How does it feel like to be extremly disciplined

This is Birdie's 5th personal article

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“Are you willing to give up leisure, for the life you want?” This is a question I’ve heard somewhere. Can’t remember exactly where and when I’ve heard this. But this is a question that had struck me. But my answer is yes.

For the past one week, because of school commitments, I had to attend a training every single day. And thanks to that training, I had been the most discipline self I had ever been. My daily routine for the past one week is like this:

6.45am: Rise and shine + bathe

7am: prepare my breakfast and pack my lunch.

8am: leave house for school

9am: Morning exercise. Cheer practice.

11.40am: lunch

1pm: Training

5.40pm: Dinner

7pm: Training

9pm: Training ends

10pm: Home sweet home, bathe and prepare for the next day

11pm: Reflect on my day and set goals for the next day

11.30pm: read till sleepy (normally 2/3 pages) and Zzz…..

You might say things like “this life is so boring”, “this plan is too hard to implement” and etc. But if u look deeper, you will realise that this kind of really disciplined lifestyle, can really help to get things done and keeps yourself on track for a daily improvement.

Unfortunately, everything has good and bad. Just like if you want to get something, you need to give up something sometimes. And for a really disciplined lifestyle leisure is a luxury that you can have. And I will share my own experience of being the most disciplined self I had ever been from the training I attend. Both good and bad.

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Good

1. Immune to distractions

As you can see from the timeline above, my day is filled with training and it doesn’t really have small blocks of time in between for any distractions to hit me. This really creates an environment that I can be highly focused and do things very efficiently. I might check my phone or something, but I will always be on the track and not get carried away by my Instagram feed or any other feeds. Reason? Very simple, I always know that I have things up next and I need to get my things done in order to continue so I won’t allow any distractions to get to me.

2. Feel more energetic and fresh every day.

I don’t have a specific reason for this but this is what I felt. I woke up every day and feel like I’m not really tired even though I had gone through a tough day yesterday. The only possible reason I think I can give to myself is that since all my mealtime and rest time are somehow at the same time of the day, so my body clock gets used to the timings of my eating time and resting time. Or maybe it’s just also because of my healthy meals that I prepared for myself.

3. Satisfaction within yourself.

It’s the sense of achievement where your satisfaction comes from. In the real world, nothing stays unchanged. Everything changes, so do you. You either improve or you deteriorate. For example, if you can do 30 push-ups straight today, wait 10 days of totally not exercising, see if you can do the 30 push-ups as easily as you did 10 days ago.

So for me, my sense of achievement mainly comes from these 3 activities in the day. First, the time where I prepare my own meal in the morning. I improved mentally as I convinced myself to wake up early and prepare healthier food for myself. Second, the time for morning exercise. I improved physically as I found myself performing the circuits easier and easier and for the running, I always set a high goal for my team to break together and every day we had a small improvement from the day before. Lastly, is the time for I reflect my day. When I see the good things and mistakes I did in the day and able to made adjustments for a better self a day after.

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Bad

1. Minimum interaction with friends, family and loved ones

I guess this is the worst thing that happened. Because of every day, I woke up very early and left the house and came home very late. There are really minimum opportunities for me to interact with my family. Not only that, my interaction with my girlfriend had also dropped a lot. Just like I said above, I won’t let distractions get my away, so I didn’t use my phone during the training at all. Bonds with family members, friends, and loved ones should also be prioritised no matter what. so there is also really a need to balance a disciplined lifestyle with a healthy relation with the important people around you.

2. No time for leisure activities.

Needless to say, in a disciplined lifestyle, leisure is a luxury that we can have. However, it doesn’t mean that leisure activities are not important to us. It is important to ensure us of some rest days to re-boost ourselves and sometimes, as a bonus for ourselves after hard work. Therefore, finding a balance between leisure and highly discipline are also very important to us as well, since leisure activities take care of our personal happiness.

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At the end, I just want to say that it is really not an easy task to be discipline at the start. However, I had that fire in me that I always wanted to be more self-discipline. Therefore, I made use of that fire and this training I go through the first round of being self-disciplined. And after a few days,, you will find yourself starting to get used to it and start loving that kind of lifestyle because I literally told my girlfriend that I love this kind of lifestyle I am in. And after you created that momentum, everything will become so much easier to you and you will find yourself on the runway to take you life to the next level.

Dr. Mike Hart

“The more discipline you have, the more freedom you earn.”

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Its your choice

To be live in your dreams or to be living your dreams

-BirdieChao

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By next week, after experiencing the first week of school, I will design myself a daily routine and stick to it. I will put my routine here and share with you all why I put certain activities certain timing and etc. It's purely for sharing purposes and not wish that any of you will follow my routine. Not because I'm selfish but everyone has their different lifestyle and preference, it will be the best if you design one for yourself instead of just following. With that being said, I'll see you next week!