Discipline: Your New Best Friend

We survived week one of 2022!!! How is everyone feeling? Good? Bad? On the verge of a breakthrough or breakdown? On my end, 2022 is off to a strong, promising start. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself...

But really though, this year is about embracing a new positive mindset and putting my best foot forward everyday. A few months ago, I joined a new gym and each class begins with an intention. It's an incredible experience to be in a room surrounded by individuals all working towards their own personal goals. The room becomes full of magnetic energy and I leave with this renewed sense of accomplishment and purpose. If you don't have a community like this, I highly recommend you find one!

This week, the message was all about discipline and holding ourselves accountable. At the beginning of a new year a lot of emphasis is placed on the importance of setting goals. Keep in mind that you have the power to set goals anytime, it's not something that's limited to the first week of the new year. Know yourself and how you operate. Goals can be as big or as small as you need them to be, as long as they are personal to you. Maybe your goal is something tangible that you can quantify: reading # of books, working out # number of days a week, journaling daily, etc. But goals can also come in the form of something intangible, something a little bit harder to measure like being happier, stressing less, forgiving more. Maybe this is the year you decide to make a career change, open your own business, go to therapy - whatever your goal is, be intentional about it and put your heart into it. You deserve it! You deserve to see your goals turn into reality!

Some people might have you believing that circumstances and life can just magically change overnight. And shocker, they can't. While it's important to set goals, what's more important is the having the discipline needed to meet those goals. You have to know how bad you really want something to actually make it happen. It's one thing to write down your goals and pray about them, but you also have to be willing to do the work and be consistent. It's no surprise that most people who set new year's resolutions have completely abandoned them by February. People want the end result, but don't want to put in the hard work or make sacrifices. But if something is important enough to you and your life's purpose, challenge yourself to be disciplined and don't give up!

When I was training for a half marathon, I read somewhere that the first 1-2 miles would be the most difficult because your body hasn't found its stride yet, but that once it did, and you're in the groove, it gets easier. I'm not sure how scientifically accurate that is, running that many miles still proved to be a challenge for a moderately average non-runner like myself... But nonetheless, I apply that same principle to the goals I set. Sure at first, it might not be ideal waking up early to workout, or staying in on the weekend to save money, but as time passes, you adjust and are now one step closer to achieving your goals.

Again, things aren't going to change overnight, but your discipline can change immediately. At any moment, you can make the decision to be a little more disciplined than you were the day before. Take baby steps if you have to, but remember at the end of the day - it's you versus you! Show up for yourself and make yourself proud!