Discipline Dominates

Discipline has been on my mind a lot lately. As a blackbelt I am usually seen as someone who has excellent discipline. And when it comes to training I do. I rarely miss a workout, I am up at 5 am every day, I read and write often. I am reasonably disciplined in the realm of what people see. But like anyone else I have my shortcomings and my pitfalls. I am especially susceptible to boredom. I struggle to focus sometimes. Which is why martial arts has always been so good for me. It forces me to slow down and to focus. And I am lucky to have been able to practice it for so long.

I also struggle with things like my diet and alcohol. I always have. As a wrestler and fighter maintaining weight was always a top priority. If you got bumped up a weight class it was usually a bad sign. Your fighters were usually going to be taller and heavier. Which meant generally they were going to be stronger. I was never really willing to change my diet in order to drop weight. I would always start the season at a weight and if I was strong enough to make the varsity spot that is where I wrestled. Sparring was much easier as we had larger weight ranges to maintain. But I never really forced myself to try harder because of my poor relationship with food, or more to the point alcohol.

Alcohol is probably my oldest toxic friend. I especially struggle with my ability to drink responsibly. I mean, I don't drink and drive, as I love to be at home these days. But I definitly over indulge way to often. And as I have gotten older the effects of treating my body poorly have started to pay me back, with interest. And so I have decided to change that relationship drastically.

As of this post I am 8 days sober. Working on 9. And while this isn't my first step into sober curiousness, I have felt a strong desire to have this really stick. Now a lot of my new found motivation comes from an opportunity to make a national team, and compete in an international event. I find I really want my new found sobriety to stick. I want my discipline to extend into all facets of my life. That is to say I am tired of settling for just good enough. I want to be better.

Discipline is the key to unlock our success. it involves all the good things about hard work. Drive, ambition, the desire to do a good job. But also it incorporates things like boundaries, saying no, and resolve. You want something, well you are going to have to have the discipline to do all of the necessary task it takes.

I want you to be a success, but I also want it to be something you can repeat over and over and over again. Don't let success be an accident make it intentional. And in order for that success to be reoccurring you need to have the discipline to be consistent. Be the drop of water that breaks rocks. Be effective by being an example of true unwavering self control. Then the world is your to command!