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
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