How i developed self-control and discipline.
The fuel for success
In 2014, while I was still an innocent schoolboy and prey to his emotions, my path of personal growth began. It felt like a day like any other, wake up early, backpack ready, whatsapp to my best friend to smoke a cigarette with him at our usual seat before entering the classroom.
Usual routine. Then, perhaps, our rebellious and entrepreneurial spirit got the better of what I always call "the protocol" and we decided not to go to school that morning.We went to his house and started messing around on Youtube. Until I found, totally by chance, a professional parkour compilation that fatally caught my attention. If I close my eyes I can still see all the traced places and mystical movements of those athletes. Watching that video, I felt so immersed that it felt like I was jumping in first person. Goosebumps.
So what does this story have to do with self-control and discipline?
That video was not even finished that Manuel and I looked into each other's eyes and .. "let's do it!". That same morning, for fun, we started practicing parkour; from the French “path”. At that moment, adrenaline and enthusiasm prevailed over rationality. Not that it was necessarily negative, on the contrary, probably, if we had been completely rational, we would not even have dared to try for possible “analysis paralysis”. The problem lies neither in one nor the other, the problem lies in the excesses. There is always a need for balance. Therefore, it is good and right to be rational to prevent damage, calculating the risks and minimizing them, but at the same time, we must let our irrationality arise.
It is irrationality that makes us really alive, rationality maybe makes us stay alive.
Maybe we were a little naive, but in the end our belief and our desire to do so changed our lives.
Having embarked on this adventure, made up of arduous physical tests and psycho-emotional challenges, immediately highlighted our propensity to risk, our strengths and weaknesses and our characters.
The first step in acquiring discipline and self-control is just that: accepting challenges and exposing yourself to risks.Because when you accept challenges, in reality, you will have already won a great battle, namely the one with your unconscious survival spirit, which through emotions and thoughts will have tried to make you change your mind and stay in your comfort zone. That part that represents 90% of our mind and that is beyond our control. The same party that would like you to avoid bad impressions, failures, suffering, all sorts of troubles and responsibilities.
After accepting the challenge ..?
Once you have accepted the challenge, before proceeding with the attempts, with the action, divide the objective to be achieved into micro-objectives. This will help you overcome the feeling of loss that may arise when in the short / medium term you still see yourself at square one. Because it will make you aware of the fact that in reality it is only an illusory appearance and that you will be wrong, because perhaps you have not completed the final challenge, but you will have come closer and closer to it, completing small objectives at a time, achievable in the short term. . Not only will it help you not to sabotage yourself, not to get depressed and give up everything, but above all it will help you in maximizing the relationship between the efforts made and the results obtained. Meanwhile make a list :
- things to do absolutely
- things to do not absolutely
- things that might help me
- things that could take me away from success.
Whenever you want to make yourself comfortable, avoid duties, neglect priorities, belittle yourself, etc., speak to yourself with determination, enthusiasm and imposition.
No!
Not now!
Not this time!
Keep telling yourself what you need to do and why, what you shouldn't do and why!
Insist
Act
Persist
Hold on
Rests
Repeat
Keep working on your strengths and training your weaknesses. Learn to meditate, to maintain clarity and mental control. Don't be too hard on yourself, just be honest, permissive but don't persevere.Train yourself to breathe, to reason to keep emotions at bay. Plan but don’t delay. Don’t be in an hurry but be ready to react to the unpredictability of life quickly and promptly.
Be always humble, recognize when you need help. Be ready to help but also to be able to rely only on yourself.
Through a simple game, I discovered a talent, a philosophy, a creed, a sense, myself.