The first step to mastering self-discipline!

Being grown-up.

That elusive state where you do what you should do, what you need to do, which is most definitely not what you want to do! In my mind, all it required was a heaping dose of self-discipline, which alas, I seemed to lack in spades.

My single biggest struggle has always been with self-discipline. From my earliest days, I knew very clearly when I was slipping. I always knew when I should be doing one thing, but ended up doing something else (non-productive, time-wasting, etc, etc) altogether. And while I always felt guilty later, the very next time it came to making a choice between what I wanted to do and what I should do, guess what won?

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As I grew older, my internal dialogues before every moment of choice grew increasingly complex and lengthier. My inner child argued vociferously for that last snooze, that solitary chocolate bar languisYOhing in the fridge, those last 20 pages of that novel I’ve read a hundred times. All the while my inner adult tut-tut-ed disapprovingly.

What’s the solution?

In all this while, I have found only one simple solution to this recurring problem – Don’t listen to yourself! So, wait for the next time you’ve resolved to do something. And when that fateful moment actually arrives, just put the metaphorical hands-over-your-ears. Say la-la-la-la-la-la so loud so that you can’t hear your own arguements for why you shouldn’t be doing it. And do it.

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Don’t think. Because if you do, you will persuade yourself right out of it. You will come up with a hundred reasons for why now is just not the right time, how you’re too tired, too stressed, too (fill in whichever adjective fits) anything to do what needs to be done. So, just don’t think. Just do it!

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