Self-discipline or Perfection?
When I started this blog, I was thinking of self-discipline as a way to live a perfectly regimented life. Now, just a few weeks later, I realize that this is impossible. Mostly because of what I call the P-word.
Perfection.
I think that is what most people are seeking when they talk about self-discipline. Self-discipline is staying on plan, it's getting up and always meeting your committments. For me, perfection would be having it all, being able to have a life with all the best things balanced into a coherent whole.
Well, that's impossible. As a human being, overarching perfection is not attainable. Not for the long haul and probably not for the short haul either. And that's ok.
It's ok because imperfection isn't failure.
At first, when I couldn't meet my mini-goal of eating veggies at lunch and dinner, I thought about just deleting this blog and pretending it never happened. I can't even meet my mini-goal one day, what kind of blog about self-discipline is this?!? Instead, I thought about what was stopping me from eating veggies--not going to the grocery store and not having a good idea about what to get that would help me eat veggies at lunch. I came up with some ideas about lunches I would like (and got a good suggestion from anonymous jones for another), and then I made some time to go to the store just to buy healthy snacks and veggies. Since I've done that, I've been able to meet my goal almost every day this week.
After thinking about how work on that mini-goal turned out, I realized that my idea about self-discipline was changing a bit. I'm not sure anymore that self-discipline means executing a plan perfectly day after day after day. Perhaps it's more like continuing to work on what's important and enjoying what strides you have made.
Maybe this is a realization that comes easy to some, but it's not for me. It helps me to be explicit about the steps that I took to work on the mini-goal so that in the future when I don't remember what I know now, I can look back and walk myself through this to work on future problems.
Perfection.
I think that is what most people are seeking when they talk about self-discipline. Self-discipline is staying on plan, it's getting up and always meeting your committments. For me, perfection would be having it all, being able to have a life with all the best things balanced into a coherent whole.
Well, that's impossible. As a human being, overarching perfection is not attainable. Not for the long haul and probably not for the short haul either. And that's ok.
It's ok because imperfection isn't failure.
At first, when I couldn't meet my mini-goal of eating veggies at lunch and dinner, I thought about just deleting this blog and pretending it never happened. I can't even meet my mini-goal one day, what kind of blog about self-discipline is this?!? Instead, I thought about what was stopping me from eating veggies--not going to the grocery store and not having a good idea about what to get that would help me eat veggies at lunch. I came up with some ideas about lunches I would like (and got a good suggestion from anonymous jones for another), and then I made some time to go to the store just to buy healthy snacks and veggies. Since I've done that, I've been able to meet my goal almost every day this week.
After thinking about how work on that mini-goal turned out, I realized that my idea about self-discipline was changing a bit. I'm not sure anymore that self-discipline means executing a plan perfectly day after day after day. Perhaps it's more like continuing to work on what's important and enjoying what strides you have made.
Maybe this is a realization that comes easy to some, but it's not for me. It helps me to be explicit about the steps that I took to work on the mini-goal so that in the future when I don't remember what I know now, I can look back and walk myself through this to work on future problems.
posted by Tiffany @ 8:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home