The concept of self discipline is pretty simple and I’ll argue that it’s actually quite easy. I’ll even argue that it’s mostly about habit than it is about willpower. (this stuff ties into a previous blog post about Garbage in our heads.)

What I mean by this is that we all fall victim to the moment.  Something catches our attention.  A movie, a book or a person speaks something to us that motivates us to move forward towards what we want.  That big goal of being fit, strong, lean and slim.  Maybe it could be about fitting into some skinny jeans or getting those six pack abs.

Most of what makes us suffer set backs is fear.

Fear of succeeding, fear of failing, fear of not following through.  Fear of getting mad at ourselves if we don’t make it.

There are  few distinctions that differentiate people who succeed vs fail, but before I go over the differences I’ll go with the similarities first.

Same story same circumstance

We are all different, yet very much the same.  We all have our own crap each of us deal with in life.  We all have similar challenges that prevent us from succeeding in our business/career and fitness.

We all feel fear, we all feel pain and we all screw things up.  We some how mange to make a mistake and bite more than we can chew.  Oh yeah, we also get really lazy at times too.

In those things we are similar, but to what degree in which we suffer is different.  The exact problems each of us have are different, but the suffering of setbacks is always the same. Having a slow metabolism and predisposition to gain fat has it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages as with someone who has a fast metabolism. (of course many of us are thinking the grass is greener on the other side.)

My point is we all want more and we want to get better and we all suffer from the same feelings that are associated with getting sidetracked.

Becoming better means to change

There is this civil war in our minds. In our beautiful minds we have an inner conflict that is created because of the desire to improve.

There’s this great metaphor that Stephen Covey wrote in his classic book:

When we want to get better we will often forget that when you pick up the proverbial stick, you don’t just pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the entire thing. (or if you think like me, you’ll try and cheat by keeping one end on the ground and manipulate someway to avoid picking up the other end.)

Eventually if you want to make forward progress and move up in your health, fitness, business and life,  you have to change.  We all suffer with the conflict of change.  We all want a million dollars but the work, pain and effort associated with it we often do not.

Accepting a painful truth

Eventually, you’re going to have to deal with it.  If you want anything of better value in you life you will have to come to accept that there will be some pain. It’s usually not any physical pain, but there is some form of discomfort.  I could mean swallowing your pride and letting of your ego.  It could mean having to admit you were wrong.

You probably already know the answer.

You’re just to scared to fully admit it.  Some recent examples in my life are the following:

realizing that I have to change my exercise habits
realizing that I need to change how I treat/view people
realizing that there is more I want from my body

The realization that I need to start working harder (in my job, my business and my life).

 

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