The development of discipline is a skill within itself. It doesn’t come easy nor quickly. However, the rewards are massive for all who call discipline a friend and ally. Discipline is not a nasty word!
Last night I had one of the worst nights of sleep that I’ve had in quite a while. I laid there, wide awake, tossed and turned in an attempt to get more comfortable, and even put on lullaby radio on Pandora.
Nothing seemed to work. I was reminded of the last time I had such trouble sleeping. It was a couple of years and I was faced with one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make.
Yesterday was a very productive day. It’s my last day until June 30 so I knew that I needed to take advantage of the time and get organized. That’s exactly what I did. And, in doing so, I ran across some old journal entries, from some the aforementioned sleepless nights.
There’s some absolute gold in there; I’ll be sharing those soon because there are some valuable lessons in there that many can gain from. I know I did.
Most people would blame it on Monday (like that has every helped anything), slept in as long as they could and then force themselves to get ready. I, on the other hand, have laid out the next few days and will be very adamant about sticking to the plan.
I don’t think I got a wink of sleep until around 2:00 AM. This was starting to piss me off because my alarm was set for 3:59 AM. When the alarm sounded, I was to get up and begin working on this blog post.
It didn’t quite work out like that. I had turned my box fan on to cool me down so I could get some sleep. It’s rather loud, even on the lowest setting. In between that and Lullaby Radio I didn’t hear my alarm go off until about 5:30 AM.
I got up, kind of pissed that I’m already fucking up the weeks plan, and proceeded to the gym. Once I got there, I warmed up on the rower and then proceeded to the squat rack where I saw a young girl adjusting the rack.
Well, fuck.
I had planned on some knee extensions before my squat to fire up the quads. (My quads tend to lag behind when I squat. I’m either hamstring dominant or my hamstrings are just hella weak compared to my quads.)
I completed a few sets and decided that I would jump on the smith machine and do some squats there. Boy, did I want to kick my own ass for doing that bullshit. I felt like I was at planet fitness, with their “We’re not a gym. We’re Planet Fitness.” Whatever the fuck that means with your tootsie roll bowl at the front desk and pizza night.
I didn’t have much of a choice and I was already behind on time. I mean this post was already suppose to be written. Luckily, the girl finished up fairly quickly and I was able to jump on 3 sets of some real squats.
I completed them rather quickly and moved on to lunges. As I was re-racking the weight some bald-headed guy with a gold chain came over and asked me if I was done. Before I could nod my head he had the bar on the safety racks. I was behind the rack putting up weight. He pretty much blocked me in so I had to move the bar to get out. (the weight room set up is quite disastrous, but that’s a topic for another time).
I aggressively move the bar with my left quad and proceed out to the gym to do my bodyweight lunges. If I don’t come back in to see that mother-fucker doing shrugs in the squat rack… shrugs bro?? Really??
Mind you, we only have 1 squat rack and the gym was hella packed (for Skagway). Not only is he doing shrugs in the squat rack but he’s super setting it with incline bench press on the smith machine.
So, not only is this dumb, gold chain wearing, mother %@#$&*#! taking up the squat rack with shrugs, he’s also taking up the smith machine for the dumbest super-set in history. I should also note that the only kind of shape this guy is in is round.
A few minutes later, I see the dude walking around the basketball court. I go back inside to finish up with some seated calf raises and he’s still got weight on the bars and his shit spread out through the already small weight room.
But, I’ve gotta cut this guy a little slack because this isn’t the first dude that’s fallen victim to fuckarounditis. I’ve seen that shit all over the country. They have no workout plan, no concept of a diet, and wear jewelry to the gym.
It was all of this bullshit that led up to me telling myself that I’ve been messing around too much and that it’s time to get to work.
*******************
So, yesterday I sat down and organized a bunch of content. Videos, documents, and pictures all found their designated place, along with several audio files. One of the most important things I did yesterday was outline the plan for the week.
I would wake up at 3:59 AM, drink a shit ton of water, and write my designated blog post. I allowed myself 90 mins to complete this task. Afterwards, I would head to the gym. Once back from the gym, I would shower and get mostly ready for work. After the shower, I would sit down to write once more. This time focusing on a longer, more substantial piece for TheRelentlessMindset.com.
I’ve been too lackadaisical in my delivery of content and it was driving me crazy. I needed to give in to this conviction and start producing. After all I have no shortage of things to write about. To prove this to myself, I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote down all the titles of blogs that I could write about. The page filled up very quickly.
My perfectionism allowed me to keep things on the backend of the website and to leave a ton of unfinished outlines of posts that could really add some value. Furthermore, getting all of this content out would alleviate my mind from having to remember it and it would even help me organize it in a way.
All I had to do was give myself that permission to produce content in an imperfect and authentic manner. I believe people truly enjoy my authenticity and the way I wrap my mind around things. It has proven to be my greatest gift and I keep that from you, no longer!
Alright. That’s a lot of talk and I have barely mentioned the word discipline. It is in the title twice so I feel like it’s an important issue to address in this post.
“Discipline equals freedom.”
– Jocko Willink
I have found the above quote to be incredibly true. The more you execute discipline in your life, the more freedom you will find. For example, yesterday I laid out the plan for today: what time I would wake up, what blog post I’d write, the workout I would do, etc.
Having that in place, I didn’t have to think about shit when I got up. I didn’t have to mess around for 15 mins before I decided how to warm up or what my workout would be. It was already laid out. All I had to do was do it.
Even after waking up late, it wasn’t a question of whether I was going to do it or not. The question was how am I going to make this happen. Yeah, I had to adapt and adjust but I managed to get everything done that I needed to.
For me, writing it down made it a question of when, not if. Even if I had slept passed my alarm and had to immediately get up and get ready for work, I know I would have made the workout, the blog, journalling, etc all happen after work. It would’ve still gotten done.
I’m hoping tonight I sleep much better and that I’m able to get up at 3:59, get my writing done, workout in, and execute on the other morning tasks. My morning routine is very simple. I’ll touch on this tomorrow in what will hopefully be a much shorter blog post.
The punch line is this: the more discipline you exercise in your life, the more freedom you’ll find. I don’t was precious mental energy on what I’ll wear that day. For work, I have a selection of 1-3 pants (black, khaki, or grey). The shirt is determined by the color pants I pick. The pants are determined by the weather.
If it’s cold, windy, and rainy, I go with the grey pants. They’re thicker and provide more warmth than the other two. Grey pants means black shirt and orange jacket. The shoes are brown always the same. Yes, brown shoes with black pants too because who gives a fuck?!
I have the same shower routine. Shampoo first, rinse it off. Then conditioner, leave it in while I wash body, rinse body off and then rinse conditioner out of hair, and for hair removal in the rest of the body I found some great laser treatments for this at https://www.touchuplaser.com/our-services/laser-hair-removal/
If I want coffee, I turn on the Cuisinart, grind the beans, dump the beans into the bottom of my 30 oz Yeti cup, and combine with the 200 degree water that heated in just minutes.
[Side Note – I like the Yeti cup because it keeps my coffee warm pretty much until late afternoon. Now, I don’t agree with their political moves but I don’t really care either. They can do what they want. Regardless, they still make a damn good product and I’ll continue to use it. But, by using it, it doesn’t mean that I endorse everything they say, or anything they say for that matter. ]
This routine is very simple and doesn’t exhaust my mental capacity before my work day even starts. I’m back in the sales game, at least for the moment, so I need to be sharp, quick witted, and be able to turn up the charisma on a moments notice.
Developing discipline doesn’t happen overnight. Like most good things, it takes time. But once you lock down just a couple of the key variables, you’ll notice how your life opens up.
Not only does discipline keep you on track for what you should be doing. More importantly, it keeps you from doing what you shouldn’t be doing.
“What you don’t do, determines what you can do.”
The writing down of everything gives discipline to the discipline. On this day, you will complete these things. Your focus is on getting these things done because you have deemed them important to complete on this specific day.
Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. For me, when I write something down, it’s going to get done. Is it the most efficient? One could argue that it’s not but I’d rather be inefficient and still get things done versus having to have everything perfect.
The traffic lights of life are never all green at the same time. There’s never going to be a perfect time to start something or start something over. I’ve said this many, many times but I haven’t gone all in on it’s principle, until now.
I’ve got the plan. I know the tools needed to bring the plan to reality. Now, all there is left to do is execute. This blog will become a discipline that makes a lot of things happen for me.
I am also convinced that it will bring a lot of value to others as well. It’s a win-win and it’s a way for others to get to know the real, authentic Nick despite being thousands of miles away.
I would love to hear your thoughts! What are you enjoying about the blogs? Are you digging the raw, real, and relentless Nick?
Happy Monday Goons!
