I never considered myself disciplined, and truly, I wasn’t.  I’d get addicted to foods and games, I couldn’t stick to exercising (both physically and on guitar).

But for the last year or so, I’ve actually been exercising regularly.  In fact, I get up around 5:30AM on most weekdays to go swim and do resistance training.  I still quite can’t pull off every weekday, but every time I go I feel so good about it afterwards, that I don’t seem to fall off the wagon for long.

I also noticed that at that hour, there’s a “regular” crowd at our local JCC.  I don’t know most of them, as all we do is just exercise, but I recognize them.  And I like their vibes.

I never considered myself disciplined, and I still don’t know if I’d call myself that.  But I have become fairly disciplined.  And I am on the way to become more disciplined, because I am seeing the results of good routines building up.

I’d define discipline as an ability to institute good routines and maintain high work ethic through will power.  And it does take will power — I may be getting up but I’m still not a morning person — but if you start to experience the fruits of your labor, then after that it doesn’t take that much will power to keep doing it. It feels so exciting to recognize the impact of your good habits that you’d feel much more motivated to keep going.

Simply put, good routines builds. The changes to my physical body and progress on my guitar have been so encouraging, that now I’m itching to add more routines to my day.  I want to incorporate more meditation/prayer, singing, and blogging, just to name a few.  It’s challenging because I have only so many minutes out of the day that’s flexible enough to assign to new recurring tasks.  But I’m going to find a way, even if each session has to be small.

I started some good balls rolling here.  Getting in the habit of winning can really help you move faster to your destinations in life.

Fill your days with more activities that make you proud.  Some of it may not even feel good or fun, but if it makes you proud, then it’s worth it.

It doesn’t matter how slow the pace is.  In fact, it’s best if you set it at a pace where you can’t NOT stick to it.

The important thing is to will yourself to stick to a structure.  Do it routinely, and it’ll build up power — power to make yourself do exactly what you will, and nothing else.

And it’s a very powerful thing, when you really master yourself.