The Joy of Discipline
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11
I know what you are thinking. Discipline stinks. Discipline is skipping desert and getting out of bed on cold winter mornings to workout. There can be no joy in discipline!
I agree with you. I find no joy in skipping desert or getting out of bed in the morning. At least no joy in the moment of making the difficult decision to exercise your will power and do what is best for you in the long term.
I find loads of temporary joy in 2nd helpings of desert, hitting the snooze button, pulling the covers up to my neck and getting an extra hour of sleep. But, that joy is fast fleeting. Most of the time that temporary joy is followed by a significant amount of self-loathing. Why? Because you made a promise to yourself to do something (work out, eat better, make your sales calls, etc.) and you failed yourself. You broke the promise you made to yourself.
Break your promises to yourself too many times and it becomes easier and easier to continue to disappoint yourself. Ever get on a sweets binge that you couldn’t seem to pull yourself out of? I know I have. We are creatures of habit and momentum. Whatever habits you are building (good or bad) are the actions you will most likely continue to take.
So – how do we change our actions, which will change our habits and, eventually, change our lives for the better? It starts with discipline, but not the world changing kind of discipline that we so often try to commit to. It starts with a small positive change. Maybe not working out for an hour, but doing 5 pushups one day and adding on 5 more the next day. Not giving up sweets completely, but giving up sweets on weekdays is a great start.
Here are 4 steps to find the hidden joy in discipline:
- Start Small – We must create the habit of keeping the promises we make to ourselves, so quit promising more than you can deliver! Pick a small change and stick to it until it becomes a habit. Experts say it takes 21 days to make a new action a habit. Stick out your small change for 21 days and then add to it.
- Measure the Inputs – Measurement is so incredibly important in our work and personal lives because we all are a bit delusional. Not cuckoo delusional, but our memories are built to help us cope with a difficult world. We tend to remember what we need to remember to tell the story we want to tell.
For instance, keeping a food diary is one of the most effective tools ever created for weight loss and one of the hardest things to do. Why? Because I don’t want to write down the midnight run to the pantry or fridge. It’s embarrassing and clear evidence that I broke another promise to myself. Whatever your goal is, keep a diary of your accomplishments so you can reflect on what went good or bad and make appropriate changes.
- Measure the Outputs – Keep the end in mind. We are changing our daily habits to get a specific outcome. Make your outcome a SMART goal. Measure where you are starting from and where you are going. If your goal is weight loss or inches lost, get out the scale and the tape measure. Working on a sales goal? Write down what your results were previously and what you are committing to change to create the outcome you want. You’ll need to analyze the outcomes to determine what changes you need to make to the inputs.
- Keep Pushing – It is no fun to look at your results and see failure, but you must look at the brutal facts honestly so you can make positive changes for the future. Embrace your failures. Analyze them and decide how you will not repeat them.
Joy comes when you don’t give up. Joy comes when you keep trying to accomplish a worthy goal. Joy gets really good when you look at your outputs and you’ve done what you said you were going to do. But the really odd thing is that accomplishing the goal provides only temporary joy. The real joy is in the ride, in pushing towards a worthy goal. Enjoy the ride. Celebrate your successes and keep reaching for even greater things!
Personal Note: That graph at the top of this blog is one of my personal output measures. It is my weight log using a tool @ www.caloriecount.com. I can put my weight in online or via an app on my phone. It doesn’t really hurt until you look at the graph (talk about brutal facts…)! On the bright side, I know what I was doing when my weight was much closer to my goal. All I have to do is develop the discipline to take the daily actions that will get me back there. I’ll let you know how I’m doing….
Photo courtesy of www.caloriecount.com & Curt!
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