On Discipline: Healthy Discipline & Getting Back on Track

Lately, I have lacked discipline in most areas of my life: healthy food consumption, sleep times, writing, healthy mental wellness habits, and physical activity. I’ve been so tired and distracted, which is understandable considering the hot weather, ongoing grief, supporting my family, dog-sitting a puppy who is riling up my 7 year old dog (to the point of violence!), and troubleshooting drafts of novels but hitting a wall.

But there’s a line, right? And when you know that healthy choices will help the other things feel better or more manageable, you have to be careful of letting the discipline slip too far.

With it being the end of July, we’re officially into the second half of the year and in a prime position for a reset to end the year on a high.

I want to get back on top of things, and if you do, too, this is for you.

What my habits look like right now

In order to get back on track and recalibrate, we first need to assess where we’re at. What our habits, goals, activity etc looks like and why we feel it’s off. I did a post about things worth tracking, if you’re interested, that will help you with this useful data!

Snoozing my alarm – I wanted to get out of bed every day at 7am (which is totally reasonable considering it’s summer in the UK and the sun rises at 5 something!), but I keep snoozing until about 8 😦

Yoga with Adriene 30 Days Centre program – missed a day or two, played catch up, not doing at the same time each day or anything related to building a habit

Missed park runs – completed 1 park run in July, 2 in June

Running / step count in general – 3 runs in July, 25.5km total; 1 run in June; many in May so slipped off the last two months; average daily step count has been 8,494 (July) & 8,303 (June) but that is only because of high step count days making up for the very low ones

Writing – started a new story on 18th June, for which I’ve written 14,000 words so far but not routinely; started on my finished draft with debut potential again two weeks ago, read through the parts I want to use and made a rough plan of next steps that I haven’t actioned yet

Reading – this is the one habit that is going well right now! Reading in daytime and at night, audiobooks and physical ones

Mental health support – this is things like journaling, breath work or meditation; I haven’t been doing any of these really 😦

Analyse why you may have dipped

There are many factors that could be contributing to reduced discipline and/or motivation or activity right now, not just for me, but perhaps for you too.

Here are some to consider:

• Stress in your life
• Big life changes or just small ones
• The stage you’re at in your Menstrual Cycle
• Things affecting your sleep outside of your control
• Giving energy elsewhere (perhaps without knowing it) i.e. supporting others going through a tough time; overthinking something; a lot on your calendar to do
• Heat or sun draining your energy
• Relationship strain
• Other people around you going through tough times, or their negative energy draining you
• Dark, cold or grey weather and limited daylight
• Aging (sometimes natural changes to our energy levels and abilities)
• Becoming a parent (or parenting in general!)
• New illness, health decline, or pain (health concerns of any kind, mental or physical)

Healthy Discipline

For me then, healthy discipline is about taking all of the above into account and working with it, not against it. It’s about making sense of where you’re at, logically considering what is doable to get to where you want to be, and looking after yourself as you get there.

• Routines and Rituals: don’t just wing it! having things in your calendar or assigned to a set time of day can make it so much easier to get the thing done i.e. I do yoga every morning after I wake up; I write in my journal every night before bed
• Serves your goals while maintaining your health: as in, not overreaching or doing something that doesn’t fit into your life or make you happy; your habits should never come at the sacrifice of your mental or physical health
• Makes sense / logical and fair: again, don’t try to set goals or create habits that just don’t make sense for you! don’t follow the crowd; don’t overextend yourself; start from where you are
• Motivation: there should be an intrinsic motivation guiding you to want to do the thing (a reason and reward internally, not just externally)

What I’d like it to look like for me

Writing habit and routine formed and adhered to:

I have enough on-going projects for a habit of writing to feel easy. If not easy, then simple.

1. I have a finished draft that has been edited a few times so is in a stronger position than others – good for lower energy
2. I have a new project I can write when I’m feeling reflective and creative
3. I have a draft that I’ve split in half (half scrapped) and have around 33,000 good words and a plan for what needs adding to it to make it work now
4. And I have multiple other drafts that are either done and need a lot of work or are partially done and could be completed with work

This is all to say that there’s no reason why I can’t do SOMETHING towards my passion projects nearly every day.

I want to enter my story words multiple times a week. I want to track the progress clearly so I know I’m moving forwards. I want to be querying a novel to an agent by the end of the year, which is incredibly doable if I focus.

Running/cardio habit formed so it feels natural and normal:

I understand that running isn’t for everyone, and I might be the kind of person that does it on and off. That’s fine! However, if I’m not running, I need to ensure I’m doing something else. My step count, at the very least, needs to hit 8,000 a day for me to feel okay about my activity level. Lately, that’s not been the case. Instead of forcing it, I could calibrate.

I could substitute in other cardio in place of running: badminton, dance workout, martial arts workout, swimming perhaps, anything of interest! But it needs to be regular. I can’t have big gaps between extensive workouts (raises my heart rate).

Yoga habit (inclusive of mental wellness practices):

I don’t want to do yoga because I have to. It should never feel like a chore. I love yoga and became yoga teacher trained because I wanted to incorporate the deeper teachings into all areas of my life. Lately, though, it’s become a tick box only. I want yoga (all levels of it) to feel natural. I want to go back to the philosophy, take a breath more often, and have it feel like a natural part of my day that feels odd when I don’t include it.

Reflection: meditation or journaling

Yoga asana: the posture/poses based practice most think of as yoga

Breathwork: intention breathing to focus and influence the mind and body

Natural healthy eating:

I know for a fact that I love healthy foods! I have cooked plenty of delicious, nutritious meals for myself and my husband that were guilt-free. I have somehow slipped into a bad habit of ice creams, chocolate and sweet-meals like honey yogurts, pistachio spread on toast, and clotted cream croissants!

No, no, no!

Instead, I’d like to find it normal not to snack or have dessert. To reach for hot beverages and smoothies if there’s a craving. To feel full and satisfied with each meal, trying my best to hit the food groups.

How to make discipline fun

How do we go about fixing these issues? How do we get back to being more disciplined with ourselves? Here are some ideas:

• Gamify it: there are many videos about the gamification of habits, but if you’re new to the idea, it’s about making the things you want to do more like a game! this is in the hope of inserting more excitement for the task and fulfilment from it’s completion each time i.e. gaining 10 points for every healthy meal and when you reach 100 points you get a sweet treat; or every 100 points from writing 500 words at 10 points a session, you get to buy yourself a new book! Create a character, fun names, colour cards or stickers or whatever to give yourself that dopamine hit for your game!
• Set a deadline with a reward or accountability if not met: it doesn’t have to be some big consequence but setting a deadline helps to focus you and having it mean something helps you to adhere to it. this could be allowing yourself to buy a new book if you complete a project or earn X points for habits tracked; or telling your partner or roommate that you can’t go out for dinner or to the cinema if you don’t complete XYZ
• Mix up the how: as I said, maybe running isn’t interesting for me right now so why not try something else to get my cardio in? I bought badminton bats and a shuttlecock so we could do a session once a week. if we are rigid with how we do things, it can make it harder to accomplish them or stay interested so mix it up to get a dopamine hit and keep to your goals!
• Get a buddy: can you wrangle someone into a project or habit so it’s more fun and easier to do? a friend, partner, sibling, parent, roommate who can go on runs with you, set a new pace for you, go to book club with you, do writing sessions together, etc etc. Body-doubling can be so useful in getting yourself to complete the task at hand

Tracking is the key to awareness. Adaptability and flexibility is the key to consistency. Both are needed for success

Sincerely,

S. xx