30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty Five: Discipline
There are days in which nothing seems to work out as expected, no matter how much you struggle. You know the type: tons of stuff to do, and not the tiniest speck of will to even look over the task list, let aside to actually start doing them.
Today was one of these days. Although it started ok, as it went along I realized I'm completely detached from the "doing" vibe.
And yet, I had a lot of stuff to finish.
Including this post.
So, I summoned that boring lady called "discipline" to the rescue.
Discipline is not nice, is not funny, is not cosy, is nothing like this. It just does the job, no matter if you feel like or not. It just makes things happening, regardless of your energy level, your inspiration, your mood, regardless of anything else. And this is boring.
But, as boring as it is, I came to respect discipline and, in a strange way, to love it. You can't really love discipline, but you can befriend it. You start to build a special relationship, the kind that sometimes appears between lifetime friends: even if you didn't see each other for years, you're always ready to pick up from where you left, like it was yesterday.
I first encountered the unpleasant side of discipline back when I started my first business, more than 18 years ago. There were certain days during which I had no intention to go to work, not because I was lazy, but mostly because I was exhausted, overworked, depleted. And yet, I had to finish that project, to fulfill that contract, to pay salaries and taxes.
Years after I sold my first business I bumped again into discipline, this time in a completely different activity: ultra-running. If you really want to finish a race longer than 200km, or still be on your feet at the end of a 48 hours race, then you have no choice but to keep training. And keep training. And keep training. No matter if it rains, if you're sleepy, if you're tired, you still have to put that foot in front of the other and keep doing that for countless hours.
Discipline is highly underrated. Discipline beats motivation anytime for me.
Especially during days in which motivation is simply non-existent.
Like the one that is just about to end, but which will end with the 25th post of the challenge written, although, when I started to write it, out of sheer discipline, I had no idea what I will write about.
Previous posts in the challenge:
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day One: All Ultramarathons Start With Just One Small Step
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Two: How Much Garbage Do You Carry With You?
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Three: Pushing Things To Happen Versus Letting Them Happen "Through" You
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Four: The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly On The Plain
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Five: Books, Coffee And The Smell Of A Gentle Autumn
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Six: Revisiting The Harry Potter Trees In Turia
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Seven: Sand Castles
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eight: Be Careful Of New Beginnings
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Nine: Tuesday's Free Writing
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Ten: The Power And Toxicity Of Lists
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eleven: Unblocking Writer's Block - A Primer
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twelve: Riding The Wave Of Change
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Thirteen: When All You Have Is A Hammer, Everything Looks Like A Nail
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Fourteen: Sunday Stillness
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Fifteen: The Next Major Social Disruption Will Be Technological
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Sixteen: The Difference Between Sound And Light
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Seventeen: Ten Years Of Bitcoin
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eighteen: How Long Is Long Enough? Spoiler: Until It's Done...
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Nineteen: The Surprising Benefits Of Gratitude
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty: Just A Photo Journal For Today
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty One: 5 Things I Noticed So Far In Spain
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty Two: Things I Look For In A Coffee Shop, From A Digital Nomad Perspective
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty Three: The Inertia Of Our Identities
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Twenty Four: Adjusting To Change
Steem on!
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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I learned about discipline when trading futures. No matter what strategy you have, if you are not disciplined you end up burning your account.
Tell me about it. If I would have a dollar for every revenge trade I went into...
Day 25. Great post @dragosroua about that tough lady, discipline :) I have the advantage of time zones. I get to read your post everyday for motivation before I write mine.