A few months ago I wrote about how I was struggling with my self discipline. I had this whole plan of what I was going to give up for 2 weeks starting with a spending diet. Well, I never really followed through on those things. Except the spending diet I went on for 2 weeks and that did not stick around after that.
However, all that started when I gave up fast food restaurants for Lent. And you know what? I don’t eat out at fast food places that much anymore. It isn’t a conscious thing. I just don’t think of that much as an option anymore.
So maybe it takes longer for something to become a habit for me. Two weeks is not enough. Lent is 40 days (not counting Sundays) so maybe my time-frame should be more like a month. So in August I am focusing on my self-discipline.
I went to a seminar recently where the guy told us to envision our perfect day. What would it look like? Not your perfect day if you were independently wealthy and could sleep until noon and then lay on the beach all day, but your everyday life now. What would a perfect workday look like. Here’s mine:
6:45 am- get up and take the dog for a run or go to the gym or go swimming
7:30 am- take a shower and take my time getting ready for work
8:30 am- make a healthy breakfast
8:45 am- leave for work
9:00 am- start work (not going to break all that down!)
1:00 pm- go home for lunch and hang with Cam
2:00 pm- come back to work
6:00 pm- go home for the day
6:30 pm- make dinner (something delicious and healthy)
7:00 pm- finish dinner and catch up on DVR or run errands
8:00 pm- watch TV and clean or do crunches/sit-ups during commercials
10:00 pm- read daily Bible passage
10:15 pm- get in bed and read
11:00 pm- be asleep
So I am going to start this next week and stick to it on weekdays everyday during the month of August. I’m going to try to at least get on that sleep schedule this week so that it shouldn’t be such a shock to my system. But hopefully I will be able to stick to it for the whole month and those habits will carry over.
How’s your self-discipline? What do you do that helps it?
P.S. why do I use the word “so” so much? Give me an alternative! Just go ahead and count the number of times that word appears in this post! I have a problem.
Monday, July 27, 2009
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5 comments:
I feel you. Sometimes I have amazing self-discipline and other times...not so much. And it depends on the activity. For the past few years, I have been very good about working out and eating right. I think it's the fear of gaining weight (after having lost 50 pounds) that motivates me. However, when it comes to spending money I have very little self-control. Sigh...
I just found your blog and love it! I laughed when you mentioned saying "so" too much (I didn't even notice). I use "just" just a little too much. I have an English degree, you'd think I'd know other adjectives!
good luck...self-discipline is my weakest point. I haven't quite figured out what works for me yet.
I have none, which is why I'm thinking of getting hypnotized. But most people think that is crazy talk. It really does take about a month to make something a habit though. When I became vegetarian, I just took it one meal at a time. I said to myself, for this meal, I will not eat meat. Then I just kept doing it to the point where I don't even consider meat food. Kinda like fast food is no longer an option for you, but it would be easier to pick one or two things rather than everything I suppose.
Good luck! I know you can do it!!!
I was and come back to the same boat. However, I was listening some tapes that talks about ways to become better in self-discipline and I decided to put some of the advises in practice.
The thing that this helping me to keep in track is to have a journal. In this journal i attached a weekly calendar plus every night i update my to do list for next day.
Seems like this is working for me, of course with some downs but keep working on it. =)
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