Have you ever taken taken your ink pen apart and rolled the spring in between your fingers?

If you don’t have one, imagine with me that you have a spring in your fingers now. As you compress it, the spring changes shape. You press your fingers further and further together until the spring is nearly squashed flat. What happens when you let go? That spring releases the stored up energy and flies halfway across the room! You probably don’t even know where in the world it went!

Sometimes it can seem like our businesses are that way. Sometimes it seems like we’re squashed flat, with no parties on the books, and no prospects to call. Other months and other times, it seems like we’re a spring that’s just been released, and our business skyrockets from out of nowhere! But when that month is over, do you know exactly where your business is and can you duplicate it the next month, or is your spring laying in a random corner while you search for where it went and how it got there?

Now let’s imagine that same spring, right where it should be; in the barrel on the ink pen. Hundreds, thousands of compressions and releases, and the spring is doing exactly as it should. Compressed, released, compressed, released. Some months our businesses are easier to work (released) and some months you really have to WORK (compressed), but having the entire spring always under control is key to a successful business.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 says this: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we are imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul’s reminder to the church of Corinth was just this: Stay consistent, take control and be intentional! In our businesses, that means mastering the basics, and doing them consistently, even when you feel like giving in. It means intentionally scheduling time for your business and doing your best this month even if it’s not as good as you envisioned it would be. By working consistently in the here and now, Paul affirms that our discipline will gain a prize every time!