The Secret to Self-Discipline

You might be wondering what a chunky, well-fed looking girl like me, who is constantly bemoaning age-related sags and flabs, knows about discipline. And if you’ve seen me eat, you’d think I have none. But over the past few days, I’ve learned a thing or two about it with The Power of Self-Discipline, a book by Peter Hollins.

First of all, who was the Grade A moron who decided to put a picture of a delicious pink donut on the cover? Well…truthfully…the donut enticed me to buy the book, but its insightful message won me over and forced me to confront some of my less admirable personal characteristics: laziness, selfishness, impatience…so well played.

I love discipline when it fuels me to crush a goal. I hate it when it teases me, like in the middle of the afternoon when I’m inside the pantry staring down a bag of potato chips. That love-hate tug-of-war taught me something important - discipline isn’t what I thought it was.

Discipline ISN’T about motivation or inspiration. It’s not about grit, willpower, or pushing yourself until you collapse. And it doesn’t have to be a dramatic, epic struggle.

Discipline IS about conditioning your brain not to give a sh*t when things get hard, boring, or uncomfortable.

Done right, discipline is all about mindset and perspective.

To get into that mindset, you have to accept that certain tasks will suck and challenge you, but are valuable in the long run - things like restraining the bejesus out of yourself when you want to inhale that entire bag of chips or getting your ass out of bed to get to an early morning exercise class.

It’s understanding that anything worthwhile comes with some sacrifice. If you consistently do what you say you’re going to do and genuinely DGAF about temporary discomfort, you already have a good head start.

I don’t know about you, but I like to avoid discomfort as much as possible. So how does one NGAF about things that bring discomfort? By retraining your brain to say This is the cost of something I want instead of automatically defaulting to This sucks!

And how do you do THAT?

By starting small (“I’m going to walk to the corner” this morning instead of “I’m going to walk for an hour every day!”); tying it to a bigger purpose (“I would rather fit into my clothes instead of experiencing the momentary high this salty snack is going to give me.”); and accepting that you’re going to make mistakes (“F me! F my life! I ate three donuts” isn’t helpful but “I’m human, I goofed and I’m going to curtail my calories the rest of the day” is). Lastly, you have to stick with it. Discipline thrives on structure and routine, and if it’s part of your schedule, you don’t have to waste willpower chasing it.

In a nutshell, the best way to get better at a thing like discipline is to just do the f*cking thing and STAAHHHHHHHHHP giving in to what’s easy. It’s hard and it takes practice, but the results will be totally worth it.

At least, I think so.

I won’t lie and say I’ve got this discipline thing mastered, because I’m not even close. I just spent 12 hours in the car driving home from Pittsburgh, reading that book while eating nothing but plastic chocolate Donettes, Cheetos, Funyons, a couple Chick-fil-A sandwiches, and gas station slushies.

Baby steps, my friends.