16 Jan New Year – Old me
Why do we keep falling off the discipline wagon?
‘From the 2nd January, I am going on a strict diet, I’ll start a gym membership, I’ll go running twice a week and I’ll be sleeping and waking up early.’
Sounds familiar?
It’s funny how we use these special little dates – the new year, our birthday, after the next trip – as start dates to become better versions of ourselves.
We set these extreme goals.
Objectives that we haven’t been able to achieve for the entire past year, thinking that this time it’ll happen.
And of course it rarely happens.
Not for me, and not for the majority of people I have asked.
So why are we doing this and what should we do instead?
I believe that for a lot of us, it is an accumulation of things we want to be doing better and we keep postponing.
As we get closer to moments of self-reflection (e.g. I am turning a year older soon, what have I achieved), we feel a bit disappointed in ourselves and so we want to avoid the same happening again in the following year.
And we fool ourselves into thinking that we need to go full on, to be able to achieve that goal of a disciplined self.
And then that year shift happens, and we get used to being a year older or living in 2024. And we (conveniently) begin to fall back into old patterns – because we have made such extreme changes to our day to day lives, that we’ve actually been suffering.
And boom – those kgs are back on our hips, we’re back to sleeping at midnight and we’re paying the gym for nothing.
What I am going to suggest next, is definitely not groundbreaking news, but sometimes it takes a few reminders to see things a little more clearly.
SO! What do we do instead?
My suggestion is:
We take it easy, we work on liking ourselves – no matter what, and we take small but achievable and most importantly CONSTANT measures of discipline.
What could this look like?
- Take it easy: Move your thoughts away from constant judgement towards yourself. You ate that chocolate? Forgive yourself and tell the judge in your head to relax.
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Like yourself: Look at yourself in a full body mirror and instead of scanning all the things you dislike about yourself, spot the things you like about yourself. Try again tomorrow, and the day after and after and after. When you catch yourself, judging yourself again - LAUGH! Laugh out loud at that stupid judge who has nothing better to do than to think negatively about you. -
Small but constant measures: Instead of eating salads every evening, you could start with just reducing your portions a little and adding more veggies to your meals. Once you feel, you’ve been able to add this comfortably into your routine, maybe start going out for a 30 minute walk after dinner on days where you would normally move to the couch after food. Keep adding those little, but achievable new habits into your routine and keep focused on what you are currently doing. By that I mean, if you are working on eating more veggies, focus on just that. Don’t start thinking about when you can begin the routine of going for a run after dinner.
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Have more moments of self reflection: The more frequently, you add those moments of self reflection, the more chances you have to steer into the right direction before you drift off too far.
What I am suggesting here are, of course, just a few ideas of many to feel more self-fulfilled thanks to self discipline.
Whatever angle you take, make sure you’re not suffering mentally or physically.
To a 2024 filled with positive thoughts and achievements.
