I hit a critical point in my life this year and needed to change a lot of things at once. Without going into detail I can say I was not very successful in most things where I wanted to succeed and I suspected that a lack of self-discipline, self-control, and willpower was the source of my problems.
I though what I needed was a campaign of sorts, a period of time when I'd be working on myself and subjecting myself to short-term pain in order to secure long-term gains.
One day I found the ebook 30 days of discipline but after reading the marketing copy I decided I could do something like that without buying it. I had quit nicotine before doing this so I knew I could do it.
This is the program I devised for myself:
- no alcohol whatsoever
- getting up at 5 in the morning, taking a cold bath, and studying a chapter of a language textbook every day
- gym every other day
- limiting or eliminating distractions such as reading news websites, TV, or gossip
With this I hoped to increase my energy and focus and getting more shit done. It worked and I'd like to share my findings with you.
1) No alcohol
This one was important to me as I am a heavy drinker. I managed to stay clean for a month.
Downsides: especially in the evening when I wanted to take the edge off things, I couldn't and stayed sharp and alert. Going out was also problematic as it's not much fun to hang out with drunks when you are sober.
The obvious upside was that I had more choices as to what to do with my available time and energy, which alcohol would have drained away. Not saying and doing stupid shit was a welcome consequence, though I can do both while sober, too.
2) Getting up early. Critical - I could do stuff in the morning such as language study that would be difficult to stuff into my working day. Plus it prevented me from wasting time in the evening as I had to go to bed early.
3) Cold baths. I recommend this, in combination with regular gym you’ll be a motherfucker. It wasn’t easy for me; I had to use a carrot-and-stick technique for willing myself into it, the carrot being a promise of a more solid health, and the stick being calling myself a wimp and such until I entered the bath.
I recently caught a cold, which went away the following day. I think this will work as intended.
5) Regular gym time. I had lifted without making any progress for the past two or three years. I’d typically ease into going once per week, which is far from sufficient to make any gains. Once I got serious, I observed unexpected progress in key lifts as early as the 2nd or 3rd week. That reinvigorated my motivation and I’ll now go on a serious winter bulk-up program.
Being 35+ I can’t stress how important is the regular gym time to keep feeling like a man.
6. Distractions. I didn’t manage to avoid them completely but for instance giving up TV shows freed me to do things that are more valuable to me right now, such as reading a history book or starting a side project. I still haven’t seen the last episode of Breaking Bad and don’t know when I’m going to, despite being a huge fan.
CONCLUSION. This was a fun month and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I took things in my life that I thought weren’t working and tried to fix them all at once. I thought I’d share it with you guys in case someone was thinking about doing a similar thing.
I though what I needed was a campaign of sorts, a period of time when I'd be working on myself and subjecting myself to short-term pain in order to secure long-term gains.
One day I found the ebook 30 days of discipline but after reading the marketing copy I decided I could do something like that without buying it. I had quit nicotine before doing this so I knew I could do it.
This is the program I devised for myself:
- no alcohol whatsoever
- getting up at 5 in the morning, taking a cold bath, and studying a chapter of a language textbook every day
- gym every other day
- limiting or eliminating distractions such as reading news websites, TV, or gossip
With this I hoped to increase my energy and focus and getting more shit done. It worked and I'd like to share my findings with you.
1) No alcohol
This one was important to me as I am a heavy drinker. I managed to stay clean for a month.
Downsides: especially in the evening when I wanted to take the edge off things, I couldn't and stayed sharp and alert. Going out was also problematic as it's not much fun to hang out with drunks when you are sober.
The obvious upside was that I had more choices as to what to do with my available time and energy, which alcohol would have drained away. Not saying and doing stupid shit was a welcome consequence, though I can do both while sober, too.
2) Getting up early. Critical - I could do stuff in the morning such as language study that would be difficult to stuff into my working day. Plus it prevented me from wasting time in the evening as I had to go to bed early.
3) Cold baths. I recommend this, in combination with regular gym you’ll be a motherfucker. It wasn’t easy for me; I had to use a carrot-and-stick technique for willing myself into it, the carrot being a promise of a more solid health, and the stick being calling myself a wimp and such until I entered the bath.
I recently caught a cold, which went away the following day. I think this will work as intended.
5) Regular gym time. I had lifted without making any progress for the past two or three years. I’d typically ease into going once per week, which is far from sufficient to make any gains. Once I got serious, I observed unexpected progress in key lifts as early as the 2nd or 3rd week. That reinvigorated my motivation and I’ll now go on a serious winter bulk-up program.
Being 35+ I can’t stress how important is the regular gym time to keep feeling like a man.
6. Distractions. I didn’t manage to avoid them completely but for instance giving up TV shows freed me to do things that are more valuable to me right now, such as reading a history book or starting a side project. I still haven’t seen the last episode of Breaking Bad and don’t know when I’m going to, despite being a huge fan.
CONCLUSION. This was a fun month and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I took things in my life that I thought weren’t working and tried to fix them all at once. I thought I’d share it with you guys in case someone was thinking about doing a similar thing.
