Not Doing

I could blame work for not updating more often, but that’s not it at all.  Granted, work has been crazy and I’ve gone through a lot of it in the last two weeks, but the real answer is simply a lack of discipline. 

See, I could make plenty of excuses.  I worked 60 hours last week.  I worked 19 of 24 possible hours in a stretch Monday and Tuesday.  But those are just excuses.  I haven’t written anything recently because I haven’t sat down and done the labor necessary to do the work.  It’s just that simple. 

I’ve read quite a bit since then, but I haven’t learned a great deal.  This Forbes article by Emily Willingham points out the failings of not doing the work in childhood math. And according to the state of California, not doing in math results in the state bottoming out and failing.  

You can think about what you are doing all you want, but unless you get around to doing something about it, you are spinning your wheels and going nowhere.  See, it doesn’t matter what I think or what I want.  It only matters what I do.  Because doing leads to action, growth, and creation.  Doing gets you where you want to go.  And when you don’t do, you get the same thing you got yesterday.  And if you liked what you got yesterday, then keep on.

But if you are dissatisfied with yesterday, then start doing.   

So what does writing a blog no one reads have to do with discipline?  It's all about showing up and doing what you have decided to do.  It's about developing the discipline in doing the leg work in things that are seemingly irrelevant because it builds discipline.   The discipline to do the dishes every single day after a meal leads to the discipline to write a blog or study, or do whatever it is you want to do.  

Because doing the dishes is boring.  It is time consuming.  And it seems like a waste of time until you run out of dishes. But if you develop the discipline to show up and work every single day, you change inside.  For a while, your brain keeps telling you to quit and give up.  And at some point, another part of your brain says "no, get your butt off the couch and do the dishes".  And that is the discipline you need to succeed.