Give Up Monotony For Discipline
What do you think is the difference between Monotony and Discipline?
If you think about it, they both are repetitive cycles that involve following the same routine over and over again — so why would one be different? Doesn’t Discipline feel Monotonous at times? So why would Discipline be any different?
What makes Discipline so special?
I have recently been quite curious about this. Like most people, I held onto the belief that Monotony was a negative outcome of a daily cycle that should be avoided, but is it? Are all Monotonous paths bad?
Where do you draw the line?
To make sense of this, I looked at my own Discipline — the very Discipline I committed years of my life developing to pull me out of the depths of everything I disliked about myself. I looked back at my life over the past few years and asked myself a frightening question.
Has my life been following a Monotonous path?
Looking at it objectively, I can’t say no, but I also can’t say yes because it doesn’t feel Mundane. These past few years have been the best years of my life. I grew in ways I never imagined was possible. I worked on my insecurities, strengthened my weaknesses, and found greater depths in myself. Even though my cycle was repetitive, the value I found was too great to ignore.
The difference between the two was now pretty clear — it’s the growth factor
Yes, we all fall into repetitive cycles, but even though some feel stagnant, others feel fulfilling. Stagnation should be seen as an alert from yourself telling you to do something different with your days. Each day should feel like an Opportunity, not an Obstacle. This may seem quite difficult to do at times, but if it feels necessary, shouldn’t it be done? Life should not be robbed of its simplicity.
I shall finish this with the words of Kobe Bryant,
If you wake up in the morning and you’re dreading going to work dude, do something else. Those are hard decisions to make, but when you make those decisions, it’s a very liberating experience. And you will find out that the rewards will come.
Other than what you have taken so far, let me leave you with these:
If Life Feels Mundane, Improve Your Cycle
You have a cycle that you go through each day — it’s the very things you do and the way you feel throughout your days. After some time, Monotony will find its way into your cycle, but you need not worry if you feel yourself growing. Act only when your days feel boring, dull or empty.
Because this is when you need your attention the most
It’s time to dig deeper into yourself — go back to your planning phase, and rethink your days. Ask yourself how you can improve and what you can do to be better. You may need to choose a different path, or you may find better ways for you to follow your current path — either way, this effort slowly dissolves the Mundane parts of your life, and leads you towards Fulfillment.
“If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” — Bruce Lee
Commit Yourself To Your Cycle
Not only following it but improving it as well. It is a constant effort maintained to ensure that the path you follow does get you towards Fulfillment, and away from Stagnation. Don’t forget, Humans are growing beings — we improve with experience. If we don’t evaluate our progress, it is easy to reach and dwell on a plateau.
This is an enduring commitment, but it must be endured
There will never be a good excuse for you to hold back. And someday, when you look back at your life, you would want to be happy with the choices you made, yes? I mean, you cannot change the mistakes you made, but you can earn your forgiveness for them, right? So why not be better than you were? Don’t mislead yourself, put in the effort, and keep making yourself proud.
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” — Muhammad Ali
This Repetition Will Help You Find Self-Mastery
You may not always know when you are falling into Stagnation — it is a deceiving and subtle feeling. But you can always look at yourself from an objective perspective and answer the question, am I better than I was yesterday? You don’t need to find drastic improvements each day, but you can find little ones. Remember, roots take time to deepen.
And what helps greatly is regular Self-Reflections
Such reflections allow you to look back at your efforts and see whether they moved you towards your goals. Be sure to look at yourself objectively — keep what works for you and let go of the things holding you back. Commit yourself to this active approach towards improvement, and you will be well kept on your path towards Self-Mastery.
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” — William Faulkner
I am not trying to promote Monotony or anything of the sort — but I strongly feel that if it is inevitable, why not let it work in your favor? Why succumb when you can control how this Monotony will affect you? After all, using what you cannot change to improve your life is a major part of Self-Improvement.
And this makes too much sense to ignore
As Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living. Don’t give in to normality and expect extraordinary things to fall onto your lap — this is how you set yourself up for disappointment. But if you examine your life, follow what makes sense to you, and find ways to be better than you were, Fulfillment will stay with you along your journey.
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot
Invest In Your Existence, Kind Reader.
