Thoughts On Self-Discipline
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to self-discipline lately, the effect it can have on somebody transitioning to an all raw food diet, and how it can help people — particularly “me” — in general.
I think that most people, including me, aren’t afraid of hard work and don’t mind tackling tough projects. Given the bias that society places on cooked food in spite of the negative effects it has on us, switching to an 80/10/10 all raw food diet is hard work, if you ask me. But once you get started (as long as you have a good reason for making the switch), it’s easy to keep going.
The problem for many comes in the transition. For starters, many people fail because they don’t know why they are making the switch. Making the switch “just because” isn’t a strong enough reason. In my case, I wanted to make the switch for the health benefits, and I wanted the health benefits because I want to do everything possible to ensure that I’ll be here for my family, loved ones, and friends for as long as possible. Furthermore, I want to ensure that my health is the best it can be; the only thing worse than dying a premature death (due to not taking care of yourself) is living to be very old while you are very sick because you didn’t take care of yourself. To me, that’s strong motivation to make the transition.
What’s your reason for wanting to switch to an all raw food diet? If you don’t have one or if you aren’t 100% sure what that reason is, I encourage you to figure out what it is — THEN write it down on an index card and tape it up somewhere (perhaps on your bathroom mirror or above your desk) where you will see it every day. This will help you stick to your commitment.
Once you have that strong “reason why” that goes beyond the mere “just because”, you still have a lot of issues to deal with. Let’s face it: if you’re like me, you shoved all sorts of unimaginable junk into your body for a long time and pretty much neglected it. In my case, it was almost 50 years — and you aren’t going to un-do 50 years work of abuse in a day or three, are you? It’s going to take a while to get your body cleaned out and back to where it should be — and the transition period isn’t going to be the best thing you ever experienced.
Detoxification. Weight loss. Who Knows What Else. As your energy begins to return, you’ll start being more active and, like me, you’ll most likely start using muscles you never knew you had. None of this is really what any of us would call “fun and enjoyable”, and it’s during this time that many people decide that they can’t “do it” and revert to their old deadly habits.
Two things come to mind here. First, if you do revert, consider it to be a one meal or a one day diversion (as I recently did) and get right back on track. We have far too many societal influences that make us want to think that Forgiveness is beyond our reach. We live in a world that likes to take people who make mistakes and make them pay for it — and pay for it every day for the rest of their lives. I personally believe that our “sins” have been forgiven; all that’s left for us to do is forgive ourselves, make amends (where applicable), shrug our shoulders, and move on as if nothing has happened.
You aren’t going to make others happy, and you have no obligation to meet others’ expectations. So don’t try. If others stay mad at you because of something you did (or didn’t do) and they want to stay mad when you try to make amends, so be it. Move on. You aren’t going to make them happy, and trying to do so is only going to drain the life energy from you.
And in the case of straying from an all raw food diet, the only person you hurt is yourself. So what if all of your friends — the ones you’ve been telling about the raw food diet — saw you eat that fast food meal yesterday? Just tell them that it was a one-time deal and move forward as you reach for your next smoothie. And if they continue to bring up the subject, are they really your friends?
I also think (getting back to the subject of this post) that self-discipline can play a role. Again, doing something for the sake of doing something isn’t a strong enough intrinsic motivation to ensure long-term success, but I think that self-discipline can play a crucial role in establishing good habits that can get you past some initial obstacles.
I’m beginning to realize that I need more self-discipline. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t mind hard work (I actually hate just sitting around while doing nothing / watching television), but sometimes it’s a matter of not knowing WHAT to do. I also tend to get distracted. So, of course, I’m doing something about it — and want to show you where I found some great information that you may want to consider reading.
As always, Steve Pavlina has some really helpful information on self-discipline. I printed out the blog posts he made (that link will lead you to the first post in his self-discipline series, which contains links to the other entries) and am slowly and carefully reading them as I formulate my plan. I clearly see where exercising and training myself will help me, much like exercising and training my muscles would help them. It’s something that will have both immediate and long-term benefits.
I also think it’s why I’m having issues with the consistent wake-up thing. My goal for today is to finish reading and studying the self-discipline series, then starting over again tomorrow with the 4:10 wake up calls. One thing I’m going to do different this time is that I’m going to prepare a To-Do list and schedule for tomorrow before I go to sleep tonight. I think that this concept is going to also help.
Earl Nightingale shared the story about an efficiency expert who helped make a business wildly profitable by simply instructing the owner to write down the five most important things that needed to be done the next day before going to be at night. The next morning, he was to pull out the piece of paper and start working on the first item until it was done, at which point he was to do the second item, etc. If he didn’t get everything done, that was O.K. — he still got more done than he would have otherwise If he got all of the tasks done, he could either write down more tasks or “reward” himself with some down time. Once the owner started doing this, he also had his managers, supervisors, etc do this — and it turned the company around.
Another concept I’ve always liked is the middle eastern concept that the day actually starts the night before. The Jewish Sabbath always begins at sundown the day before, and the value of this concept didn’t dawn on me until recent years. I now think of a day starting around 6:00 PM, at which time I lay out clothes for the next day, make food, etc. I’m going to add the “Five Things” list to that so that I know what needs to be done when I wake up at 4:10 A.M. Beyond that, I’m also going to come up with a regular “wake up” routine: exercise, walking, prayer, meditation, reading, writing, etc.
Getting back to the self-discipline topic (I am roaming a bit today, eh?)…
Obviously the development of self-discipline can be easily carried over to the transition to an all raw food diet. It’s been said by many people that it takes 21 consecutive days to develop a habit, and this fact was strong in my mind back when I first went raw in March of this year. I was determined to “stick it out” for the first 21 days so that the habit would have the opportunity to form and simply told myself that cooked food was not an option for those first 21 days. I promised myself that I would re-evaluate after the first 21 days — but sure enough, after those first 21 days, I had no desire to return to my old ways of eating.
I knew what I wanted to do and made an agreement with myself to stick it out for 21 days. It worked. Self-discipline can play a temporary role in helping you get started on the road to this, or any other, worthwhile goal. But I still think that it won’t help you make lasting changes — for that, you have to have a strong motivation that goes beyond change for the sake of change. If you’re familiar with a “true heart’s desire” (as Dr. Robert Anthony talks about in “The Secret Of Deliberate Creation“), then that’s what I’m talking about when I refer to a worthwhile goal.
Enough for today… Thanks for reading this whole thing. I truly hope it helps you reach your goals.
Smacznego,
Tom