Category: Senior Fitness

Without self-discipline there is no mastery — of anything. Of course, I am talking here about self-discipline in the realm of long term mastery of your own Health, Fitness, Personal Energy and overall well being.

Self-discipline is the key to overcoming such Health and Fitness detractors as boredom, distraction, lethargy, inertia and excuses (“It’s too hot.” “It’s too cold”. “My finger hurts.” “I just don’t feel like it this morning.”)

Self-discipline comes from deep inside. It’s what makes you get up and out to the gym, or go for a walk or a run, or stick with anything for the long term where boredom or distractions try to take you off the path to mastery.

Good health and fitness practices call for a long term commitment — as in forever. Once you get over the initial “high” of starting something new and achieving short term, often immediate progress, boredom steps in, right alongside the initial plateau and the Homeostasis I wrote about two weeks ago. The novelty wears off and it can stop you cold. Suddenly going to the gym or getting up early to go for a run seems like an endless chore rather than an activity you do for the simple benefit and joy of. . .  just doing it. It’s easier to do nothing rather than start. Self-sabotage sets in and destroys the momentum you have built.

Unless!

You reach deep down into yourself and pull up that mindset that says, “go do it anyway.” “Get up you jerk. You know you’ll feel better all day.”

Webster defines self-discipline as, the disciplining or controlling of oneself, one’s desires, actions, habits, etc.” The operative word, of course, is “self”. As an adult, you are responsible for your own actions. Not your doctor. Not a personal trainer. Not a nutritionist. Not your spouse. Just you.

Self-discipline is a practice too. The more you exercise self-discipline, the more you will continue. And when you approach your goal, it will take self-discipline to stick with whatever you are doing to keep from backsliding, and staying with it for the long term.

Motivation and self-discipline go hand in hand. They feed on one another. The next time you say, “I don’t feel like exercising today”, reach into yourself and do it anyway.

Thank you for reading.

I am starting a new series next week about transformation from getting older to becoming “youthful”; from illness to wellness; from inert to active; from unmotivated to motivated, from weak to strong, from unfit to fit, and all those other things that lead into Health, Fitness and Vitality for Seniors. I won’t be writing about “How to Lose 50 pounds in 30 days” or “How to put 3 inches on your arms in 10 days” or anything like that. It will be specifically about long term health and fitness.

The individual topics will include the following (not necessarily in this order):

• We have what we need already inside us to be healthy, fit, and filled with Personal Energy.
• How to reach within ourselves to discover it, to bring it out, and to use it to live all of the Life We Are Given.
• How do we know what to look for and where to find it within us? You’ll get the answers here.
• How to use Mindset, Movement and Motivation. This includes discovering the benefits and uses of Exercise, Nutrition, Imagination and Visualization. I’ll include thoughts on Meditation, Momentum, and Affirmations. And if you are not satisfied with the reality you see in the mirror, you’ll learn how to create a new reality for yourself. Not overnight, but long term.
• How to become motivated and stay motivated to do what it takes to be healthy and fit for the long term.
• How to raise your limits and increase your personal “set point” by learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• And much, much more.

These will not be a re-hash of old articles.

Does that look like an advertisement for some sort of seminar, book or online course? It’s not. It’s just a summary of what’s ahead in terms of content.

You can expect all of the topics to be interesting, useful, and to provide value. Some of the topics will be of value to all and some will be of interest to less than all. I suggest you read them all anyway. You might just find them useful.

I would love to read your comments to individual articles. Email your comments to bob@thecomealiveproject.com.

Thank you in advance for reading.

Moving toward “Mastery” of something leads to the motivation to continue doing it. Imagine that.

When you start something new like an exercise program, diet, or any form of self-improvement program, you will find inertia trying to keep you from starting. As I mentioned in another recent article, built in homeostasis wants to take you back to where you started, and you will find unwanted resistance to your efforts to continue. Plateaus result in discouragement and lack of motivation tries to keep you from moving forward toward your goal.

By reading some of my recent blog posts, you have learned to understand that resistance. And as you break through those plateaus and the inertia and the homeostasis effect, and start to move toward that elusive place of Mastery, you will find yourself starting to want to continue and you will start doing it for its own sake. That’s a powerful source of basic intrinsic motivation.

Your imagination plays a powerful role here. If you can imagine where you want to be and picture how you want to get there, then you are headed down the path of low resistance. Our imaginations are a significant part of the path to mastery. The imagination is more powerful than the strongest will power.

When you energize and guide your imagination, whatever you tell it becomes real for you. If it is real to you, then you are less likely to resist it. When you energize the imagination and vividly visualize the new experience of achieving the result you want, that experience becomes real for you. The more real it becomes,  the more powerfully motivated you are to do it (exercise, eat right, etc.) for it’s own sake. And that’s when real results are achieved.

Move toward Mastery through imagination and motivation; MIndset, Movement and Motivation to discovery of your own Fountain of Youth.

Thank you for reading.

P.S. I’m facilitating a FREE seven week, Monday night class on George Leonard and Michael Murphy’s book, The Life We Are Given, in the Washington, DC area, starting Monday, June 19. Find out more and register online right here for this free series. All are welcome.