Reigniting Your Fire: Returning to Life's Disciplines After a Break

Ever noticed how we put so much energy into helping our kids navigate back-to-school season while neglecting our own growth journey? This thought-provoking episode challenges you to consider: who's helping with YOUR homework?

The beginning of the academic year isn't just about fresh notebooks and new backpacks for children. It represents a powerful opportunity for adults to refresh their own mindsets, relearn valuable skills, and fully re-engage with personal growth after breaks, burnout, or life's unexpected detours. Rather than feeling perpetually behind, this episode offers a transformative perspective shift: you're not behind—you're rebuilding.

Taking inspiration from basketball legend Michael Jordan's return to the court after his baseball career, we explore how mastery isn't about perfection from day one but about consistent re-engagement with disciplines and habits. Those first rusty games didn't define Jordan's comeback; his commitment to practice did. Similarly, your success hinges not on flawless performance but on small, consistent steps that gradually build momentum—from trotting to jogging to running toward your goals.

The episode weaves together practical wisdom with spiritual insight, suggesting that what often appears as waiting on divine timing is actually the reverse: God waiting on us to activate our faith through action. As W.B. Yeats reminds us, "Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." What dormant areas of your life need reigniting today? Identify them, take that first small step, and remember—you're not behind schedule, you're building again.

Ready to transform your back-to-school season into a personal renaissance? Subscribe to Inspiration Station and join our community of growth-minded listeners who refuse to just "get through" life but instead choose to fully engage with it.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Inspiration Station
• 1:43 Back-to-School Mindset for Adults
• 3:42 Finding Your Teachers and Mentors
• 5:15 Light the Fire of Purpose
• 7:03 Small Steps Lead to Success
• 8:43 Faith as Your Secret Weapon

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Welcome to the New York City City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of the City of. Welcome back to the. Call Me, mr U Inspiration Station. Thank you again for listening to our show. We're really excited about what we've been hearing from you guys relative to what we've been doing on this program. So thank you for continuing to listen to us.

Speaker 1: 0:51

In case you guys have not been made aware, if you've been listening to us on a listening platform, you may notice something peculiar happening in the past few days All of our podcasts, which is four in total, have finally been individualized on the listening platform, so now you can find each individual show, leave individual reviews and comments about the show, which you haven't been able to do before. You kind of been at them all into one place. So we got that fixed. Sorry about the mix up there, but I'm glad to have. You guys are big fans of Inspiration Station that may not listen to the rest of our stuff. Now you can find us very easily on listening platforms and, of course, often on our YouTube channel as well and on some semblance of social media. So thanks again for listening. We know that you guys are in that place in the season not autumn per se, but in back to school season. So those those of you guys that have kids, whether they're homeschooling or whether they are going back into the public school system, getting on buses, getting carpooled, all the things that go with that back to school season is officially underway.

Speaker 1: 1:59

But I want to encourage you guys, especially the adults in this situation. We know we're the kids. We kind of know what they're dealing with. We were kids at one time. We remember this. They're learning about new skills, new concepts. They're sometimes learning from new teachers. They're learning in the midst of new classmates, new people to have to make friends with and get along with. So there's a lot of up here work for the kids to do, especially in today's days and times, even if it's in the homeschooling setting. You can be in your pajamas and slippers, but you still got to learn new things and kind of get some disciplines down, pat your study habits when you practice what you've been learning and put it into action, even in the comfort of your own home, which I know is really super hard. So there's a lot of things for the kids to learn, but it's also something for the adults to learn. That's what I want to speak to in this next seven or eight minutes or so, in this back to school mindset that the kids have to deal with. Guess who also has to deal with that? The adults. You're refreshing, you're relearning, you're reengaging as well.

Speaker 1: 3:05

After a break whether it's a summer vacation or maybe even a life detour, maybe just dealing with a season of burnout Returning to our disciplines can feel very daunting to us, to many of us. I'm hoping this episode is going to help you refresh our mindsets, relearn some skills and kind of fully engage in the growth process without being overwhelmed or feeling guilty for what you haven't done. And we're going to try to attempt to do that within seven to eight minutes. So the challenge is definitely on here, but there's a mental reset that is required of us as adults, especially in this time frame, shifting from I'm behind to I'm rebuilding. I know that we spend a lot of time helping our kids with their homework, but who's helping you with your homework? Trust me, you have homework.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Who have you entrusted to help you in your educational process? Do you have a teacher? Do you have an instructor? Will you allow yourself to have one? Do you have enough humility inside of you to allow somebody to teach you, whether they're your age, older or younger? Do you have the level of humility to let somebody teach you and instruct you and help you in your educational process, not only as an adult, but as a person with value, as a person with purpose?

Speaker 1: 4:22

Who are your teachers? Are you practicing what you've been learning? Have you? Are you practicing what you've been learning? Have you been listening to what you've been taught? Do you go back and review it so that, when the time comes, you're ready for the test, you're ready for the examination? Are you doing that with consistency? When NBA legend Michael Jordan returned to basketball from baseball, which was a rough sled for him, his first few games back were rusty, to say the least. But his commitment to practicing, showing up early, staying late reminded the world that mastery is not about perfection from day one. It's about re-engagement, getting back on the horse, getting face-to-face again with those habits, with those disciplines, and doing it not only where it was before the break, but even higher and beyond. There's a quote by WB Yeats that I love this. It says education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. There's going to be an opportunity for us in this back to school process, as adults, to turn the heat up.

Speaker 1: 5:29

Some of us were in survival mode. As a matter of fact, many of us were. We heard it all throughout the break. You probably heard it in your neck of the woods too. Just trying to get through the summer, trying to get through the year. That's a horrible attitude to walk through life with, just to be honest about it. If you the year, that's a horrible attitude to walk through life with, just to be honest about it. If you're doing that, it's a horrible idea. It never ends well. Light the fire.

Speaker 1: 5:53

What do you actually want to see accomplished? What's the point of all of your learning and all of your gaining? What's the point of all of the disciplines? What's the point of learning all of the social and life skills and the technical skills? What's the point of learning all this stuff to never fully engage in it and put it into action practically in your life? Proverbs 4 and 7 is a wonderful scripture that kind of speaks to some of this and it says the beginning of wisdom is this get wisdom, though it costs. All you have, get understanding. In some translations it says in all of your getting, in all of the process of getting, also get understanding.

Speaker 1: 6:35

I really believe that we're at a place right now where we have an opportunity. I know that when it comes to the children, they're going back to a brand new school year. You may feel as though you're not doing that. You may feel as though you're going back to the same job, back to the same mundane list of duties, back to the same small business that you've been struggling with For the past year and change. Going back to the same social circles, going back to the same family dynamic, going back to the same job as a homeschooling parent, back to the same social circles, going back to the same family dynamic, going back to the same job as a homeschooling parent all of the same stuff. But I challenge you today to look at this situation a little bit differently. Look at it as an opportunity. There's a dormant area in your life. Highlight what that is this week and decide to refresh. Highlight what that is this week and decide to refresh.

Speaker 1: 7:25

If you're reading one chapter before this break happened recently, then read four chapters If you're reviewing one skill, review two skills. If you haven't done any of those, start from the basics. Start with one chapter and one skill. Revisit one project that's been left aside. I believe that a person who's successful is so because of the small, consistent steps that they take. Small steps lead to bigger steps and a bigger stride. Before you know it, you're not just trotting. Now you're jogging. Now you're running. Now you're racing to the finish. You're going to be successful. You took the time to refresh during that break. You took time to relearn, re-engage.

Speaker 1: 8:09

I encourage you that if there's ever a break in your life whether it's a summer vacation or a detour of some sort or just an opportunity to kind of get away from the normal work that you normally do don't let that break lull you to sleep. Don't let it make you forget about what the ultimate goal is, the end goal. If you don't have one, that's a separate conversation. Perhaps we need to have sometime soon. But if you don't have, if you do have one and you have your eye on it, you know what it is.

Speaker 1: 8:37

It's on your wall in your office. It's on your bathroom mirror. You know what it is. It's on your bedroom wall. You know what it is. Look at that and say what can I do today to get there tomorrow? What can I do? Because we're not waiting on God, despite popular belief, we're not waiting on God. He's waiting on us Nearly every time. He's waiting for you to employ the secret weapon he gave you from the very, very beginning, and that's your faith. He's waiting on you to put faith into action. So refresh, relearn and get re-engaged. Get back to building again. You're not behind, but you're up, build again. Thanks for listening.