How To Create Discipline With The Things We Love

My son’s football passion is contagious. Not contagious in terms of making me want to play the aggressive, high-contact sport, but there’s simply a certain vibe that comes from people who do what they love! Words even start pouring out of their mouths that make you go, “Hmmh!”

As I recently stood in my kitchen cutting a pineapple before heading out to my son’s football practice, he walked by me and said with a soulful voice:

“Football isn’t just about the sport, it’s about discipline, and discipline equals life!”

I dashed to the computer to document these words. They reminded me that as fun and freeing as it can be to be a free spirit, in some areas of life we really can’t escape discipline if we want optimum results. So, yes, Caleb’s right, I’d say! In many ways, discipline really does equal LIFE.

For instance:

~ Consistent raw food eating requires discipline! (The more raw food I eat, the healthier I am, so doesn’t that equal life?)

~ Consistent exercise requires discipline!

~ Consistent Spiritual growth requires discipline!

~ Consistently loving and forgiving requires discipline!

~ Fasting for any period of time requires discipline!

Isn’t mind-body-spirit development nothing short of discipline? And, doesn’t that equal life?

Here’s some simple food for thought to help create discipline with the things we love:

D — Diligently decide to be disciplined in the areas of life in which you want to grow! Speak your decision. Write it down. Share it with family. Share it with a friend. Pray for the strength to stay disciplined.

I — Integrate affirmations into your discipline practices! For instance, “I am healthy on a cellular level, because I eat raw and living foods every day.” Or, “My muscles are toned and flexible, because I stretch them for at least 20 minutes, three or more times a week.” The more you affirm yourself, the more your discipline will plant itself into your psyche and produce the results you want.

S — Share your discipline practices with others! Who says you have to go it alone? For instance, if it’s that day you just do not feel disciplined enough to take a walk alone, well, that’s the day you call up a friend to walk/exercise with you. Or, if it’s that day you do not feel like drinking one more green smoothie, well, invite a friend over to “smoothie” with you….or pack up the Vita-Mix and “smoothie” at your friend’s house. That shift will naturally alter the energy of the I-don’t-feel-like-doing-this moment.

C — Be Creatively Consistent! Find creative ways, such as above, to stay consistent with YOUR discipline. Come up with creativity that will WORK for YOU!

I — Inspire someone else with your discipline practices! This will tend to naturally happen from the love you give to your own areas of discipline. Remember, it’s contagious watching someone going through the motions of what they LOVE. Even if the person you inspire doesn’t do precisely what you’re doing, your love for your discipline will help others meet their own.

P — Plan and Pray to help avoid unnecessary detours from your course! Planning can create an organized state of mind and environment for sticking to goals, and praying builds strength. For instance, you might want to plan your menus for the week or a few days at a time to prevent you from consuming food that you know does not serve you well. Or, you might plan an exercise schedule to keep you moving along. Checking off “planned” discipline activities can provide a warm sense of accomplishment. Yes, I did it!

L — Lovingly link your discipline in one area to another! Life works well for me when I can see the connections…….when I connect the dots. Everything is linked to something else! That’s life! So find the links within your discipline practices and then watch things naturally evolve. Let one area support another. For instance, that green juice and walking, yoga, etc., will work well together.

I — Invest in your passions — treat them as friends! Consider how you’d treat a friend, and then think of treating the things you want to be disciplined with in a similar way — with love, kindness, and understanding — and forgiveness when need be!

N — Nurture your process! Isn’t it easy to repeat something when you feel nurtured by it? Jinjee Talifero recently wrote an article coming out in Pear Magazine on Friday that mentions how cherished she feels wearing her new “organically grown cotton, hemp and bamboo clay-died clothing.” Now, that’ll be a practice she’ll want to apply over and over again, because of how it makes her feel, right? This goes hand-in-hand with making that “investment” in yourself. Be sure the discipline you are picking is one that nurtures YOU. Would you invest in a stock that you know will not serve you well? For example, running does not feed my soul these days the way a brisk walk and yoga does, so why run if I feel walking and yoga serve me better?

E — Employ people to help you stay disciplined! Discipline practices can sometimes be tough without accountability. Have your spouse, child or friend do a friendly check-in with you fairly often. I know if my child’s asking me every day — “Mommy, did you walk today?” — well, after a few consecutive days of telling him I did not will make me want to do something about it. Be the example!

Yes, life is a discipline. Free-spirited or not, life is a discipline! Do you agree?

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