason. So if I were you, I'd listen up because I'm going to tell you exactly how you can reverse the lack of consistency in your life, stay committed to your goals, and unlock the willpower within you when you want to quit.

If you guys know me, you know I'm an Olympic track and field athlete. And if you know track and field, you know that only three individuals make the Olympic team every four years, and that is only the top three athletes for every event. So this means that no matter what happens before the day of the trials, if you're the fastest guy going into that track meet, even if you broke the world record two weeks before, if you don't cross the line in the top three for your event, you're going to be watching the Olympics from the couch.

And I say all of that to emphasize that it takes immense discipline to stay focused for four years and continue to make the sacrifices needed to secure a spot on that team. And if you guys know anything about the trials, the U.S. team is by far the hardest to make because we have the most depth across our country, and there are a number of guys that could easily run fast enough to represent our country. Most of them are going to be sitting at home on the couch because they only take the top three.

So all in all, guys, staying disciplined is really a lifestyle choice. It's not a fad, and it's not something you do for a short period of time. The problem many of you face is that you want to be more disciplined, but you're approaching the task as something you're going to do for the next 30 to 60 days instead of integrating it into who you actually are—not just something you do. Discipline is literally about changing the person that you are, changing who you are on the inside, not just changing the external things that you do.

So becoming disciplined requires a lot of inner change first. As a matter of fact, all real change requires inward reflection and a shift in perspective. This has been something I've been learning over the last two to three years: whenever you really want to make lasting change in your life, you do not look at the external things first; you always change who you are on the inside. And that requires a lot of work; it requires a lot of thinking, it requires a lot of processing, and it also requires a lot of you just sitting by yourself and really asking yourself some tough questions.

But if you want to change, if you want to be more disciplined, you've got to change from the inside out. So, defeat is optional, right? The title of this podcast really is a phrase to live by. It's a lifestyle, and it's all centered around your ability to tackle adversity and make the correct choices to put yourself in a winning position. In this case, that means a position to discipline yourself, stay committed to your goals, and achieve your dreams.

I love this quote: "Defeat is optional." It is something that I have lived my life by, not only just in the last couple of years that I've been professional, but really ever since I was young. I've been in really tough situations in my life, and I've always found a way to persevere. This podcast is not really motivational rah-rah; I really want this to be a place and a community where we are making the decisions to discipline ourselves. We're making the decisions each and every day where we're going to choose to be a better person, not just in our sport, but also in our faith—faith being one of the big backbones and foundations of this podcast.

So, really, if you're like me, you probably have a lot of doubt about your ability to make the concept of discipline a reality in your life. And I want to remind you that if you're involved in sports and if you're playing at a high level, you literally already are disciplined. Right? There's no way that I could be an Olympic-level athlete without discipline. I also think as athletes, we never really give ourselves enough credit. So I want to start by saying you're better at this than you think. Because of where you are, you actually already have the willpower within yourself to take it to the next level. Nobody gets to perform at high levels without some level of discipline.

So everything that has happened to you up until this point—the disappointments of missing your goals, your trend of a little bit of inconsistency in your past, and the hurt from falling short of your athletic goals—I want to tell you that that was all a part of God's design for your life. And if you're feeling discouraged right now, I can totally relate to you. I'm here to tell you that God has you exactly where He wants you to be. All the things you're pointing to as the evidence for why you won't achieve your goals and why you lack discipline—I want to actually tell you that those are the exact reasons why you're going to achieve them. They're the exact reasons why you are going to achieve your goals because that adversity really is the key to igniting the passion in your life to fix the issues so you can live the life God has for you.

Ultimately, a lot of the adversity that we go through—many times, people run from adversity. They run and hide from it. There's something that comes up against them that may get in the way of their goals. Some people hide; some people are living in denial, and they don't accept that that adversity is there, so they never tackle it head-on. What I want to tell you is that no matter what you're going through, whatever that setback is, whatever that obstacle is, it's creating in you a desire to be better in that specific area. And maybe in this instance, we're talking about discipline.

Because you have that desire, you've been seeking out ways to be more disciplined, and now you're here listening to this podcast. So, again, God has you in the exact position that He wants you in, and all of the things that have been thrown at you have gotten you to a point where you're going to now make the lasting change that's going to help you take your game and your life to the next level.

There was also really once a time in my life when I was not very disciplined. I was addicted to pornography; I drank and partied a lot, and I would justify a lot of the actions that I was taking that honestly weren't Christ-centered. I would justify them so that I could feel good about how I was living my life. And I'll be honest, if you've ever struggled with addiction, you understand that ridding yourself of that requires a lot of discipline. But honestly, guys, I've been delivered from that. I'm not in that place anymore. I've shared my testimony of how I overcame those things, and it's actually radically changed and transformed who I am on the inside.

So honestly, I'm really here to tell you, I don't care how bad you feel about your lack of discipline or the negative things you've told yourself up until this point to justify why you won't ever achieve your goals. I really don't care about the fear you have because all of that adversity was the catalyst for me to be more disciplined so I could live a life of freedom. What I'm telling you is that all of those things are designed to help you be a better person, and it's going to be those things that you use to catapult you to the consistency that you want.

Understand that if you are struggling in the area of discipline, you have most likely prayed about it. I know that I did. I know that I reached out and asked God for help. And you probably have too, and the lack of discipline is actually creating a desire for you to be better. Like I've been saying, you can do that if you follow the steps I'm going to give you in this episode.

Will you suddenly become the most disciplined person overnight? Probably not, because this isn't just going to be a routine you implement, which is something that you've probably done before. It's actually going to be a resetting of your mind and your perspective around discipline so that you can change who you are, so that you actually live a defeat-as-optional and a discipline lifestyle. You don't just start out being disciplined and live that lifestyle for two weeks, and then go back to your old ways. This is really about changing your mind and changing who you are on the inside.

So I'm going to jump into the three key tips or these tools that I've used in my career and in my life to up my discipline and allow me to become an Olympic athlete in 2021 and achieve a lot of great things in my career.

Tool Number One: Actually recognizing that you cannot be disciplined in one area of your life and inconsistent in another if you want to achieve success and have peace and joy in the process. I have achieved a lot of success in my athletic career, but there are times when I didn't have joy and peace through that because I wasn't consistent in other areas of my life. For me, I have been consistent in my physical and athletic endeavors, but in the past, I was not disciplined specifically in my faith.

This is why I was so successful in sport, and ultimately, I was unsatisfied in other parts of my life at the same time. It was the reason I struggled secretly with sin, but in the eyes of others, I was living my wildest dreams. Right? I traveled the world; I got to compete on big stages in front of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people. I got paid to do that. I didn't have to work a nine-to-five job. It seems like it's going well on the outside, but if you don't have that discipline in your life in all areas, it can be really challenging. It could be taxing; it can be emotionally draining.

What I like to do is divide my life into four categories, which I actually learned from a friend of mine. Those categories are faith, family, finance, and fitness. I typically would have a fifth one on there; it would be career. But in my field of work, fitness literally is my job, so I keep it at faith, family, fitness, and finance. Honestly, if one of these is lacking, it affects the other. So if you lack consistency in your faith, ultimately, your family is probably going to suffer. If you're terrible with your finances and you mismanage your money, it might affect your family and your faith, right? You may start to put your trust in money or invest in riskier projects because you haven't trusted God with that part of your life.

So the first thing you should do is divide your life into a few categories that have meaning to you. But I would suggest—and honestly, it's not really a suggestion—faith is a prerequisite to discipline, and it really is a non-negotiable in my eyes because it's impossible to be disciplined to an elite level without Christ. It's impossible to stay consistent and achieve your dreams and goals without faith.

So first and foremost, choose your categories, but you've got to place faith at the head of them because without God, you can do nothing. John 15:5 says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for apart from me, you can do nothing." So without Christ, you wouldn't have the gifts and abilities you possess now; you wouldn't have the achievements, and you wouldn't have the desire to grow your discipline. Christ is the one who puts the desire there in the first place. Christ wants you to be disciplined so He can use you to a greater degree.

In order to achieve athletic success and actually enjoy the process, have fun while you're pursuing goals, and actually sharpening your gift that God's given you, to have peace during the tough times, and to correct yourself quickly when you get off track, you need to make your faith a priority.

So that's really step number one, tool number one: you can divide your life into those categories. It gets really easy to compile the things that you do into those four. For me, it was again faith, family, finance, and fitness. I know that if I get a really good workout in, that's a check that box, right? I'm keeping my body healthy. If I spend time with my family, have a conversation with my wife, a deep conversation, a meaningful conversation, if I make sure that I manage my money well or I am investing it properly, and then also spending time with God, those are really my four categories.

So, step one: putting faith at the forefront of your life and then organizing your life into a couple of different categories where you can strive to be better in each one. Faith has to be number one because when your faith strengthens, your heart changes. And I told you guys that being disciplined is all about inner change. So inner change is the key to lasting external change and correct decision-making.

Whenever you're making bad decisions, most of the time, you don't want to make them. Ultimately, if someone asks you why you made that decision, most people say, "Well, I don't know. I don't know why I made that decision." Well, I'll tell you this: you made that poor decision because you've always made that poor decision. You've programmed yourself to make that poor decision, and that's what your default is.

So in order for you to actually change the decision-making process and make the correct decisions, it can't just be head-level; it's got to be heart-level. You have to actually change and rewire your brain and your nervous system to be able to make the right choices.

The first thing about putting faith at the forefront of those categories is super important. This second tool that you're going to need, the second thing that you're going to do, is you're going to actually set some tangible goals.

We're going to actually break those goals into two categories. What I would advise you to do is grab a sheet of paper and write these goals out. So your outcome goals—those are your big goals. Those are the goals that are based upon winning. Outcome goals are very difficult to control because of all the outside influences. Some of my outcome goals over the years have been winning an NCAA title, making a world championship team, and ultimately winning a gold medal. Typically, these are the easy ones to write out because most likely this is how people set their goals. They always look at the biggest things; they put those down first.

They write out a list and list and list of all the great things they want to do. Maybe they want to break a world record; they want to win a state title; they want to break their school record, whatever the case may be. Those are easy; they're quick, you know exactly what you want to do. I look at those goals, but I also like to refer to those goals as God goals because, in all honesty, you have no control over them. If you want to achieve them, you have to let go and let God.

When we try to control outcomes in our lives, it only makes us frustrated. The reason is because we aren't the authors of these things, nor do we know the future, and trying to control something you have no control over is the easiest way to feel hopeless and frustrated. This happened to me deeply after the Olympics in 2021. I was supremely confident because I had done pretty much everything that I could do that year to stay healthy. I was in the best shape of my life, and I made it to the Olympic final. I truly believed that this was my time and that I was going to be crowned the fastest man in the world. When I placed fifth, I was completely devastated.

I felt so empty after that weekend. On August 4, 2021, I searched for all the things that went wrong, why I didn't succeed. Ultimately, it led me down a path of questioning the very ability God had given me to be the best on that stage. I really was destroyed by the fact that I didn't win that race. I realized I was really in that race, and I was really trying to win for myself. I thought I had control of the outcome. Again, what that did was it left me hopeless because I realized I couldn't change what had happened. That race was nine seconds of my life, and I couldn't control the outcome. I was in denial, and without the acceptance of the things we can't control, we cannot move forward in our lives.

If you don't accept the fact that you cannot control the outcome, it is very hard to move forward in your life. It's very hard to look at the future with hope because if you start to think you can control those things and you realize you can't, it's a tough place to be in. Instead of this, we must have faith that by being disciplined in the next set of goals—if you have faith in that—you will get closer to achieving the outcomes you desire.

That second set of goals are the process goals. So on that same piece of paper, you're going to list your process goals. These are the goals centered around the core actions or processes of performing. The cool thing about process goals is that these are 100% controllable by you. For example, this could be aiming to do 300 abs after each practice. This could be being consistent in your rehab exercises after an injury. This could be always giving 100% in your training or committing to eating at least one serving of vegetables each day if that's something you struggled with.

While your outcome goals are the dreams and the goals you're trying to achieve, your process goals are what will help you increase your discipline and your likelihood of achieving your outcome goals. Your process goals are super important because they allow you to track your progress, and ultimately, these are the goals that will line up directly with your outcomes. You can't achieve success without a plan, and these process goals are a roadmap that sets you up for long-term success.

So when you have something you can work on each and every day directly in front of you that's completely in your control, that's how you build resilience and strength to stay disciplined. Because most times we go to set our goals, we write down all our big ones, and then we have no idea the daily processes that we're going to have to take to manifest them into reality. So we get into this perpetual cycle of saying, "I'm going to win this year. I'm going to be the best I've ever been. I'm going to break these records. I'm going to be the fastest at my school, or I'm going to win an NCAA title." But we have no roadmap on how we are going to do that.

So we set that goal out just like we do every year, and because we don't have those process goals to keep us on track, we fall back into our old patterns. We do the same things we did the year before, and we get the same results. And the same results are disappointment, unmotivation, frustration. What that does is it just puts you in a cycle again.

So the biggest thing with your goals—yes, write down your big outcome goals—but realize that those goals are up to God. You have to let go of those goals and let God. Your work is going to be in your process goals. So I would really take some time to think about what are the things I need to do on a daily basis to make my outcome goals more achievable, to give me a better shot at making these a reality in my life.

So, step one is dividing your life into those four categories, putting faith at the head of that. Number two is writing out your goals on a sheet of paper. I would actually put these somewhere where you can see them every day, but separating them out into those two categories: outcome and process.

With that being said, we're going to move on to the last one. Honestly, at this point, you may be saying, "Alright. I need to be consistent in all areas of my life. I have these categories laid out. I set up all my goals, but honestly, I've done all that before." You may have written out goals; you may have had process goals and outcome goals, but maybe you still haven't followed through.

I think that this last step is really the missing piece of the puzzle. For this last tool, I'm going to actually look at a few scriptures. The first one we're going to look at, which is really the foundation for this Defeat Is Optional podcast and really the Defeat Is Optional community—the lifestyle, the people that are really going to commit to this type of living—is Galatians 5:24-25, and it says, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit."

So let's focus on the word crucifixion because it says, "And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." I want you guys to know that crucifixion back then was a method of capital punishment. It was literally torture to be crucified. For the person involved, crucifixion was literally that person being bound and nailed to a cross. The body would actually be strained under its own weight.

If you don't know, this is how Jesus, our Savior, died for us to save us from our sins. So in order for us to develop that rock-solid discipline that we're trying to get in our lives, we must crucify our flesh with its passions and desires. Crucifixion was a painful process, and when the Bible talks about crucifying your flesh, guys, it's not actually talking about our physical bodies; it's talking about our innate sinful nature.

Staying disciplined and killing your flesh is a painful and gruesome process. You're talking about crucifying your flesh; you're talking about putting your sinful nature on the cross. Our spirit and our flesh are in constant war; it's a constant battle each and every day.

Here are some examples that I can give you that probably may relate to your life: When your spirit wants to pray, do you ever notice how you start to feel tired or hungry? Or when your spirit wants to spend time with the Lord, do you ever notice how you all of a sudden have an urge to watch Netflix? I personally struggle with this. I have a choice every single morning because my one-year-old daughter, Mayah, wakes up, and when she wakes up, she needs a lot of attention.

So every single day, I set an alarm for a couple of hours earlier than she'll wake up so that I can get up, do some husband duties, like unload the dishwasher, clean up the kitchen, maybe start breakfast, and then do my devotional for the day—actually do my quiet time. But I know that if I don't get up and do it before she gets up, it's going to be really hard for me to fit it in during the day. Typically, I'm going to have to get up around 5:30 or 6:00 A.M.

Before I even step out of the bed, literally before I put my feet on the ground, there is a battle that's raging between my flesh and my spirit. My flesh is telling me to sleep in so my body can feel more rested, but my spirit is saying, "Ronnie, get up and do your devotional and pray. Spend time with Me, the Lord, so you can be filled for the day." I have a choice right then and there to gratify my flesh or feed my spirit and exercise that elite-level discipline.

This is what Defeat Is Optional is all about. It's about choosing to feed your spirit and not feed your flesh. I want to also note that the enemy will try to confuse you too by putting thoughts in your head. Like I said before, if you're not consistent in one area of your life, it's going to bleed over into the others. So I can choose to do that, but then I'm denying my spirit this spiritual food that it needs—the time with God.

So even if I do accomplish all of my goals on the track, ultimately, I'm not going to be satisfied because my spirit is going to be lacking. Now what will happen—and you've probably had this happen to you—is because I chose to strengthen my flesh in that moment, I probably won't be equipped to handle the obstacle that comes up later that day because I'm not spiritually equipped.

Which leads to me making more poor choices because I'm stressed out about the obstacle I couldn't overcome. Then I feel helpless, and it leads me to seek more gratification in my flesh instead of taking my problem to God. And now, again, I'm in a cycle of not being disciplined. You can see how that pattern perpetuates itself when you don't choose to put faith at the forefront, to make the decisions to not feed your flesh but to feed your spirit.

When you choose to make the hard decisions, you can be strong and you can stay disciplined, but you need God to be able to stay disciplined and to have that strength. He's the only way that you're going to overcome sin and crucify your flesh daily. I can't stress this enough: if you keep putting off feeding your spirit, you're not going to have the strength to be able to overcome your daily obstacles.

Every time you do that, it's going to put you in a situation where your flesh is going to be stronger than your spirit. And so those process goals that you wrote out—the roadmap to help you get to your outcome goals—if you're not feeding your spirit, when it comes down to doing the 300 abs, when it comes down to doing the extra rehab from your injury, when it comes down to not eating the ice cream, you're going to choose your flesh every single time.

So it's vitally important that you really take this third tool and apply it to the best of your abilities because this one is the main key to success and staying disciplined. I want you to know that this tool is by far the most important; it's living the lifestyle of feeding your spirit and dying to your flesh. This is really the only true way to change your heart and develop rock-solid discipline so you can start to live free and have peace while also achieving those dreams God's placed on your heart.

Understand this too: before Jesus went to the cross, He knew He was going to die. Before He went to the cross, He prayed to God this prayer: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." I want you guys to notice that Jesus Himself asked His heavenly Father for help to live according to the Spirit and to be obedient.

So you yourself are not going to be able to develop extreme discipline without His help either. I want you to know that if you're going to live and choose to live that Defeat Is Optional lifestyle, you're going to have to choose your spirit over your flesh. You're going to have to make some sacrifices. But ultimately, like I said, that's going to change your heart because you're going to be feeding your spirit. You're going to be connecting with God; you're going to have more faith, and that's ultimately going to help you in every single other area of your life that we talked about in step one.

If Jesus needed help, you need help too. There's no way that you can have that elite-level discipline if you're not asking God and inviting Him into that space in your life. So within crucifying your flesh, you also need to ask yourself this question: Why do I want to accomplish the goals that I've set out to accomplish? Why do I want to accomplish these big outcome goals?

As an athlete, having big aspirations and massive dreams is a great thing, and I honestly believe you can achieve all of your dreams and goals if you obtain a Defeat Is Optional mindset. Here's the thing: we can fall short when those goals are not in alignment with God's will for our lives. You will fall short of your goals if they're not in alignment with God's will for your life.

So what does that mean? Your goal may be to win a title in your respective field; it may be to be the greatest in your sport; it may be to break a world record. Those are all great things, but I'm going to tell you right now: if they're ego-driven, they are not in alignment with God's will for your life. I'll be honest with you guys: this was my issue early on in my career.

I wanted to win. I'll tell you guys honestly, wholeheartedly: this was an issue for me early on in my career. I really wanted to win, and I still want to win, and I still want to be one of the greatest. I wanted to stand on top of the podium. Honestly, what athlete doesn't? Why would we put ourselves through all this crazy training, make all these sacrifices, eat healthy, and get up early? What athlete doesn't want to stand on top of the podium?

You literally get to claim that you're the best in the world at something and that you've sacrificed and worked extremely hard for something. I am not saying that this isn't a goal you can have. What I'm saying is if the goal is centered around you chasing recognition, you chasing money, you chasing clout, even if you do somehow achieve every outcome goal on your sheet, you'll feel empty inside.

You will have achieved literally everything, but you won't have any lasting peace about it. So being in alignment with God's will means dying to your own will, and this directly coincides with the crucifying of your flesh and your own passions and desires, as it says in Galatians.

It's okay to have income goals and performance goals, but we can't let them consume us, and we can't let them take precedent over God's will for our life. That's why in everything, your faith must come first. Remember step one: faith first.

That's why the question that I led with was: Why do you want to accomplish these goals? Again, it's not about changing your goals; it's about changing your heart around why you're doing them. Jonah 2:8 says, "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them."

So an idol is a person or thing that is admired, loved, and worshiped by someone. If you know that you've put your goals over your walk with Christ, then your goals have become an idol. If your actions aren't motivated out of Christ's love but for the love of accomplishing your ego-driven goals, you have an idol in your life. But if you can recognize it, it's never too late to make God the center of your life.

You can start today by crucifying your flesh and choosing to exercise discipline in your life. We're coming to the close of this episode. If you can start to wrap your head around these three simple steps that I've given you, I promise you'll be on your way to developing the discipline you'll need to really hit your goals.

To recap, you want to remind yourself that discipline is not a fad; it's a lifestyle, and you want to be disciplined in all parts of your life—not just in one area. You've got to make faith an area you're extremely committed to. Secondly, you want to be practical, and you want to put your goals in front of you. You want to make them visible so you can see them each and every day.

Third, you want to get in alignment with your heavenly Father. Ask God to correct your heart if it's off base. Then you've got to make the daily hard decisions to crucify your flesh and feed your spirit. Lastly, the big thing is keeping God as your "why." Not putting any idols over Him, not putting your career over Him, not putting your goals over Him, making Him the center of your life, and making it your mission to glorify Him instead of yourself.

That's the only way you're going to be able to stay committed because you're not going to be doing something for yourself. I mean, ask yourself this: whenever you do something for yourself, typically when your goal is really self-centered, the motivation leaves you really quickly.

I know for me, when I was growing up, I knew that I wanted to do something big in my life so that I could help my family. My family was always the main goal, so that drove me even more. Whenever it became all about me, the motivation for wanting to succeed always left. You've got to make sure that your "why" is centered around glorifying God and making sure that it's not self-centered.

That way, you can have a pure heart while you're pursuing and perfecting the gifts that God's given you. So ask for God's help, and He will come to your aid. The Bible says, "Ask, and you shall receive." So sooner than later, you're going to notice that you're going to become stronger; you're going to be more relaxed around your goals, and you're truly going to focus on the process and you're going to let God handle the outcomes. That pressure to succeed is just going to fall away. That's what happens.

So remember, discipline is achieved by a change of heart. I want to thank you guys for listening. Do me a favor: if you enjoyed today's episode and it helped you, then share it with a friend. Remember, Defeat Is Optional is not just a podcast; it is literally a way of life. It's a series of choices you get to make each and every day that overcome adversity and achieve your dreams. So make sure you subscribe to get your future alerts about upcoming episodes so you can build more mental strength through biblical truth.

I love you guys so much, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.