About a week ago I shared a post about a few of the things I’ve learned over the course of taking a 1,000-day break from alcohol. Well, 1,000 days have come and gone, and the lessons learned have been more than just a few; this post captures another learning that I’m very grateful for.
1,000+ days additional learning one – the importance of consistency and self-discipline: Consistency and Self-discipline lead to slow and steady changes in anything you devote time and energy towards. Now I know this sounds obvious (as in “thanks Captain Obvious”) yet getting better (or getting worse) at something (or multiple things) occurs over a longer time horizon.
I recently read the following article in The Washington Post about Tom Brady that really helped distill my understanding of this: Self-discipline – Tom Brady’s Secret Weapon . My own take on this is that if you want to see yourself get better at something – whether that “something” is fitness, health, a job/technical skill, writing, mental focus, kindness, art etc. – improvement is incremental (AKA it’s slow) and one needs to be committed to make the short-term sacrifices to achieve results/goals that may not be realized until quite far in the future. Basically, what immediate experience(s) or gratification(s) are we willing to give up in exchange for some small improvement/benefit/outcome that will take time and self-discipline to achieve?
Before this 1,000+ day journey a sample of the things I struggled with were:
- Feelings of discontent (think busy and unfocused mind)
- Not living in the present moment (think too much regret about the past and too much anxiety about the future)
- Nagging low-level physical pain, despite being active (think tight neck, back, hips etc.).
Do any of these challenges ring true for you as well? With the gift of hindsight, I’m able to see that these challenges were slowly but surely getting worse because I was consistently not exercising good self-discipline (i.e., my life, lifestyle, and personal habits).
Now I’m not suggesting we can stop ageing, ignore gravity or any other such ridiculous notions. But what I am implying is that there are many struggles and challenges we all face, simply by virtue of being human, that we have the power/agency to address by making small changes and committing to them over the long run.
My busy and unfocussed mind? It took more than a year of daily mindfulness practice before I began to really notice improvements. Not living in the present moment? This has taken much more than 1,000 days of daily reading (and applying the knowledge) learned from books on emotional/mental health. Nagging physical pain? It took more than a year of walking every day and committing to fitness habits focused on stability and flexibility (and sleeping a lot more helped too).
Probably the most significant gain I’ve experienced as I reflect on the past 1,000+ days is…happiness. I’m thankful that my smiles are now natural (i.e., not forced) and that I’ve come to cherish the joy of living in the present moment (for the most part anyway, thanks to the nature of being human I’m not sure how realistic “fully-present” is). Happiness, for me anyway, has been the result of introducing and sticking to small habits that enhance my overall well-being.
Thanks again for taking the time to stop by my site and read this post. As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about this post or the learning and habits I’ve picked up along the way.
Coffee and Karma 