Sunday, July 20, 2008

Do I Have What It Takes?

The idea of self discipline generally, and do I possess it specifically, has been bouncing around in my head over the last 2-3 weeks…basically since I’ve started training for the Chicago marathon in October.

As I sat and looked back at how things were; what I did right, what I could do better, what did I need to completely overhaul, leading up to Grandma’s Marathon I kept asking myself do I really have the self discipline I need to train successfully for this 26.2 mile race on October 12.

My schedule is about to get busy again as fall sports return and classes start shortly after. I haven’t had the best results dragging my sorry ass out of bed this summer, and do I expect a giant switch to be flipped come August 13th that will magically make getting up at 6 a.m. (or earlier) to run and exercise easy in addition to putting in 10+ hour days?

So I began to debate self discipline in my head. Do I have it? Better yet what is it really? What can I do to increase it?

Maybe I am self disciplined and events of real life have gotten me off track and in a funk (no nothing horrible has happened like a death in the family or the loss of a friend – just normal things like spending most of the month of June traveling and spending most of a week in July in Cincinnati with family and friends) and I just need a bit of a kick in the pants to get myself back on track.

Then I started asking myself what that kick in the pants might be…and I came back to self discipline.

Chicken? Egg?

I’ve gotten some ideas, some new things to try. I’ll let you know how I do.

Right now, I need to go cook dinner.

4 comments:

Antoinette said...

I can definitely relate to this!

Frankie said...

I can totaly relate Kevin. Ive battled self discipline off and on for what seems like forever.

sauconRunner said...

I'll be watching to see how you figure this out. I have issues with self discipline as well. Typically I'm totally on track in the beginning, then burn out or get sidetracked along the way.

Frayed Laces said...

Eee, tough subject. The problem is, and I hate to say it, is that if you are questioning yourself this much now, you probably don't have the self discipline yet. But, there is a way to combat this. I found that if you just sign up for a race and tell everyone about it, you'll be more likely to follow through. Good luck--go grab that discipline by the balls!