I'm a rather creative, spontaneous type who loves to dabble and wander about in the grey areas between things, whether ideas or academic disciplines or genres or religions...which can make adhering to any sort of discipline rather shaky. And yet, I've exercised great discipline on several occasions:
*completing my dissertation: my friend M. and I would meet for coffee at least one evening a week and work. No chit chat, no procrastination, but real work. It helped that M. is the most disciplined person I know.
*training for a half-marathon: this involved rigor not only in exercising, but in eating. If I was going to run more than 5 miles the next day, the previous evening's dinner needed to be rather bland and easily digestible. And, I needed to carefully plan my days around said running and eating schedules.
*daily bliss: my practice of cultivating gratitude and looking for something positive every day.
*my yearly TV diet in honor of Lent: no TV at home. The only exception is when I'm visiting someone else, which always happens during Lent because of Spring Break.
This year I'm reprising the TV Diet, not because I'm observing any certain religion (see above), but rather because I need the practice of discipline. I need to eliminate one rather mindless pleasure in order to devote my time to other, more mindful pleasures. I want to read more, and write more, and work on a few literary projects.
I'll miss the What Not to Wear Marathons, the manufactured drama of Food Network Challenge, the nerdy fun of Chuck, and the realistic drama of Friday Night Lights, but I'll enjoy connecting more with myself and my thoughts and words on pages and text boxes:)
Discipline...yes. This is a hot button topic for me I too am rather selective in my exercise of discipline, that is, self-discipline. I have been very disciplined when undertaking certain activities that I have found attractive for romantic or self-aggrandizing reasons, even when the activities were in some ways very unappealing and rather arduous.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, I am as weak as limp spaghetti when discipline is required for things I deem unworthy of my attention (while ignoring the reality that my judgment of them as unworthy is entirely a very biased copout). Oh, the length we go to pacify the ego and maintain some perception of control. Ha!