Why You Need the Pain of Discipline
It’s very easy to make giving up a habit. Give up once and you’re more likely to give up again… and again… and again.
To stop the rut we have to train ourselves to do hard things. Hard doesn’t mean bad. We don’t have to give up as soon as things don’t go our way.
I used to give up whenever things didn’t go my way. I’d get frustrated then try something new. As a result I never built anything or finished anything. I had lots of good starts, but not a lot to show for it.
This is why I love training with a goal in mind. It has taught me to not give up no matter what excuses I tell myself. I now have daily habits that challenge me with tough situations to overcome. I can now keep going… and going… and going…
And by committing to the habit of doing physically hard things, I’ve now developed a mental muscle that helps me approach other hard situations in life with confidence and positivity.
Whether we commit to a discipline or not, pain will be involved. But as Craig Groeschel says, “You can choose the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret!”
Recently I competed in an Ironman 70.3 race. I was aiming for a new personal best however my day turned upside down on the bike leg. I ran over some glass which deflated my tyre and despite several attempts to fix it I ended up on the side of the road for 90 minutes. The mechanic eventually came and although I was ready to quit he told me to keep going.
So I jumped on the bike and as I finished my first lap, everyone else was finishing their second. People were already running to the end and I still had a whole 45kms left to go. However I kept going. When I got off the bike and started to run, I went past the finish line and saw people finishing when I still had 21km’s left of running to go!
It would have been very easy to give up. However I have trained not to give up. I don’t want to start a bad habit. So I kept going. I finished last in my age group but when I took out the time on the side of the road from my overall time I would have had a new PB. I ended up being disappointed in the race, but very proud of my performance. And not to mention I got the medal and towel for finishing!
The point is this, I decided that I wanted the pain of discipline rather than the pain of regret. It would have been easy to give up but then I would have regretted signing up, training hard and not being able to compete. Instead I chose the pain of discipline and ended up proud of my performance.
As Gary Grant says, “The decisions you make is the life you live.” So what pain are you choosing in your life right now? If you are choosing to avoid the pain of discipline now, you will need to live with pain of regret. Choose wisely and you will be amazed at what your life could look like!
