Discipline

There is a common misconception that somehow the individuals who stay on plan and reach their goal are stronger or more self-disciplined than everybody else.  Every time I hear that, I just have to smile, because I know how much I struggled, and still struggle, to have discipline in my life.  When individuals decide that they just don't have the discipline that others have and attribute the lack of discipline to the reason they aren't staying on plan, they've really set themselves up for failure. 

If you're telling yourself that you just aren't disciplined, that you aren't as strong as someone else, you've given yourself permission to fail, and you probably will.  If you are waiting for some day in the future when you will somehow get the discipline you need to stay on program, you'll be waiting a long, long time.

"Discipline is making the choice between what you want now and what you want most!"  I read that quote a couple of days ago and it's been rattling around in my brain ever since.  Discipline isn't a matter of being stronger, it's a matter of deciding what it is that you want.

There are always things competing for our attention and if we aren't focused on what we want, we will grab whatever is closest, opting for immediate gratification.  The problem with that strategy is that there is often a difference between what we want now, in this instant, and what we want most.  If we are choosing what we want in this instant, that choice may be pushing us farther away from what we want most.

So what DO you want most today?  Fix your eyes on it, then choose wisely :-)