I was generously given a gift after Christmas and New Year – two GIGANTIC Dairy Milk bars. Why are they this big? Seriously. I don’t know about you, but in the new year, the goal is to find ways of getting rid of the chocolate. Some people eat it all until they’re sick, bin it or give it away as a gift (to some unsuspecting victim). I returned the gift to the gift giver, and I was met with accusations of a lack of gratitude. I am grateful – that I can fit into my clothes. Why did I have to get rid of it? Simple: I don’t have the discipline needed to not eat it every moment of my consciousness. Enter “Pre-discipline”.
I don’t rely on willpower. I remove the temptation.
Biscuit Sin:
I grew up with a biscuit tin, one of those fancy ones which keeps them fresh. Not that it mattered of course, their shelf life is long enough to feed us during the next reset. I also ate them immediately (maybe you don’t want me with you during the apocalypse… “what custard cream?”).
Bored – biscuit.
Faced with something challenging – biscuit.
Watching a film and feeling fidgety because it’s a “must watch” and I can’t bear it – biscuit.
Enter a new scenario without the biscuit tin:
Bored – Read, research, learn, exercise, cook, clean
Need to do something difficult for work – Do something difficult
Turn off the David Lynch film – rewatch The Matrix
Smart Tech, Dumb Decisions:
We don’t have a television. On telling people this information, they would inform us that televisions aren’t expensive. That was never the point. I find it hard to control myself around a TV and I’ll end up finding something to watch when I could be doing something that is more in line with the person I’d like to be e.g. a bookworm.
Phones of course are the biggest thief of our time. I spoke to a client recently who told me they’d switched to a flip-phone (dumb-phone) because the smartphone was dominating their life. Like many of us, they couldn’t control their phone use, so they got rid of it. Smart (or dumb?).
Simpler times.
Set a Challenge:
- One week with no biscuits in the house
- One month with my phone in greyscale mode
- One month with the TV off (and choose something else to do instead of sitting in front of a black screen with no biscuits to comfort you).
Don’t be embarrassed about your lack of discipline in certain areas. I was telling someone about my struggle with TV and they adjusted their monocle and proudly said “Oh, I can control myself around my television”. “Good for you” I said, but everyone has their thing that they struggle with.
A Navy Seal’s discipline is something many of us feel we should have, but guess what, the Seals only recruit a very small subset of the population. The rest of us, we have to find strategies that allow us to live the lives we want to live and become who we truly want to be.
You mean I can shoot the enemy AND watch TikTok videos?
What kinds of things do you struggle with that stop you realising your goals? Maybe there’s a way to use pre-discipline to fix that. Please send me a message if you need some strategies to help.
Hmm I can’t remember if I made the bed this morning…