Sunday, November 19, 2017

DID YOU GIVE UP ALREADY?

Doing some study this morning on self-discipline. My least favorite subject. Self-discipline to me looked like grueling hours of strenuous workouts, exceptional athletes, quality dressed professionals doing extraordinary things and really killing it at this thing called life. I resigned at one point to the fact that I stink at it so forget it. I was undisciplined in self-discipline. That is until I found the actual meaning of the word.  Self-discipline is choosing to do whats right for me regardless of what I feel like doing. The dictionary says “the ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it”. Did you catch that? What is good for me. Not what is good for the masses or my neighbors or my friends.

This is a hard lesson to learn in the arena of chronic pain. Self-discipline is key to recovery. Doctors are no help at all.  My husband and I laugh about Dr. visits.  The typical checkup these days goes something like this…. “Your blood work looks great. Lose some weight, eat more vegetables, exercise 3 times a week and you’re good to go” What? So, yeah. I’ll just start that first thing in the morning.  What kind of instruction is that? Don’t make me lie to you because that’s not going to happen.  I do remember telling my doctor when he asked me about exercise that I wear a step bracelet and if I find myself sitting too long or haven’t been active enough, I start cleaning the house. He told me that house cleaning doesn’t count as exercise. Peyton Manning probably never broke a sweat cleaning but someone like me sure does!

Bottom line...You can create a habit of self-discipline your way, one day at a time until it becomes so natural, you don’t even realize you have made some positive life changes.  The key is choices.  Every day you make hundreds of choices.  Most of us aren’t even aware we’re making them because they seem so natural.

                  Start paying attention to the choices you are make.  You have more options than what you realize.  Choices disguise themselves as habits or routines, but they’re not, they are your choices.  For example, every day I come home from work, I head to the coffee pot for one more cup to squeeze a few more hours out of this tired body. I have healthier choices. I can power nap for 20 min, listen to some relaxing music just rest a minute to recharge my batteries.

            Pick just one small choice you make and change one thing at a time.   In the mornings, my routine was to get up, hit the coffee pot, sit down in the comfy chair and click on the news. I am very stiff and sore in the mornings so that’s my hardest time of day.  I decided to make some seriously small changes in my morning choices.  I remembered and episode of Dr. Oz where he talked about a first thing in the morning whole body stretch to start the day. It takes like 10 seconds.  I can do that, I’ve got 10 extra seconds.  So, I changed up my routine to look like this; get up, hit the coffee pot, morning stretch then sit down.  I did this everyday until I didn’t even realize I was doing it.  Eventually I worked up to no tv in the mornings and I feel much better physically and mentally. For me, that’s a gold medal win.

                   Don’t beat yourself up.  The biggest mistake anyone trying to make better choices is to beat themselves up. Not just about failure but about progress.  My goal is not to be Rocky Balboa (for us 80s kids) or Peyton Manning, it’s to be the best version of me that I can be.  What that looks like for me is not what it looks like for you.

As long as we live, we are ingrained with the drive to keep being better versions of ourselves and it does require change but self-discipline (aka better choices) doesn’t look like a grueling pain staking life of denying yourself good things. It looks like a series of accomplishments tomorrow that resulted in better choices you started making today.  It’s a slow progress to big changes. Be patient, take your time. Slow and steady does win the race.
“You don’t set out to build a wall, you lay one brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid and you do that every day and pretty soon you have a wall.” -Will Smith 

No comments: