Uncharted Thoughts.

These past weeks haves been one filled with Christmas joy, large plates and plenty of strong booze to help warm the soul. I was lucky enough to make it down to my home town to celebrate with my loved ones, a privilege I am always thankful for. Yet, the grind never stopped. Yes I was able to relax on Christmas Day, but there was never a moment when my goals were far from conversation or from thought. Be it the Ultra Marathon that looms some sixty days away, or the Masters courses I have been applying for, or the BBC apprenticeship I have been working towards or the functional skills I have been grafting at behind closed doors. At the end of each meal, at the start of each day, my mind is occupied with these goals.

Unfortunately, my early life was filled with little discipline. Although I have always been driven, my ability to be disciplined was not formed until I studied my undergraduate course. When my friends partied into the early hours, I was sleeping, when my friends were playing sports and socialising in the student union, I was in the library reading or writing an essay. When they were panicking about a deadline the following day, I was two essays ahead of them. Half of the time I would come out with essays two or three marks higher than them, or perhaps equal to their score, but this never bothered me. I had chosen the hard route. To study History, one of the most literature based courses in academia while having dyslexia is no small feat.

For every hour my friends and co-students spent reading, I’d spend three. For every moment they waisted I intended on working three moments. I knew this going in, from my first essay to my last, I was handed in and ready with at least a week to spare.

Of course I missed out on a lot, I missed out on drunken rampages, some hilarious stories and plenty of drama. Occasionally when caught of guard I would think I waisted my time at University, that I should have had more fun but with fun, came hours lost, with hours lost I would slip behind. Three or four times further than I would have been as a non dyslexic. However, I finished University knowing that I put 100% in, so much so I lost a little of myself within it. I had gained a significant amount of weight due to spending hours and hours sat reading in the library, but I wouldn’t for a second let any of those hours in the library go a stray, for I think University was the first time in my life, I felt I had achieved something.

John O’ Groats was a massive achievement, as was hitting 25 countries at 25 years old, but honestly, if someone asked my biggest achievement I would hands down say completing University was mine. Asking me to walk from John O’ Groats to Lands End is a pleasure, I would do it all over again and not complain once. But if you were to ask me to do University again, starting academia all over again without the lessons I had picked up along the way , I would struggle to accept the challenge. Currently I am looking to do a masters, and I am very excited about the prospects, but I have built up the discipline to do so from my undergraduate years. From pumping those hours in, from getting up early and coming home late and typing thousands and thousands of words, there I learnt to be truly disciplined. To go back without that knowledge but with the knowledge of what university took out of me, I would struggle to say yes.

How to start being disciplined?

Step one, chose a challenge.

Don’t challenge yourself to do a big hike if you like hiking. Don’t challenge yourself to learn a language if you like learning languages. Find something you enjoy enough to want to do it, but hate enough that its not already done. I could challenge myself to hike from my house to Rome and I would be ecstatic by the concept, but there isn’t anything really that I hate about it. So I wont learn anything from it. I’ll just do it.

Choose something you would love to love. I enjoyed History, yet the writing, reading and researching was not an enjoyable experience. This is where disciplined growth comes from. In my first year, I struggled with the long hours of reading, writing the essays and sitting in lectures attempting to understand the first thing about contemporary history, the Annals and Postmodernism.

Yet, through hard work, you begin to enjoy the grind. Your love for the chosen discipline will outshine the negatives.

So that would be my first step towards discipline. Find a subject or activity you enjoy, and grind at the negatives until you love it.

Step Two, take one day at a time, but do the time.

So you found your goal, now you want to get started. First things first, like all things, don’t run before you can walk. Start at a reasonable pace, that doesn’t mean at the lowest possible pace, it means at a reasonable pace. Your challenge may be to run a marathon, don’t start by walking a mile when you can already run two. Start at one and a half, but do it consistently. Then when you’ve done that several times, do three miles.

This is to keep yourself disciplined. If you start walking, you’ll be bored within the week, start where it hurts, but not so much it kills your motivation.

If you are learning the study, sacrifice the hours that you can afford to sacrifice and then add an addition hour. When your mind begins to wonder, which it will, take a walk to the shop, yet a drink, then return to the grind.

Step Three, Put in the hours, sacrifice and glory.

Those that put the work in succeed. Yes there are times people will be naturally better than you to begin with. Some people are better at running than others, some are naturally stronger or have a better attention span, but after one hundred hours of disciplined work, you will triumph over them.

If you have a routine, change it for no one. Best friends birthday? see him after you work. Wife needs you to collect food from the supermarket? it doesn’t close for another four hours get the work in. Want to go out and get drunk with your friends? couple beers and a couple hours can be spent later. Don’t kill yourself completely, but remember that time waisted is time waisted.

Step Four. Remember why you are doing it.

From time to time, you’ll ask yourself why you are putting yourself through this hard work, well the answer is hours away. Be that thirty or one hundred. You’ve got this far, why quit? If you quit, all those hours you spend are already gone, why waist them?

Step Five. Do not over celebrate.

I had a friend at Uni that would celebrate after handing in an Essay buy eating out, going for a night out, purchasing video games and toys. This is NOT a good idea. Yes, rewards are important, they keep you motivated and through a reward system work does get done. Yet, our minds are prone to chasing pleasure over pain, and without discipline, rewards soon become more regular and potent that the work.

While this may work for some people, I took a different approach to the reward for work system. I would not reward myself throughout the grind, instead I would reward myself across the finish line. I realised when watching my friend that rewards are a slippery slop to failure and stagnation. My reward came at the end off University. I did not reward myself for a single essay handed in, neither for a days study, I told myself that once it is over, once those three years have been and gone and I had achieved a grade at 2:1, then I could reward myself. I remember sat in third year, three months till I was complete, I purchased my one way flight to South America. Only at the finish line did I start to taste reward.

So, my advice to growing discipline is “Reward at the finish line, not during”. But be sure to reward yourself extravagantly, do not hold back on treating yourself when you have completed the task.

Step Six. Complete your goal, but be hungry for the next.

This is one of the hardest things to achieve at the last mile mark. To not give up, to cross the finish line and to remain hungry. This is the hardest part of my journey through life so far. I have been able to finish so many great things, put in hard work and achieve. Yet, after all that sacrifice and discipline I often feel complete.

I focus so much on the end goal and result, I forget to stop and think about where this is going to lead to next.

Be ready for the next adventure. Look beyond the finish line.

PS. Step Seven Getting pumped, find a motivator.

Getting pumped or motivated is key to preforming at your highest capability. Some people listen to motivational speakers like David Goggins, Jordan Peterson and Tony Robbins. Others play loud battle music or rap.

Whatever it is that gets you ready for the war ahead, you should preform as a ritual every single day. I personally listen to David Goggins if I am about to go for a run, it motivates me to preform better. If I am sitting down to study, I listen to ambience and music which motivates me to keep pushing forwards.

Whatever it is that motivates you, find it and use it as a ritual. Be it before, during or after the hard work.