Discipline can become a desire for power and perfection, in which case it would very likely lead to an unhealthy relationship with food exercise. Many, many people experience that, myself included. It’s not as “black and white” as I had thought, both when I was in high school and college.
Discipline can be healthy
It’s January, which means goal-setting is trendy and motivation is high.
- Let’s use this high-energy motivation to get rolling, making a structured plan to progress towards our goals
- How we will keep progressing in a couple months
- The temptations to revert back to old unhealthy habits seem much stronger than they do now
How can we develop discipline?
Discipline is internal, it’s individual
- Think about your own goals and the habits you can create to progress towards those goals
- Goal: Get to the gym 5 mornings a week
- Habits: Get in bed by 10PM, without your phone or other devices
- Reduce consumption of processed sugar
- Don’t keep treats made with processed sugar in the house
- Balance meals with lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats to feel full and limit cravings
Discipline does not mean extreme restriction
Motivation is external
- Most of the time, we need to find it and that takes a lot of energy
- Discipline is internal
- It’s like willpower – it’s a great kick-start fuel, but eventually, it runs out, and then what do we do
Discipline
Discipline is the act of implementing behaviors and creating healthy and productive habits that provide long-term support in achieving our goals when motivation is low
- Improving discipline through behavior change and habit creation pays off later in the year
- By this time, we can still feel focused on our goals, have already made significant progress in our journeys to achieve the goals
