Self Discipline

With each new blog, I promise myself to become focused and disciplined in making posts. As you can see from the dates, I have failed. This procrastination trickles into my exercise schedule, my Facebook and other media posts, and even my correspondence efforts. Does anyone else have this problem?

It feels like there is just too much going on. As I reexamine what I’ve done that could cause the hours to vaporize, I see so many different interruptions or distraction that I don’t know which one to blame. As with most chronic behavior…why is it so much easier to give self-destructive habits priority over sound, healthy, logic?

I learned that we invest the most time into the thing from which we want the most benefit. An example is that if a child learns that more attention is gained from misbehaving than from being good, they will be naughty…even if the attention they receive is painful. Applying that information here; we get endorphin releases from every emotion we feel whether it is pain or pleasure. After a while, our addiction to the chemical causes something similar to a scratch in a record...an easy path to follow. I believe that when we are not getting enough endorphins from 'happy' or healthy habits we fall back on the other.


I’ve remembered a tool that may allow me to retrain the source of my stimulus. During my years in sales I learned about making a ‘5 Most Important Things’ list. To do this, simply write a list of the 5 most important things you want to complete the next day. It helps to write them in order of their priority. Then check off each item as it is completed; a nice neurochemical release in itself. The list helps keep you on track regardless of interruptions. If by some chance, the list is not completed by the end of the day, just move that item(s) to the top of the next day’s list. Ahhhh, that feels better already.