OCT 18th 1-2-3: How To Be Disciplined Yet Easy Going
1: Disciplined And Easy Going ( 3 minute read )
We have talked about how important consistency and measurement of progress is to producing art.
So we get consistent, we get focused, driven, and then we fail a daily goal.
Then we get angry, or down on ourselves.
“How is the art going to be made if I am not hitting my goals?”
There is this notion that to be disciplined is to live a life of hardened resolve, deadlines, and to do that you have to be rough with yourself.
Almost like a solider in boot camp, or the tortured artist who relegates themselves to constant critique and internal berating of themselves; the discipline only happens when you beat it out of yourself.
Why hurt ourselves like this?
The last time I checked, being disciplined did NOT mean being hard on oneself.
In fact, I have found quite the opposite to be far more effective in producing consistent art: being easy going.
While positive framing of stress can make it a useful tool, if the emotion behind it is one of anger and frustration with oneself, it can oftentimes have the undesired effect of making us less likely to produce.
“I can’t do it, I keep failing my goal, why even try?”
“I’ll never get my book written at this pace, why can’t I stay consistent?”
“I’m trash, that can be the only explanation for why I’m not doing the work.”
If you have found yourself saying stuff like this to yourself, then I have some great news!
You are a human, and you are not broken. I actually believe you are MUCH more capable than you ever give yourself credit for.
The reality is that being disciplined is an identity. What we say when someone is disciplined is that they are a disciplined person.
It is an identity.
When you don’t do the things you set out to do, then you aren’t meeting up to the expectations you set for yourself on what a disciplined person does, so then your identity cannot be that, so our egos resort to the opposite: I’m lazy, I am trash, etc.
Please don’t do that to yourself. What we don’t see with people that are disciplined, is that they grew that skill little by little over time.
James Clear provides an approach that is useful to us all in his book, Atomic Habits.
He says that, “If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you're done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you'll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.”
This is so, SO important to grasp.
Big wins aren’t made up of a few big actions, they are made up of hundreds of little wins.
On the other hand, big losses aren’t made up of a few big “wrong” actions, they are made up of hundreds of little losses.
This is where we get to define or wins and losses.
Instead of looking at hours of work in a day everyday as a win (which let us be honest, if you are starting from not doing that work at all, who’s to say you will likely be consistent in doing that everyday of the week), why not look at a win as 30 minutes a day?
Then week over week, increase it by 15 minutes.
This may not seem like a lot, but by my calculations, if you were to do this within one month you would be doing an hour and 15 minutes of work a day.
Within two months you would be at 2 hours and 15 minutes a day.
By the end of a year, if you were to keep increasing until you hit 8 hours a day, you would have completed 130,050 minutes worth of work towards your goal.
That is over 2000 hours of work!
Now I am not saying this is how you have to do this, but this is more of an illustration than anything.
1% better each day, leads to you being 37 times better than you were at the start of the year.
This is why going easy on yourself is so crucial: being easy going allows you to BUILD discipline.
Disciplined people aren’t born, they are built.
Each time you show up for your 30 minute segment, you win.
Each week you continue writing, you win.
Each sentence you write, you win.
Break it down into smaller points, and remember, life is unpredictable.
There will be days where you may miss.
Make it easy to do and build the habit, and you are doing your best to make that as difficult to miss.
Always strive to not miss more than one day in a row.
This has proven a useful rule for many people, including myself.
So go for it, enjoy your artistic journey, redefine your wins.
Be easy going, so you can build discipline, so you can create what you were always meant to create.
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. Imagine yourself in a calm, peaceful mountain overlooking a forest. The moonlight is shining down on the trees, and you can hear whispers in the wind. What does this make you feel and think? Good, now make something from that!
II. If you had an animal companion, what would it be? What would their temperament be? What would they say to you if they could talk to you?
3: Inspirational Quotes From Others
I. “Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye” - Dorothy Park, American Poet and Writer
II. “Creativity is a combination of discipline and a childlike spirit” - Robert Greene, American Author
III. “Burn your dream bright. Pursue it with the best of who you are. But don’t confuse hustle with burnout. Hustle fills you up. Burnout empties you. Hustle renews your energy. Burnout drains it.” - Jon Acuff, Author