I was having a coaching conversation with a young HR professional recently. Towards the end I was asked what I do everyday in terms of my own development, and I shared my love for exercising almost every day. It’s my daily dose of mindfulness, and working on both my physical and emotional well-being. That’s priority No 1.
I was asked how do I find the motivation to do this almost every day. One of the things I realized was that it’s not the motivation, its the discipline that keeps me going.
The fact is that there are many days where I absolutely have no motivation to exercise. Either too tired, packed time table and travelling twice once a month makes it hard to build consistency. In short, motivation comes and goes almost every few days. I continue to struggle with my diet but one thing that I absolutely kick myself to do day after day, year after year is finding the 30-45-60 mins to exercise be it 7 am, 3 pm or 9 pm.
Without realizing, what I have built is the discipline. To achieve anything in life, especially to build something long lasting, sustainable and tough requires focus, discipline and determination. Discipline lets you push through lack of sleep & food and even through pain. Discipline lets you push you through whatever boundaries you think you have.
After tearing meniscus & ligaments in both my knees, I had to focus and discipline myself around very specific exercises to get myself back running which I am still doing every week. It wasn’t fun but it had to be done and not surprisingly I can see the difference.
It has taken years now but the daily grind has become part of life. I use techniques from fitness coaches to focus on holistic well-being and how I can continue to push which I enjoy the most. Discipline in physical activity has further helped built emotional resilience.
Having destroyed annual sugar production for many years, diet is still work in progress but we control what we can and try and get better at it every day.
I see so many people in my family and friends struggle with physical and emotional well being. Exercising will not solve all problems but will most certainly help you manage them a lot better. Those who started this journey have confessed to me personally.
I have shared this before, you cannot take care of your family, your responsibilities and help others, if you are struggling yourself physically and emotionally. Build the discipline, work through pain and reap benefit on a daily basis. For me, I also have this impossible task of living up to the standards of hard work and discipline my father has built and still continues to demonstrate and so the standards are very high but more on this later.
You don’t need time and motivation, build discipline and you will find time.
ps: The pic is my recent successful attempt at 1 rep max 150 kg deadlift (part of my larger 2023 exercise target)
