One Reason Non-Disciplined People Resist Doing The Things We Know We Should
https://vimeo.com/317600461
If you like exceptionally ramble-y videos that go on way too long and have a few profanities then you can go ahead and watch the video. But I'll save you the 19 minute story if you prefer, and let you know that the reason we resist disciplining ourselves in a daily, ongoing fashion is because we KNOW when we start, there's no stopping. You are either on the road of a disciplined person, or you hop off. We know it's better to be on it, but it just seems like a lot of work, you know? Deciding to discipline ourselves in a specific, focused area each day is like opening Pandora's box to all the other things we could be disciplining ourselves in to make our life more functional. It's like our subconscious recognizes what we are doing and gets all up in our face about the OTHER things we could be doing and it doesn't end. A choice has to be made. For a long while, I'd choose the disciplined road only half the time---but only if it had a specific time period attached to it. In other words, I was fine disciplining myself if whatever I was doing had an end date and I could go back to my normal way of life. I dabbled in discipline. I didn't continue to lead a disciplined lifestyle.
This doesn't work for the long term. Not to get where you really want to go anyway. Steven Pressfield describes this as the pro mindset versus the amateur mindset. "The amateur is in it for fun. A dabbler. A weekend warrior. The amateur has the option to back down when faced with difficulties. But the professional gets up every morning and does the work. They take days off only in an effort to come back stronger next time. When the pro hits adversity, they simply rally. If a pro is hurt, they play hurt. It's a whole different mindset. Turning pro changes what time we go to bed and what time we get up. it changes how we organize our day. It changes what we read and what we feed our bodies. The amateur tweets, the pro works."
So when I discuss why deciding to discipline myself to work out every day was important to me, it's for that reason. I know shying away from fully committing to a goal, taking days off and making excuses makes me an amateur. I know I need to think of myself as a pro. For so long I told myself I didn't really NEED to because if I wanted to be pro I knew I could, anytime I chose...I just really didn't need to go "all the way" yet. I was good enough.
But what starts to happen though is you feel like you're not living up to your potential. I knew I had all this talent and drive and gumption inside of me, but I didn't know what to do with it and so I always felt like I was trying really hard but getting zero results. Because in the end, talent does matter as much as self-discipline, self-motivation, self-validation, and self-reinforcement. Because we can't control our talent. We can only control how hard we work.
So in this video, I just talk about what that feels like for me and what other work I need to do. I also sing a little ditty in the beginning, so if you want to laugh at me, be my guest.
Happy Weekend, everybody!
Xoxo (becuase it was just Valentines Day)
Krysta