10 stubborn patterns when you’re trying to stay disciplined

This list is much, much bigger but 10 observations jump out to me from your feedback this week about your experiences in “sustaining” discipline. Most struggles fit familiar and stubbornly repetitive patterns.

1. Overactive imagination: picturing everything that could happen, usually not good.
2. Made up timelines for progress: arbitrary dates or timelines you want things by that create unnecessary pressure and false expectations.
3. Harsh self-judgment: criticizing yourself to the point of embarrassment, guilt, and shame.
4. Need it to feel new/fresh: valuing what is flashy, fun, and novel over what works.
5. Desire for effortless habit: wanting it to come easier over time and not require so much strain to think and do.
6. Internalizing false character flaws: believing you are incapable because of a perceived, but false, permanent quality you can’t overcome
7. Valuing speed over results: only putting in effort if it will happen in a short period of time rather than putting in effort until it is done on any timeline.
8. Valuing perfection over results: only putting in effort if the consistency goes unbroken or near perfect, refusing to recover quickly from a breakdown.
9. All or nothing attitude: believing that 0% somehow makes more sense than 80% or 60%.
10. Listening to your own arguments: giving an audience to all the convincing ways your mind tries to manipulate your reasoning.

Considering these observations, what’s the quickest and simplest way to get daily discipline?

First, pick an objective, outcome, or result. Second, remove any timeline you may have just included as part of that objective. You’re committing to the objective not the timeline. Third, clarify why you want that result. That’s your real objective.

Focus the rest of your effort on that. Revisit the original objective you listed and see it more as a strategy for getting what you really want. Understand there are other strategies for getting that. You’ve listed one.

With the real result you want in mind and the strategy you’re using to get it, use the DO and DON’T behavior list each morning as your 12-18 hour discipline focus.

Many of you mentioned health, getting in shape, working out, and eating better. Here’s an example of how it might work . . .

Objective: lose 23 lbs by June 19th vacation.
Remove timeline: lose 23 lbs. (it doesn’t matter when, it matters that it gets done)
Why: feel better internally about myself and confident in any setting.
Strategy: I don’t need to lose weight in order to start feeling better about myself and being confident, but it is important to me. What I really, really want is confidence. Weight loss is just one strategy to get that. I can do lots of other things to feel confident too. Let’s go.

Today DON’T . . .

1. Drink Diet Coke.
2. Eat or drink sugar.
3. Watch TV.

Today DO . . .

1. Take the stairs every time, no matter what.
2. Pick up a dumbbell. Do anything with it.
3. Drink only water.

Pick your mission. Wake up and do it. Start today.

Embrace the chase. Do the work.