Discipline

I have talked before about how I am building the skill of “doing the hard thing.” Unintentional innuendos aside, another way to think of this is building the skill of discipline. 

As I write this, it is 11:39 PM on a Wednesday. I have been up since 6 AM when I took my dog out. 

I had a busy day making up for all of the procrastination that I had done at work this month before I am out for the remainder of the week. Got home and made sure nobody stole my peanut butter. Took our dog to play frisbee. Proceeded to go to the gym and lifted for 2.5 hours - taking so long my wife thought someone managed to cram all 6’9” of me into their trunk as I was leaving - got home, made dinner, spent some time talking to her, recorded a video, did more work, and started writing this not more than a few minutes ago. 

This is what most of my days have looked like for the past month. 

I’d say I don’t want to be writing this right now but that would be a lie. 

I didn’t want to write this ten minutes ago when I was closing my laptop knowing that I am going to need to get up at 5 AM to finish what I need to get done to set my team up for success. 

I didn’t want to make my dinner when I got home. 

I didn’t want to jump on the computer and do the busy work that I put off. 

I was going to give myself a pass on many of these things. 

Then I reminded myself of my goals.

What I want to accomplish. 

What I am working towards. 

And that the hardest part of every single day and every single task is getting started. 

Once I conquer inertia, I am able to push and push until I need a walk to rejuvenate myself. 

I do this over and over. 

But that is the price I pay to make progress. 

That is what building discipline looks like. 

My wife asked me while I was making dinner, “do you still want to play video games anymore?”

To which I responded, “Everytime someone asks me to. But I am willing to sacrifice my time playing games to push myself to be where I want in life. I’m willing to sacrifice the coming years to get there. I don’t know what exactly it will look like but I know that I am willing to do what it takes.” 

So everytime temptation tries to push me away from my goals. To my mediocre ways. 

I push. Because to me - building the skill of discipline is doing what I know I should be doing to move towards where I want to be.