Discipline is one of those words we tend to dislike. It brings about feelings of inadequacy and not being good enough. Just hearing the word can make you feel a sense of dread because of how hard it sometimes feel to be disciplined. But here's the thing. You are already disciplined. Most of your daily life comes from discipline. It's true.
You wake up everyday at the same time. You shower. You brush your teeth. You get dressed and make yourself look presentable to the world. You make coffee. You have breakfast. You get out the door at the same time everyday to get to work on time. Oh yeah, you work. You do the specified duties of the day. You take time (hopefully) for lunch. You may have even made your lunch before you left for work. You wait until 5 pm to run out the door to head home. You get in the car, adjust the radio, take the same path home. Once home you make dinner or arrange to have dinner. This is all a result of discipline. It is possible to stay in bed all day and do absolutely nothing. You don't have to brush your teeth or shower. We are grateful you do but you don't have to. You make your bed everyday? That's discipline! So, the first thing we have to do is stop thinking it's something impossible to harness.
Now that you know you are capable of being a disciplined person make it bigger. What is it you are trying to achieve? You want to lose weight but have never had the discipline before? Now you realize you do have it and you can take small steps toward new habits that will turn into something as easy as remembering to brush your teeth every morning. Find a healthy breakfast that you love. Something you can keep up with preparing every morning. Make it something that gives you enough sustenance and energy to get you through to lunch. It's a small step but can have huge benefits in the years to come.
Are you looking to up your physical activity? Again, small steps doing something, anything. Go for a walk. Take the dog. Do a couple of sit-ups or push-ups. Dance around the living room. Take a couple of cans of soup and do some bicep curls. Just do some stretching. Just do anything more than you usually do and work from there. The feelings of accomplishment will encourage you to do more and more.
Are you working toward a personal goal? Writing a book, painting your masterpiece, tackling meditation, running a marathon? Break these big, huge goals down into bite size pieces. Write a certain number of words per day or strokes a day. Meditate for a few minutes and increase it from there. Figure out how many miles you have to run each week to properly prepare for that marathon and break it down to however many times per week you can commit to it. We already have the discipline. We just have to figure out how to make it work best for us.
And while you're at it. Give yourself a pat on the back for all the discipline and good habits you already have. We so rarely give ourselves credit but all these things are how we have the great life we have or are working toward. Keep it up and kick it up a notch. Now you know you can do it!
Happy hump day! Go on out there and be badass today. I'm right here, cheering you on.
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