Philosophies: Balancing Discipline with Fun
We all have bad days now and then. Days who’s only objective is to beat us down
You might’ve gotten some bad news; maybe work was just super stressful; or maybe the week just left you run down by Friday. Unfortunately, those days are a normal part of life, which means it’s something we need to learn to manage and overcome. Once you realize that life fluctuates, you can learn how to stay committed to your cause – The Grind.
With these ups and downs, our ability to stay committed to The Grind ranges from easy to difficult. So, we need to ask ourselves: “how can we be more successful to our commitments”? I’ve found that balancing my discipline with keeping life fun is essential to keep me motivated to stay committed.
Discipline keeps me grinding. It provides the fortitude to overcome obstacles when they stand in the way. It takes over when I’ve had one of those days.
The “Fun” is what keeps me wanting to grind. It’s what motivates and encourages my pursuit.
I believe that balancing these factors in your life is essential for you to commit to your long-term goals. Anyone can be disciplined for a short time, but the likelihood of drop-out is almost inevitable if it wears you down day-after-day. And anyone can pursue a purely fun athletic lifestyle; unfortunately, they may not achieve the Prime Athlete they’ve established for themselves. By understanding what discipline you can manage and what level of enjoyment keeps you motivated, you substantially increase your potential to keep chasing your goals.
Discipline
Discipline describes your inner drive. Your ability to follow your code of behavior. And it’s a difficult personal attribute to build up. You can’t simply just decide to be disciplined.
My suggestion is to start with your lifestyle. Allow your habits and choices to assist you in making disciplined choices. Then, by learning to overcome difficult days, you begin to yearn the triumph that accompanies discipline. These accomplishments from disciplined practices will help you stay disciplined when habits and routines break down and you become solely reliant on your mental will.
Find your strategy to help you over the hump. I’ll provide a few that have helped me in the past:
1) I realized that returning home after work always made getting up and out to the gym particularly hard. So how did I change my routine to reduce the discipline needed to get to gym? I realized if I went to work prepared for the gym and drove straight to the gym after work, I had no excuses to not walk in and do something. Sure, I still might’ve dreaded my plan while sitting in the parking lot; but I was over my hump, and all I had to do was walk in and move some weight.
This routine change helped me get to the gym more consistently than I was ever used to. Plus, every time I completed a training day after one of those days, I felt incredibly proud. Knowing this feeling of accomplishment came from overcoming my own obstacles has helped motivate me, even now. I know that when I don’t feel like throwing on shoes for a run, or setting up my workout stations at home, that committing to it means reliving that feeling accomplishment.
2) This strategy is something I’ll probably repeat again-and-again, but the effect of a grocery list is pretty substantial. Be prepared by (1) knowing your future meals and (2) writing down what you need, because it helps you stay on track when you’re in the store. Not only does shopping become faster, but you can more easily stick with the nutrition plan you’ve set for yourself.
Sure, I always leave some room for my girlfriend’s sweet tooth or my salty snack – maybe leaving a vague note of what I might’ve craved last week. But my priority with the list is always towards shopping for what I know I need. What I know is going to fuel my workouts and deliver meals I look forward to cooking and eating. The list helps remind you to stay disciplined and commit to the lifestyle you want for yourself.
So, find your strategies. Consider your current routines, and what might help break down any obstacles you experience. Start by experiencing the fulfillment associated with disciplined practice before you rely on your mental will. Only then can we self-motivate ourselves to get off the couch on those lazy days. Teach your mind, first, that you can overcome obstacles, then rely on its experience for future barriers.
Fun
Is all this actually worth it if we aren’t enjoying ourselves?
Personally, I don’t think so. There has to be something about the process you love, otherwise, there’s no way you can commit. That means you need to be realistic with your goals. If your goal requires a lifestyle that you hate, then you need to reconsider if that’s actually something you truly want.
We need to enjoy our lifestyles. Enjoy the effort we put towards our goals. We should love the food we eat, so we want to keep eating exactly what fuels us. We should be excited about our workout programs – even if they might be a little scary – so that we want to kill it every day in the gym, on the road, or even on your home yoga mat.
And that takes some experimenting:
Taste different foods and cuisines – Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Turkish, Israeli, Lebanese, Moroccan, Greek, German, Spanish, Italian, Peruvian, Mexican – it’s absolutely endless. And as you learn to love new foods, you realize the terms like “lunch food” – Salads, Sandwiches, Soups – are a thing of the past.
Experiment with different nutrition plans - Try a large breakfast with a small lunch, or vice versa; choose between 3 or 4 meals a day; opt for 2 meals and multiple snacks. Your daily routines are unique to you, so don’t settle until you’ve found a meal plan that leaves you satisfied.
Try different forms of training. Develop the training program based off styles you enjoy – powerlifting, weightlifting, strength training, circuit training, running, cycling, swimming, yoga, Pilates – because once you enjoy the process, you can stay motivated to keep grinding.
Are you competitive? Or have you never experienced the motivating effect of team comradery? Join a club team; get in with a runner-, triathlon-, or cycling-club, and participate in local races; find yourself a workout partner to challenge.
I want you to love what you do because the hardest thing about pursing your goals will always be adherence. Can you keep The Grind going? Cause if you love your lifestyle, that grind just got that much easier. If we can have fun, we’ve won a significant battle in staying committed.
Wrap Up Thoughts
Remember, Pro athletes aren’t only disciplined. They don’t work as hard as they do only because they know they have to. They love something about the process. Their success is related to their enjoyment of competition, their love for the sport, or maybe even their need for external rewards.
You need to learn to love your own sport – your life – so you can find success with your Prime Athlete’s lifestyle.
So, let’s try balancing our discipline with a little fun in our lives. Not everything is going to be easy, so train your mind to be disciplined. But, we shouldn’t hate the process either, so craft the lifestyle you can enjoy. Find your balance. Tolerate some discipline – but not so much that it feels like a brain-eating scarab from The Mummy digging around your head. On the other hand, don’t let everything be fun and easy.
This delicate balance of knowing what you can tolerate and enjoy is necessary to find a lifestyle that advances you to your Prime Athlete at your pace. A pace that you can maintain for a lifetime, not just a 2-week dash.
