On Track
On track- is a dynamic podcast that was created with the intent of providing guidance to listeners on exploring what a purpose-driven life requires.
Creating a community that is safe, loving, and healing for all that may be lost or may not understand the direction their life is headed. This space is where we dig further into our mind, body, and spirit figuring out our purpose God has intended for our life.
We will cultivate skills required not only to answer these questions, but also assist in navigating everyday obstacles.
We want to provide mentorship, showing vulnerability through personal experiences we've dealt with throughout our life and marriage, and speak with those of influence within our community.
Our Goal is to provide clarity through the storm, cultivate a healthy/ healing lifestyle, and continuing to move forward in the purpose God has provided YOU specifically!
This is our intention behind shepherding the community that's created, and these are the words behind our acronym in order to do so!
S.H.E.P.H.E.R.D
S - Safe
H - Hope
E - Equipping
P - Purpose
H - Healing
E - Encourage
R - Redirecting
D - Dependable
On Track
Structure Your Life, Instilling Discipline and self-control
Discipline and self-control aren't just religious concepts—they're powerful spiritual weapons that unlock your God-given purpose. Brandon and Isabel Dimond dive deep into Proverbs 21:5, revealing how "the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance" while hasty, undisciplined living inevitably leads to spiritual poverty.
Through vulnerable personal stories, the hosts share their struggles with maintaining discipline. Brandon recounts a three-year period where lack of self-control trapped him in cycles of sin, while Isabel confesses to once being so rigidly structured she "was more of a robot than human." Their journeys highlight a crucial truth: finding the sweet spot of spirit-led discipline doesn't happen overnight.
The conversation takes a practical turn when Brandon explains how the enemy uses distraction to derail destiny. "He loves making your life seem haywire when in reality it's not," Brandon notes. Isabel adds that doubt becomes particularly dangerous when God's promises take years or decades to manifest—a biblical pattern we often forget in our instant-gratification culture.
Structure emerges as the antidote to distraction, with the hosts offering actionable strategies for "calendarizing" your life. Unlike typical calendar users who only note major appointments, they recommend mapping your entire day to identify time-wasters and intentionally allocate moments toward purpose-driven activities. Their Google Calendar color-coding system and task management techniques provide a framework anyone can implement.
Perhaps most powerfully, Brandon closes with a litmus test for authentic purpose: "Whatever the Lord's going to call you into, it's going to be sacrificial...not for your own personal gain, but for God's glory and to progress His kingdom." This challenging insight invites listeners to examine their ambitions through a kingdom lens.
Ready to break free from distraction and walk in divine discipline? Connect with us on Instagram @ontrack_official and join us next week as we explore emotional intelligence in our continuing series on planning for your purpose.
Hey guys, welcome back to OnTrack Podcast with your host, brandon and Isabel Diamond.
Speaker 2:Hey guys.
Speaker 1:Today, we'll be exploring what the Bible says about discipline and self-control and the power of eliminating distractions and implementing structure, as well as calendarizing and long-term planning. We hope you enjoy this week's episode. Yeah, so, isabel, what does the Bible say about discipline and self-control?
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, there's a lot that the Bible says about self-control and discipline. I think they're two virtues, two characteristics of God that are so difficult to execute in your life and adopt in your life, and so that's why it's talked about so much.
Speaker 2:We can point to scripture to answer that question. One verse that comes to mind is Proverbs 21.5. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty, and this proverb emphasizes the importance of planning and forethought in achieving prosperity, essentially, and it's contrasting with hasty actions which ultimately lead to loss. And so I think it's just again honing in on yeah, if you're diligent and you can steward that in your life, then you will ultimately be walking in abundance, as long as you're ultimately walking in what God has for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good and essentially, it's really important to understand discipline and self-control, because this will allow us to carry out the plans and purpose the Lord has for our lives. It's easy to lack self-control and lack discipline, and that's why it's really important to press into scripture and understand what that looks like. And again, in Proverbs 25, it states a man without self-control is like a city broken into the left without walls, basically insinuating that there's no able to really have suitable self-control for the things that are set before you.
Speaker 2:That's really good, and I think it's also important to keep in mind that diligence is kind of a word that conveys long-term, like you have to steward something and attend to it well, consistently, over a period of time until you see the fruit of it. And I think, especially in today's society, we just see how delayed gratification is not a thing. People want their status to be satisfied immediately, and if they're not, they're just like oh for, forgo it, I'll try something else.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and when I was going through just a period where I wanted to do more, I knew I knew there was more meant for my life and there was like a three to four year period in which I had zero self-control and zero discipline. So I kept in falling into perpetual sin. That kept weighing me down, and so the Lord really worked on my self-control and discipline throughout those years and it was just something that I really had to grow into. It was like I was faking it until I was making it and that's kind of a statement that goes around but it was real and I just felt like, honestly, I was impersonating someone that I was looked up to or idolized. Yet that wasn't really the case. It was just the Lord bringing me in and through to develop these two very important attributes.
Speaker 2:That's really good and I think it. These attributes really reveal themselves when you have lived through a season like that, where it's just perpetual, basically running into a wall and not recognizing that your daily habits are extremely important in terms of growing close to the Lord and actually walking out what he's called you to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good. Yeah. And another way the enemy really loves to work is through distraction and making your life seem haywire when in reality it's not, and he loves instilling doubt within yourself to not necessarily fully understand what it is you're working towards. So I think implementing structure and eliminating distractions are really where everything begins.
Speaker 2:That's really good. Yeah, the enemy aims to divert your focus and derail your progress by employing distractions, and I know we touched on this in the previous episode and you mentioned doubt, and I think doubt is a crucial word here, because I think oftentimes, you know, I've encountered so many people myself included where it's like, okay, we've identified what we're called to do, but it's not happening. Right, and like, why isn't it happening? And you hold onto the promises that the Lord's given you, but they're just not happening. And we see so often in scripture where people are called to do these big things, but it's not until 40 years, 50, 60 years later that the promise is fulfilled. And so I think, yeah, going back to the delayed gratification component as well, it's like we can't let doubt creep in, we can't let the enemy distract us with doubt.
Speaker 2:Um, because ultimately, yeah, you will start to not believe anymore that the Lord actually did speak to you and reveal your plan and purpose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Um, so how has structure personally played a role in within your life, Isabel?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I lived and breathed structure, maybe too much. I mean, you know, in my testimony I talked about music being a big part of my life and you know I would. I spent nine years playing in ensembles and orchestras and that required a lot of discipline and you know there were a lot of people counting on you as a musician and if you messed up you got reprimanded and basically humiliated in front of a lot of people, and so you really had to, like, get your act together and make sure that you never dropped the ball. So from a young age until an adult, I just learned like you really need to show up for yourself so you can show up for other people.
Speaker 2:And then, as I mentioned in college, like I was very structured to the point where I would pull out an index card every single night before I went to bed and I would write out what I would do every 30 minute interval for the next day and it would be my map. I wouldn't know exactly what my day would entail, but I, you know, I'd always pull out basically my blueprint for the day and make sure that I followed it to a T, so that I couldn't, so that I didn't miss anything, and so I, in some ways, was a little bit more of like a robot, um, and I've had to, like, come back to my, like, human instincts. Um, yeah, there's many occasions in which structure was crucial in order for me to, you know, stay on track.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. I think structure and organization tie together, and that's something that was instilled within boot camp. I think it was really important to know where all your tools and different equipment is on a day-to-day basis in order for you to be most efficient and most combat ready and effective. So I think it's really important to really hone in on what structure and, yeah, structure looks like for you as well as organization, because organization leads to the ability to be more structured, as well as decluttering your mind essentially as well yeah, yeah, there's a, there's a phrase out there like whatever your room looks like is the byproduct of what's going on in your mental state, and I think there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker 1:Just because it's like whenever I have everything organized on my desk, whenever my whole room is organized and I just feel clean and just in a space that is very effective to be efficient, mentally, I'm just in a much better place and vice versa.
Speaker 2:I can see that and I can attest that too. Like I thought I was somewhat of an organized person and then going into marriage and seeing how Brandon was organized, I was like, wow, I have a lot to learn. So, yeah, you know, we get to learn from one another and that's great and there's so much fruit to it. So when was a season, more specifically, where you felt like you're really locked in and focused, and what grew from that?
Speaker 1:Honestly, I think the pursuit of marriage was a season where the Lord brought me in to really understand my identity which we'll talk about in the next episode understand the plans and purposes he's had for my life for years. That stemmed five years ago, five plus years ago and what he's calling me into and I think it has just made that much more clear within this previous season of my life of working towards marriage and growing the man I was becoming to lead a household, and I think that was something that was very beautiful, and it wasn't only until I pressed into my relationship with God that I there was so much fruit that came from that.
Speaker 2:That's really good. Sometimes it's not until you're pursuing somebody where you're like oh, I need to kick my life up to the next gear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need to get myself in gear, or else this ain't going to work out.
Speaker 2:But it did work out. It's all good.
Speaker 1:Can you bring us into that question as well? When was the season where you were really locked in and focused and just kind of what grew from that?
Speaker 2:I think there's many examples in my life.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I was like a robot and now I'm becoming human.
Speaker 2:For most of my life, structure was almost easy to maintain because I was in a lot of institutes or programs that provided that structure. It wasn't until I was no longer basically holding someone's hand to provide a little bit of that supplemental structure where I was like, okay, I need to like really learn how to implement other forms of structure in my life. And so it wasn't until, like, honestly, I think the past couple of years where my life honestly felt like the most discombobulated and the most unstructured it had ever been, just because I was in a season of, like, full surrender, like, okay, lord, like I know the plans and purpose you have for my life, but right now it's not looking like that's going to open up. And so, you know, working multiple jobs and going on missions trips and just trying to keep myself available, to invest in community, invest in friends, and then just deep-rooted personal transformation and allowing space to just dedicate time with the Lord. And so there was just a lot of change in a very short amount of time.
Speaker 1:What if I don't really understand what that means for myself right now? What does structure look like then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's challenging when you're trying to frame structure solely around your plans and purpose, right, but I think it's challenging when you're trying to frame structure solely around your plans and purpose Right, but I think the key structure that you can do, no matter what as you're exploring that, is to spend time with the Lord every single day, and you can be structured about that. It doesn't have to be religious, but it can be something that is embedded within your day to day. That will reap a lot of direction and a lot of fruit, and I think that's ultimately no matter what, even if you are super clear about what it is God has for your life. That is the number one priority when it comes to structure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what I was thinking about is really just maintaining what it is you're working towards right now and, like you said, implementing more time with the Lord. That is intimate, and just really seeking to know your purpose.
Speaker 2:Continuing to press into the things the Lord wants for you and just continually praying for the Lord to make it clear to you what it is he is calling of you Absolutely. And going back to my response to the question you asked me like, even in the midst of the most chaotic seasons, keeping and maintaining that structure with the Lord, he will get you through to the other side and it will all make sense. And that's how it was for myself and for our marriage In a lot of instances where we're like how's this going to work or what's going to happen, or this seems a little all over the place, and we just stayed consistent with the Lord and made Him our structure in the midst of chaos and a lot of fruit came from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we didn't only stay consistent with Him, but we had a community to back us up and really press into in order for us to continue to remain on track and just show up day in and day out for one another, for ourselves and for the people around us.
Speaker 2:So how can we get practical with this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're going to jump into calendarizing and long-term planning. So calendarizing is essentially just color coding your calendar. We use Google calendars to make it simple. We color code the things that are going to be consistent within our life and the things that we know are going to happen week to week. We input those even weeks ahead and also the things that may be irregular. We input those as well, not necessarily super small tasks that we're able to use on, like Google Tasks or a different task app in which we use. You can download again, like I said, google Tasks and Google Calendars, and that's a great place to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd say, like the average person, if they do use a calendar, it's primarily just for appointments and things that are.
Speaker 1:Bigger events or circumstances.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just like I really don't want to miss this, right, but that's not what we're talking about here. Yeah, of course, put those things on the calendar, but we're talking about from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. Write out what you're doing during that time. Yeah, that's just going to allow you to implement small tasks every single day that will ultimately get you to where you want to go. So, as an example, like a gym analogy, right, like you go to the gym once, you're not going to necessarily hit all of your long-term goals in that one gym session, but if you go to the gym consistently every you know, five days a week or something, and you block that time out over time, you're eventually going to reach that goal. That same mentality goes to every other category of your life.
Speaker 1:Financially, spiritually, physically.
Speaker 2:Emotionally. Take time for yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So not only calendarizing is important but really understanding from week to week what it is that you want to accomplish. And those are like bigger goals that you want to get done for each week and different appointments that need to be set, different things that need to get done to ultimately help you towards that bigger one month, three month, six month goal. And it's really just being diligent day to day and just really understanding where it is you're taking yourself.
Speaker 2:And I think there's something that should be discussed here, because for half the audience listening you might be like, oh right, yeah, I want to jump into calendarizing, and for the other half you might just completely feel like there's like a knot in your stomach because calendarizing scares you, and I know for a lot of people, like calendarizing or planning in the future is daunting and nerve wracking and is not an exciting idea.
Speaker 2:But we just want to say here that calendarizing and having structure in your life actually allows you more flexibility. Ultimately, if something comes up and you need to adjust things, you're fully aware of what you're adjusting and what you're moving around, whereas if you're kind of more of like go with the flow type person and something comes up, you don't really know what you're shifting and you don't really know what those ramifications will be come the next day or the following day, if there's things that you really need to attend to or make priority. But if you're fully aware of your tasks and the things you want to accomplish and your micro goals from day to day, then it's really easy to shift things around appropriately so that you can still achieve those things but also make accommodations for things that come up in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And going on to long-term planning, it's really important to understand the long-term goal first, because then you're able to really work your way backward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as, like a little practical exercise with this, we would recommend just pulling out Google Calendar and, as we kind of pushed y'all in a previous episode with listing out all the things that you do on a given day, or all the things you're passionate about and so forth, take a look at that list or recreate it and, as an exercise, jot down what you're doing every given hour or half hour of the day, so you literally would write out I wake up at this time, I spend time with the Lord, I drink my coffee, I go for a run, I am at work from nine to five. After work, I'm driving, after driving, I you know whatever. You list it out until your head hits the pillow. And that might sound extreme, but the time that's not accounted for is time that is missed, right, and so it's not that we are encouraging people to be like zombies and just operate or death by calendar.
Speaker 2:Right, death by calendar, whatever you want to call it. We're just kind of saying like, hey, you need to let, you need to take ownership and control in some regard of where you're allocating your time, because this is going to allow you to ultimately steward discipline and self-control and not let life, just, you know, swing you around and you just kind of ebb and flow based on who calls you or who wants to hang out or what you feel like doing. But when you have something set on a calendar, it holds you accountable and that's what allows you to start to implement that discipline and self-control in your day to day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't think you necessarily have to do every waking hour. That might get a little daunting in terms of when you brush your teeth, when you drink a coffee, when you read a book or whatever, but I think just beginning with the larger things that are taking up the majority of your day will will benefit you. Taking up the majority of your day will benefit you, and then you can get in those minute details when you whittle down your time in order to really hone in on the free moments you do have, in order to incorporate something in that time, and just make sure to take rest periods, make sure to just take time for yourself, whether you like reading books or watching a show or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:And this also just identifies, maybe, bad habits that you didn't realize you had. Like, oh, I spend three hours a day scrolling on Instagram. I had no idea, so it actually really helps you again. Just instill that self-discipline and kind of eliminate all the things that, yeah, aren't good for you. And if you always wanted to read books and you always and you said you never had time to, now that you are going to use calendar, you can dedicate 10-15 minutes a day and for sure know you'll get it done and then you'll be a book reader before you know absolutely.
Speaker 1:and yeah, jumping over to Google Tasks, it's really important to create different sections and then you're able to put in subtasks in those sections in order. For myself, just because of the simplicity of it, it's really important to me that things are simple, just because then I don't overthink it and create way more structure within that to then make it just not really understandable. Yeah, just jumping to long-term planning. Yeah, just jumping to long-term planning.
Speaker 2:Long-term planning is only able to be achieved when you have a distant goal in mind, and I think, starting with that distant goal and working your way backwards will allow you to think through more thoroughly of all the things that it's going to take and requires of you in order to accomplish that goal. An example of long-term planning yeah, I, you know I'm starting medical school in two weeks from now, which is crazy and I'm really excited. But it didn't just happen and just fall on my lap. It was a process, right. So in high school I knew that I wanted to go to medical school, so I applied as a pre-med student.
Speaker 1:And that's a big goal. You don't just think of it overnight, and it just happens right, then and there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, you know, go to college as a pre-med student and then you take a lot of courses, a lot of science courses, work really, really hard, and then you graduate college as a pre-med student and then you have to take the MCAT, which is an eight hour exam. That is, you know, very exhausting, and you have to plan for that and study for six months, up to a year, and it has to be considered like a full-time job. So that takes a lot of planning and preparation. And then you have to apply to medical school, which takes a whole year and it costs thousands of dollars, and that takes a lot of planning and preparation in writing a personal statement and getting your letters of recommendation and all the details. And then you have to interview for schools, which requires flying places and planning, and then, if you do get accepted to medical school, then that's four years of grueling, you know, work and then, and then you'll become a doctor. So how many years was that? Like a decade.
Speaker 1:So but how did you come to understanding what was behind applying to med school and going to med school and everything?
Speaker 2:you know, a lot of it was being curious and surrounding myself around the right people and mentors that led me and pointed me in the right direction, and also asking the Lord for wisdom, to give me the grace and the patience to move forward.
Speaker 1:Did you do a lot of research in the thing you wanted to jump into?
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. I honestly didn't even know that pre-med students took organic chemistry. I think a lot of it was just like a big slap in the face. But yeah, I think it's a lot of learn as you go. But again, you just keep the big picture in mind. You don't know all the minute details. I didn't know how to study for the MCAT or what that would entail or all the money that would go into it.
Speaker 2:But you just start with what you know and you're diligent with it and you're like all right, I'm in an immunology class, I'm going to sit in this and work really hard and do as best as I can. And then you go on to the next thing and you're just diligent in the thing that's set before you, but you keep the end goal in mind and you don't know all the details, you don't know all the steps, but you don't need to know all the steps. But I think, again, we talk about knowing your plan, your purpose, because God will reveal the details as you need to know them along the way, and that's where faith comes in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And one thing to really keep in mind and to understand is that whatever the Lord's going to call you into, it's going to be sacrificial. Really important to know that, whatever it is you're going to be stepping into, it's going to be sacrificial and it's not going to be for your own personal gain, but for God's glory and for, ultimately, to progress his kingdom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really good. And again, that's another identifier. Like does this build me up or does this build God up?
Speaker 1:when it comes to identifying your purpose, yeah, and does this build me up or does it build others up?
Speaker 1:And it's really important to keep our eyes set on everyone around us rather than ourselves. Right To eliminate selfish desire. Eliminate selfish desire. Yeah, so to end off here, we just really want you to reach out. If you have any questions. We want to answer anything you may be confused about or may not understand throughout this episode. Just message us on Instagram at on track underscore official, and you can find us there, and we'd love to just chat with you and give you further insight into the things that were discussed today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. We thank you all for tuning into this week's episode where we discuss the value of discipline and self control when it came to diligently walking out our purpose. We dove into the power of eliminating distractions and implementing structure, and we got practical on how to calendarize effectively for the best execution for your short-term and long-term goals. Come back next week as we continue our series of planning for your purpose, where we will discuss how to expand and grow in emotional intelligence. And don't forget to check out again our Instagram at on track underscore official. We hope you have such an incredible week ahead.