You know how some people are just naturally disciplined?
Like, finished college papers before anyone else had started, and then went on to vacuum the house and go to the gym, always get to the restaurant 5 minutes early, have nice nails, change every lightbulb right away instead of flicking the wall switch five times a day and sighing, “gotta change that bulb”? You know those people?
I’m not one of them.
I have 4 things I’m disciplined about:
1) flossing and brushing my teeth
2) smearing on the anti-wrinkle cream every night before bed
3) making my bed when I get up
4) going to dance class Monday/Wednesday/Friday
I do these things at the required time, whether I feel like it or not. And sometimes I don’t feel like it. I love my dance class, but many days I have to remind myself that I’m always glad I went, and never glad I didn’t go.
Making my bed is a relatively new habit, which gives me hope that I can acquire yet another one.
So I’m adding to the list:
5) Write something and hit publish every day
Two days in a row now.
I’m crossing fingers that this new habit will be like brushing my teeth: I’ll feel gross until I do it.
And, it’ll be like making my bed in that it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just good enough so that it doesn’t stare at me undone, screaming, “Who lives here? A pig! A squealing, disgusting piggy, that’s who lives here!”
Or, it’ll be like my face cream, if I can convince myself that the reason I have no forehead wrinkles yet is because I blog every day. Who knows, maybe each post stimulates a little bit of collagen.
Does it?
What are you disciplined about? What one habit do you wish you could acquire? Diga me.
On those days when I feel particularly uotemivatnd, I do this thing called commercial cleaning. Basically, I plant myself in front of the television and watch my favorite shows but then as soon as the commercials come on, I run through the house and clean. It’s actually pretty amazing how much I can get done in that time! Granted, sometimes I work past the commercials but the whole thing makes me feel like I’m getting something done while simultaneously being lazy, a rather hard thing to pull off! Please drop by my blog! Based on your site, I think we’re going to love reading each other!
I’m disciplined about these things:
– flossing and brushing after an incredibly long gap where I never went to the dentist.
– making my bed almost every day
– making sure the cats are fed twice a day and their litter boxes are cleaned (I don’t do the boxes, but I -er- ask gentle questions if they haven’t been done)
– swimming five days a week with some exceptions. The way I kick myself out the door every morning is to deny myself food or coffee until after I get home.
Yeaaah to our daily dose of Talking Shrimp!!
Love this. I’m honestly not that disciplined about a lot of things either.
Flossing and brushing my teeth is also my #1 – I blame having braces and becoming obsessed with keeping everything clean. My dentist told me I overbrush and I need to tone it down, though so discipline can backfire!
I would say that I write most days (some of it turns into blog posts, emails, videos, or other random stuff)…
The other really disciplined things are walking my dog 2x per day. 🙂
How much do I love you for coming over here and commenting?
I see you as so organized and disciplined — at least in your business. Oh wait, also with food. Anyone who can go raw…
Seriously, where are you not disciplined? I’m intrigued.
Natalie –
I so love the example of how discipline can backfire! Such a good reminder that we need to sometimes relax a bit into the outcome and not over do things.
Love it.
xoxo
Yes. I forgot, my dentist said the same thing. I’m an over-brusher.
And boy, do I know plenty of people whose eating discipline backfires. One person I know stopped eating fat — as in, “waiter, can I have my spaghetti with no oil?” — back in the 90s. It’s 2014, and girlfriend does not look good.
I’m very disciplined about NOT going to the dentist.
It’s been 4 years.
I’m disgusting.
We solved that problem by going to a dentist who’s also our friend. He shames us into our 6-month cleaning.
But I’ve gone as long as 6 years. Not advised.
I’m so happy you’re doing this everyday and I love this post! I’m cracking up about the who lives here piggy – that’s gold right there!
Things I’m disciplined about:
-Meditating daily so I don’t lose my mind.
-Journal writing before bed so I make sure I get all the crud out of my brain.
-Feeding my children 3 meals and snacks.
xoxo
That’s amazing! I’m most impressed by discipline that isn’t driven by vanity or immediate consequences.
If you don’t feed your kids, the fallout is inevitable. I don’t mean malnutrition, I mean tantrums.
But the other stuff — that’s a real choice.
Or maybe your mind goes off the rails quickly if you forget to journal or meditate. Does it?
I think I’ve become more disciplined with the meditation and journaling because without it there was no space between thought and action.
Meaning – there was no room in my brain for inspiration to come in. So yeah, I go quickly off the rails without it!
As for my kids, Jesus God, those tantrums are so annoying. I swear they have the metabolism of a cheetah. CONSTANTLY EATING.
xoxox