“…This we must shed; this we must cast away, or else remain in misery…”

In this second episode in our series on developing discipline, we are discussing the the effects of indecision and procrastination and the necessity of prioritizing the essential tasks of a capital campaign. This week, I’m reading the words of Cicero as weaved through several of his works, published between 89 BC and 43 BC. 

Reflection questions:

• What are the obstacles to completing your campaign tasks?  
• Which discipline do you need to develop to prioritize campaign tasks?

Reflection on quote:

Why does it become so hard to stay disciplined in contacting potential and current donors during a capital campaign?  To pick up the phone? To schedule the meeting? To follow up after the meeting? To write the thank you note? 

Perhaps we don’t know what to say. To which the discipline for indecision is to accept something said is better than nothing said.  Perhaps, we are distressed from a past bad experience with a donor. To which the discipline is forgiveness of ourself or the other person.  Perhaps, we are procrastinating and working on other urgent, more immediate tasks.  To which the discipline is carve out time each day and prioritizing the campaign tasks.  Otherwise, good and important tasks will steal the opportunities to move the capital campaign forward and keep us in distress. 

Without these disciplines, our campaign can stall and in our small towns, the lack of momentum is noticeable.  The good news is that you can start fresh today and cast away indecision, distress, and procrastination and replace it with confidence and generosity. 

These works have entered the public domain.

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Music credit: Woeisuhmebop