Today I wanted to write about discipline but when I looked up the actual definition on m-w.com it didn’t sound very inspiring. So I am going to tie it into another significant D word. Here is the definition of discipline.

a :  control gained by enforcing obedience or order

b :  orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior

  c :  self-control

 

How many times have we said or heard, “I need to be more disciplined about __.”?

I’ve said that about writing, eating better, exercising, and side projects like making jewelry that I was hoping to make some money off of or at least make as presents.

Perhaps the reason I have been having so much trouble “being disciplined” is because it doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. Control gained by enforcing….blech!

So I sat in front of my laptop for a few minutes trying to figure out something promising to say about discipline when I decided to revert back to “dancing”.

The idea that at I was originally contemplating is how easy it has been to excel at dancing because it’s generally something I look forward to doing and have always been focused on getting better at it. I didn’t have to enforce obedience or order to do it.

I have been motivated because there are people whose dancing I admire and I so I always have an image before me of what I want to obtain. I also have lots of equally obsessed dance friends for moral and social support. If anything, I have had to practice self-control for the opposite reason, to be accepting of things that get in the way of dancing like things that preempt dance class, injuries, and other interests.

I suppose the take away from all this is if we’re having a hard time being disciplined about something maybe we have to rethink our approach and consider what motivates us.