Finding Happiness In A Disciplined Life.
A trait I’ve discovered over the years is those people who live a structured, disciplined life are the happiest in society. There’s something in the human condition that a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction leads to a state of happiness.
If you’ve ever been on a quest to lose weight for a specific purpose — a wedding, a holiday, or some other event — when you begin the diet and exercise programme, getting through the first few days leaves you feeling accomplished. You feel proud of your efforts, and after a week, when you can feel the weight coming off and you are getting fitter, there’s almost joy.
And that joy and accomplishment motivates you to continue, and again, you see the results, and suddenly, you are in a cycle of success.
Now, let’s flip that, and you start your diet and exercise programme, but on the first day, you only manage to get to lunchtime before “forgetting” to eat healthier and doing your planned after-lunch walk. How do you feel at the end of the day?
You feel deflated, often frustrated with yourself, and certainly not happy. Repeat that too many days, and you will search for excuses about how you can’t do this and that you always fail at achieving your goals. In this state, how do you feel?
Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins regularly speak about which “pain” you choose for the day. “We can choose the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” Either way, you have to decide.
It’s hard to wake up in the morning, put on our exercise clothes and head out the door for a thirty-minute walk or run. But, equally, it can be hard to come home at the end of the day and know that we have let ourselves down. That we did not live up to the expectations, we have of ourselves.
However, there is something about the ‘pain of discipline’, and that is, the so-called “pain” is fleeting. Waking up to head out the door for your morning exercise session, the pain part is getting out of bed. But, once you get outside and begin, the pain disappears. You just get on and do it. Within a few minutes, that sense of achievement arrives, puts a smile on your face, and before you know it, you are enjoying yourself.
You get back home, jump in the shower, and a sense of pride in yourself takes over, you’re smiling now, and that smile doesn’t leave you all day. You did something hard for yourself.
It doesn’t have to be about exercise. It could be doing your morning routine religiously every day. You meditate, write a journal, read a book, and spend a little time on yourself. Or it could be you no longer eat processed foods. Every day you reject anything sugary or delivered in a packet and instead eat something fresh, wholesome and healthy is a result.
The pain of saying “no” to fast food and instead eating something you cooked for yourself from fresh, healthy ingredients leaves you feeling a lot happier at the end of the day because you were being true to yourself, and you stuck to your values and principles.
And that is what it is all about — pursuing a disciplined life. Having a set of principles and values built into your life makes you feel accomplished at the end of each day.
Living a disciplined and structured life is not dull; that’s something said by those who refuse even to try to live a structured life. A disciplined life is full of excitement because you are achieving things. You are learning what you are capable of doing, and you are moving forward toward building a life of passion, excitement, and inspiration.
Unlike an undisciplined life with the constant feeling of disappointment in letting ourselves down. And in trying to dull the pain of regret by indulging in escapist TV shows and movies, looking at successful people, and finding excuses why you cannot be like them.
It will always come back to our choice each day: The choice between the two pains. I can promise you that if you choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret, you will find you start to live a happier, more fulfilling life. And there is nothing more satisfying than reaching the end of the day knowing you did the hard things and won.
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