February 23rd - Self Discipline I’ve been reflecting more on motivation lately, and, related to that, self-discipline.  When a goal is something that will take some time to achieve, my motivation seems to vary over time.  I find myself wondering “is this going to work?”, “can I be bothered?”, “maybe it isn’t worth it”.  With this fluctuation in motivation, it appears that there is an added factor that influences whether or not I continue along the path toward their goal, and I would call this self-discipline. The best example in my past life I can think of was my 6 years of full time university study.  Now overall it was quite good, but it did mean 6 years of relative poverty, staying at home longer than I would like, intensive study and anxiety about performance and achievement.  Sometimes I asked myself the above questions.  However, overall I was clear about my longer term goal and I stuck through it, even when I wasn’t so happy about it.  Some other people struggled with their study, in spite of being obviously more than capable of the work.  In hindsight, I think there were two main reasons which contributed to their difficulties (either or both) – (1) Some of them weren’t really sure what they wanted to do (not clear about their goal), and (2) Some of them struggled with the self-discipline required to get through. Now I am not about to launch into a diatribe about laziness, because I don’t think it’s very valid or useful as a concept.  I understand the struggle with self-discipline - dirty clothing strewn about the bedroom gently chastises me for it every day.  And of course, my expansive dimply thighs do the same – I have lacked discipline in my eating and exercise. So, what is self-discpline and where do I buy some?  A bloody good question, and I am formulating some initial thoughts in my mind.   My thoughts are still pretty nebulous so will be up for revision (or turfed out altogether if needs be). I think that to be able to exercise self-discipline in any area of life, I need to  believe the following things about  the task or goal at hand; 1) It is important and desirable 2) It is my responsibility to bring it about 3) It is within my power to achieve it 4) I understand the steps which I must take in order to achieve it 5) I am prepared to forfeit short-term gratification to achieve the goal This matches a lot of my personal experience, and the experience of observing others.  The time I have faltered in the past (not only in weight loss but in other areas) has been where my belief in one of these five areas has been (temporarily or permanently) altered.  When I whinge about having a slow metabolism, I am not taking responsibility, and I am questioning whether I can achieve weight loss with a slow metabolism.  When I say "But it’s Christmas and I want to eat everything in sight” I am saying that I am not prepared to forfeit short-term gratification.  This time around, my self-discipline has been far more consistent.  I think that a few things have changed since previous efforts to change my eating and exercise.  Firstly, my health problems increased the desirability and importance of the goal.  Secondly,  after getting over the emotional trauma of my past relationship I was in a better position to take responsibility for dealing with the aftermath, and feeling emotionally strong enough to believe I could do it.  Thirdly, I spent lots of time reading and looking at labels and getting recipe books to be better informed of how to bring about the change.  And finally, I use a lot of self-talk and alternative strategies to deal with situations where I used to give in to emotional eating (forfeiting short-term gratification). I think I will probably discuss this last one (the emotional eating issue) in some greater depth in another entry.  It deserves a lot more time and thought.  Meanwhile, I'd love to hear anything you have to say about my ideas on self-discipline, and similar or conflicting ideas you might have.  Leave me a note on my message board or email me. <<Back     Home    Next>>