Building Discipline & Small Habits
I work hard, but I don’t yet have discipline.
To me, discipline is maintaining good habits, despite circumstances. It’s easy to do things that you have to do. Like work a lot because I have to keep the studio running. Getting to dance class every week because it’s scheduled and I feel accountable to others. Cleaning the apartment, walking the dogs, and cooking dinner are all necessities, not discipline.
I’m talking about discipline to reach personal goals .... the splits, a pull up, reading, playing music, cardio health, refreshing my Spanish skills.
There’s an unbelievable number of reasons that my brain has not do them. For example, when I woke up yesterday morning, that voice in my head said to me: “it’s Saturday, your longest teaching day. 9 hours of classes, and you are already tired from yesterday’s 6, and you have to save energy for tomorrow’s 8.5 hours. You won’t have the time or energy for your good habits, so let’s just take the day off.
You added cardio to your routine this week and that extra 15 minutes makes these habits take too long.
Besides, you’ve been really good lately, so don’t you deserve a skip day?
I just don’t feel like it today.
But it’s this voice that sabotages all other attempts to achieve my goals. Giving into excuses leaves me helpless on the road towards my goals.
I wanted to read just 5 mins a day. That lasted all of 5 days. I wanted to stretch every day. I think that lasted 2 days. I wanted to start meditating, swim, floss daily etc, you name it. But that silly voice always has a million reasons why not to do it. Too busy, too tired, too hard, and extenuating circumstances galore. Its favorite mantra: “not today”
I want to beat that voice and develop discipline so that I have the confidence that anything and everything that I put my mind to, I will achieve. I want to know that I am in charge of that little voice and teach it that there are no excuses for the things that matter.
It’s been almost 3 weeks of playing the piano daily, and 5 days of 15 mins of cardio. I’m on the way, but there are still daily chances to fall off the wagon, and that little voice is loud.
