Category: Being Disciplined

Whenever possible, rather than stopping your forward momentum altogether, try slowing down instead.

One of the worst strategies for finishing a marathon is to sprint-stop-sprint-stop-sprint-stop the whole way.

When you feel yourself getting winded—adjust your pace; shorten your stride; give yourself more time to breathe.

And at all costs: delay the urge to stop.

While rest might seem like the most energy efficient decision in the moment, as physics demonstrates, keeping your body in motion is actually the most energy efficient option long-term.

So that we’re clear, I’m not advocating you never stop working.

I am advocating that you commit to a working pace that you can sustain rather than one that you have to constantly start-stop.

For example: rather than read 100 pages sporadically every month or two—commit to 10 pages per day. And if 10 pages becomes too much, don’t stop altogether. Drop it to 5 pages per day. And if that’s still too much, drop it to one page. And if that’s too much—you’re playing yourself.

Keeping the momentum alive in your daily tasks is key to efficient and effective forward movement in your life.

Starting a stopped body is much harder than keeping a body in motion.

Keep your body in motion even when (especially when) your mind wants to stop.

“Deciding to stop eating sweets and to start eating vegetables are separate psychological functions. The first takes self-control. The second takes self-discipline. You can easily succeed at one and fail at the other. They aren’t the same process!”

Dr. Julia-Marie O’Brien

Self-discipline says “Go,” even when you don’t want to—to do what you know you have to.

Self-control says “No,” even when you might want to say “Yes”—to stop you from doing something you know you shouldn’t.

In the same way self-discipline is built by breaking down seemingly large tasks into manageable chunks (to make “going” easier)—self-control is built by preemptively mitigating temptations before they turn into uncontrollably large ones (to make saying “No” easier).

If improving self-discipline follows a big to small format:

• Step 1: Identify the big task that you know needs to get done—that comes from a deep place.
• Step 2: Make doing the task easy (so it can be done even on the hard days)—by breaking it down into smaller, simpler, easier to remember tasks.
• Step 3: Go—ideally at times when your energy levels are highest.

Then improving self-control might follow a small to big format:

• Step 1: Identify the small cravings/desires as they arrive—be mindful of regular patterns.
• Step 2: Make mitigating those cravings/desires easy—have a plan in place (e.g. if I get a craving for something sweet, then I’ll have peanut butter and a protein bar).
• Step 3: Stop—ideally at times when you’re cravings/desires are at their lowest.

While these two words might seem interchangeable, this key difference in these psychological processes should be understood if we hope to improve upon them.

The ones who get ahead in the digital age are the ones who know how to discipline themselves with their screens.

These are the people who:

• Use silent or “Do Not Disturb” mode when sleeping, when spending quality time with people, or when doing deep work.
• Know how to abstain from constantly checking said phone when it’s on silent/ “Do Not Disturb” mode.
• Know that eyes communicate priority and know how to look away from screens and into the window of another person’s soul.
• Understand that turning off any and all unnecessary notifications is key to screen independence and recovering from “ding” addiction.
• Know how to create restraints on screen time and how to follow them when time is up.

Isn’t it interesting how in the age of information, so many around us still seem to be so lost?

Like how so much of what people are focused on is backwards from what they actually should be focused on?

It all boils down to a priorities imbalance.

What we have to recognize is:

• A full night of sleep is far superior to a night full of intermittent information gathering.
• A conversation with undivided attention is exponentially better than a divided one.
• An uninterrupted block of time for deep work is far more productive than double the time spent juggling deep work with notification checking, call answering, and timeline refreshing.

The urge is to do what’s urgent.

The key to getting ahead is to discipline yourself against that urge and do what’s important instead.