What a year…and its only July. I have drunk my liver into paralysis and been rather frivolous on the junk food. I lack self-discipline.

Growing up, discipline was something that was forced into you using any means necessary. We wore the same uniforms at school, knee length skirt and no shorter, bleached white socks (though some girls used to turn up in fifty shades of cream socks, shame on you!) and nugget-polished shoes. Deviation from the norm resulted in punishment. Our meal-times were enforced, break-times standardised…I really didn’t need to learn self-discipline because it was all done for me!

I didn’t do the food shopping at home so I ate whatever I was given, usually very healthy meals. I was told when to sleep. Told not to drink. I joined sports teams and told when to run, sit, jump. Where the adults wind blew, I flew.

It didn’t become apparent to me that this was a problem until I started slacking a few months back. My exercise routine became erratic, I’d wake up and exercise based on my feelings. I ate what I felt like eating. Recipe for disaster.

In life discipline is a necessity. You can’t walk through life doing things according to your feelings…you won’t be successful if that is the case.

Self-discipline may feel like a form of self-torture…you are keeping yourself away from the ‘good things’ in life. But alas, self-discipline is self-love in it’s most inner-parental form!

When we are self-disciplined, we make sure we are looking after ourselves. We want to live a long, healthy and successful life so we invoke discipline upon ourselves in a loving way, to make sure we reach the end goal. Remember my post on delayed gratification?

There is a strong inter-connectedness between self-discipline, self-love and delaying gratification.

So…this week, I decided to invoke a shocking level of discipline in my life.

Yesterday I cleansed my house of junk food and alcohol. No more take aways or luxurious calorie laden meals out. I typed out an activity chart and planned each hour of my day with military precision. This might seem extreme but they say it takes two weeks to build a habit so to help me through the first two weeks, I need an activity chart. That way there is no room for error. No excuse for slacking. Every hour has it’s place and I have even scheduled in my rest periods.

I am hoping that by the end of the two weeks I will not only have started a positive habit of discipline for my physical health, but it will spill over into the way I handle my work life, my relationships and my mental and emotional health.

The starting point is invoking a routine. I am on day one and doing great so far…

Start on your own journey of self-discipline.

What areas of your life have you let go, slacked, or lacked focus in?

What do you want to achieve and how far away from your goals are you?

No more excuses. Let’s get disciplined.