Once you make a decision, don’t second-guess yourself. Just do it and don’t think about it again. Have rules or guidelines for yourself to reduce decision fatigue.
Tag: discipline equals freedom
Sharpening the saw
Just like the analogy of “sharpening the saw,” you need to take time to sharpen your body and mind. Take the time to prepare for the future. When you a sharpening the blade of a saw, you may feel unproductive because you’re not actually “using” the saw to cut something down. But, in reality, you’re being extremely productive. Because of you being proactive in sharpening the saw, it ensures that when you do go to use it, it will be more efficient and cut more effectively with less energy being expended.
This is why it is important to work on “sharpening” your body and your mind. Eating healthy foods, working out, and stretching (which I enjoy the least, but need the most) are a few ways to sharpen your body. Reading, writing, drawing, painting, doing puzzles, building things, and meditating are ways you can sharpen your mind.
By working on yourself today, reducing your weaknesses or improving your strengths, you prepare yourself for the work of tomorrow to be easier. If your training is harder than the actual event, the event will seem easy to you and you’ll be able to perform better than the competition.
Cutting corners
“How you do one thing is how you do everything.”
If you cut corners in one area of your life, it is much easier to justify cutting corners in other areas as well. Don’t give yourself permission to cheat in anything, no matter how trivial, otherwise it may lead you down a slippery slope to cheat on big things later. Even if you do something that isn’t considered cheating, is it reflecting your best work? Is there a cleaner, better, or more effective way of doing something and you just don’t want to put in the effort to do it correctly?
Practice doing things the “right way.” (Note: there are several correct ways to do things, you have to try to be objective in determining what is the best way to do something.) Don’t give into the temptation of doing what is easy, or if cutting corners when nobody is looking. Because if you do that, eventually it will erode you’re standards in everything you do. Remember, how you do one thing is how you do everything. Choose your actions wisely.
Discipline equals freedom
Jocko Willink (former Navy Seal Lieutenant Commander) says, “Discipline equals freedom.” It seems counterintuitive, but if you think about it, it’s really not. Discipline will bring you success, which will give you freedom from the rat race of life. It’s the great separator between you and most other people. If you are able to be disciplined, you are able to do the hard things when you don’t want to. Most people will choose the easy route, but not you.
Because of your discipline, you are able to get up early, to challenge your mind, to get a good workout in, to cook healthy meals, to save more money, to be a better parent, to be a better employee/employer. Because of your discipline, you can set a goal and achieve it. You can accomplish so much more when you are disciplined, which will actually free your future self (as opposed to making decisions in the present day that ultimately enslaves your future self to working a job you don’t like for a paycheck).
Are you disciplined? You can be if you want to be. But you have to remain focused. You have to believe in yourself and you have change what you tell yourself. If you say that you’re not disciplined, you won’t be. Identify yourself as someone who does hard things and you will become that person.