View this post on Instagram

 

{*Did you know you can write on Elephant? Here’s how—big changes: How to Write & Make Money or at least Be of Benefit on Elephant. ~ Waylon}

~

“We are what we repeatedly do.” ~ Will Durant

~

I’ve always liked this quote.

The longer I live, the more I’ve come to believe that being disciplined and adhering to good daily habits (wholesome, healthy ones!) contribute more to my general happiness than anything else in life. Discipline in this realm increases my self-esteem and that trickles into other areas.

A few years back, I was an avid runner. I’ve since stopped. Call it creaky knees, call it lack of motivation—either way, it was no longer serving my spirit, and I guess I just didn’t “love it” enough. I did, however, love the discipline and mental toughness my regular runs required. If I wanted to run every day (or every other), I had to juggle my time, social obligations, and professional endeavors. In order to run, I had to shift my priorities. The same could be said of any other habit we’re trying to form.

I’ve written about happiness before: 10 Bad Habits We Practice Daily to Prevent Happiness and 10 Things Happy People Do. Happiness saunters into our lives via many avenues. Letting go of figurative weight and releasing the monsters we feed are two ways we find our true, happy selves.

I think good habits form when we become disciplined about one thing at a time. A new discipline for me is walking. I’ve always made a point of walking in the past (for exercise), but my new steady is to walk every damn day, purposefully, for at least 30 minutes, regardless of anything else I need to do. I’ve been doing this now for six months. It’s a simple practice, and it’s made a difference for me emotionally and physically.

Discipline means:

Doing the thing without making excuses about time.

Doing the thing even when we do not have the energy we think the thing requires.

Doing the thing even when we have other things planned.

Doing the thing before our head hits the pillow each night (even if it’s midnight).

Doing the thing before all the other things get in the way.

To form the habit, try this discipline:

Do the thing (the new habit) at the same time each day, if possible.

Put the thing on your daily list.

Have the goal, but forget about it and focus only on the habit.

Practice Habit Stacking.

Once the habit is formed, it creates the strength we need to:

Drop a few toxic people from our social roster.

Put our physical and emotional health first.

Be productive and successful (by taking action to change instead of pining for it).

Live in the present moment and feel grateful for the gift of discipline and how it makes us feel.

Improve our self-esteem and motivation in other areas of our lives.

Discipline will always help us manifest the renewal we seek. Renewal creates plain ole good vibes and those good vibes become our daily feels, which is what consistently being at the pinnacle of happiness looks like. Being excited about life, productive, and fulfilled each day is happiness.

We are what we repeatedly do. Of course this statement has its negative connotations because the opposite—bad habits—usually make for unhappiness in life. Think about the smoker who won’t quit, or procrastinator who wants something badly but does nothing to facilitate or manifest it.

If we want to change but do not do the daily thing we need to do to change it, we are simply spinning our worn out wheels to nowhere.

If we truly want change and the happiness that comes along with it, we must make discipline a priority. If we can practice it daily, we we will soon feel our energies change.

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

Discipline is the source of the happiness we seek.

~

{Please consider Boosting our authors’ articles in their first week to help them win Elephant’s Ecosystem so they can get paid and write more.}