Can’t is the Cancer of Happen

"Can’t is the cancer of happen" 

– Charlie Sheen

It’s a new week so that means a new challenge for everyone.  This week I’m going to go back and retrace the roots of my blog and talk a little bit more about discipline.  Last week I discussed some simple ways to make the world around you better.  I talked about making some environmental changes such as selling a game that takes up too much of your time or hiding all the matches or lighters in your house to help you smoke less.  These are important little trick you can use to assist yourself, but discipline is key and I would like to address that in relation to the environmental advances I am talking about.

While it is great to change your environment to complement the changes you wish to accomplish, it’s also important to remember the discipline involved.  It’s really not efficient to use one trick while avoiding another.  That will end up making things unnecessarily complicated in the long run.  If you want to lose weight, you need to have the mental toughness as well to go through with it.  You need to constantly remind yourself why you want to lose the weight and make sacrifices.  The environmental change you can do is buying only beneficial food or getting rid of the batteries in the TV remote so you can walk every time you need to change the channel.  The mental discipline involved here is to stay focused on your diet and exercise plan and avoid putting the batteries back in the remote when you get tired.  This goes way back to my first post about staying positive and believing in yourself.  The thought alone can cause a lot of change subconsciously that can help you gain the confidence and ability to push through tough times. 

There are a few mental tricks that can help you gain the extra competitive edge in conquering an important task such as losing weight or quitting cigarettes.  Setting up mini goals and imaginary prizes in your head can definitely help.  For example, when I use to work out, I use to do my set of squats and when I feel like I can’t go anymore, I tell myself something like “Okay, if I do one more, I’m going to win the golden gloves!” and it will help me get motivated to push harder.  Discipline helps consistency.  Of course after a little while, once the discomfort is gone, the newly found discipline will form a new, positive habit.  After all, this blog deals with putting yourself in uncomfortable situations in order to grow out some desirable habits.  I’ll leave a short poem from lyrist Ira Gershwin for encouragement to lead you up to this week’s challenge.  Enjoy!!

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
when he said the world was round.
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound.
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
when they said that man could fly.
They told Marconi, wireless was a phony—It's the same old cry.
They laughed at me wanting you, said I was reaching for the moon.
But oh, you came through. Now they'll have to change their tune.

They all said we never could be happy, they laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho! Who's got the last laugh now?

 

This Week’s Challenge:  Go through the entire week and tell the truth and only the truth.  It sounds easy, but if your spouse asks you how a dress or a tie looks on them, you must give the complete truth. If your boss asks you what you think of him, only the truth.  This is a hard challenge, but it can help train the discipline really well.  Good luck out there!