Self discipline is something I thought I had in abundance. That was until I started following some of the top Chiropractors in Canada and the USA. It is incredible at how often they read to further themselves and how self disciplined they are with what they say they will do and then carrying it out.
One of the best Chiropractors I follow is a guy called Jason Ross, he stated at the start of the year that he would do a blog every day as his new years resolution and he has stuck to it. I didn’t think it would be possible as I find it hard to do one a month at the rate I am going.
One of the tips I learned from Jason is to read at least 20 minutes a day, this helped me a lot as I have been using the excuses of time and a new relationship to explain why i haven’t posted or read enough recently. However, by doing little bits at a time I have been able to achieve a lot more. I love reading as knowledge is power and little chunks at a time have been an amazing way of helping me finally finish some books I have been unable to complete for a while.
'The power of habit' was one of these books (ironic I know), this book helps you understand exactly how we form habits and how to create and break good and bad ones.
By adopting the above system and repeating it over and over you can form a new habit, this can be positive or negative. An example of how it is used is smoking, see the packet, smoke the cigarette and your senses get the reward.
Stop the cue or replace the routine and you can form an alternative to a bad habit. This can even be a positive change as your reward may not even lie in the chemical reward from a cigarette, it could just be that you want to be social. In which case, go chat to someone at their desk instead of going for a social cigarette and see if that social reward solves your ‘craving’.
You’d be surprised at how the reward you are looking for can be misunderstood.
I love books like these, ones that take a topic and use others experiences to explain the details. A highly recommended read, you never know, this could be life changing for you or your sport. I’m gonna work on writing my posts more regularly (Gulp!).
As Aristotle once said “We are as we repeatedly do”.