2069: [Part 2] 4 Steps to Creating Discipline (A Complete Guide) by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog on Building Discipline

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[00:00:54] This is Optimal Work Daily. Four Steps to Creating Discipline. A Complete Guide. Part 2 by Kalen Bruce. Looking back on it, I don't think basic training was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was tough and it was tedious. I also don't feel like I came out of basic training as a disciplined machine, but it did strengthen my discipline in many areas. It taught me to stay dedicated. I saw the physical progress from the workouts.

[00:01:23] I saw the mental progress from the classroom. I saw the spiritual progress from staying consistent with prayer and fellowship at the chapel on Sundays. Basic training taught me more about myself than anything, and that's really where I learned the value of consistency and dedication. Now I work full-time for the military, exercise at least five hours per week, write an hour each day, attend college classes, and help my wife take care of the laundry and dishes as well as our five children.

[00:01:50] Yes, I finally learned how to help with the laundry and dishes, among other things around the house. I'm not telling you all of this to say that I have everything figured out and my entire life is together. I'm telling you all of this to show that you can be really terrible at this discipline stuff and still manage to change your habits and obtain self-discipline. I don't think anyone would have expected me to be where I am now if they knew me when I was in my late teens and early 20s. That being said, I have learned one thing you don't do if you want to build discipline.

[00:02:20] Don't do too much. And step four, don't go overboard. If you study discipline, you'll find that almost everyone agrees on this point. You don't want to try to build discipline in every area of your life at the same time. Want to start a new habit? Awesome. Want to start 20 at the same time? Why do you hate yourself? Start with one area and add one area at a time. Slowly. Here are some common areas for discipline growth. Finances Get out of debt.

[00:02:50] Invest for retirement. Create an emergency fund. Health Lose weight Gain strength Quit smoking Break an addiction Marriage Spend more alone time with your spouse. Take an extended vacation together. Go on dates Family Cut back at work. Spend more quality family time together. Get out and do more stuff together. And personal Read more books. Increase prayer or meditation time.

[00:03:19] Keep a productive morning routine. Some people may need to improve exact opposites, Brenda may need to stop being lazy and find extra work to pay off debt, while Donnie may need to cut back at work and focus more on family. We're all different, and our discipline can be built differently. If you try to build discipline in too many areas, your willpower will fail you. Just like discipline, willpower is like a muscle, which means fatigue sets in. They're almost the same muscle, but not quite.

[00:03:47] Discipline is about consistency over the long haul, while willpower is about each action you take. However, the energy to take action comes from the same place. We've all seen the way people make changes in movies, and we try to replicate that. Here's how the typical movie goes. The young man is picked on one time too many, so he decides he's going to get in shape, lose weight, get stronger, or whatever the role calls for. So the next morning, he's up four hours earlier than normal for an intense workout

[00:04:16] that sparks a series of intense workouts until he's fighting like Rocky. Let's not forget that he completely changed his diet to accommodate his new exercise routine. Just like that. Diet, exercise, and sleep routine completely transformed. That's not real life. Here's real life. The young man decides he wants to make a change, so he wakes up early the next morning, hits snooze a few times, and finally gets out of bed 30 minutes earlier than normal. He realizes he tried to change his routine by way too much,

[00:04:46] but he's still somewhat motivated, so he heads downstairs and puts on his running shoes. Ten minutes into the workout, he realizes that it's been two years since he's run more than 20 steps, and his body starts hurting. Everything starts hurting. He then stops and starts walking. Back to his house. He gets back home and decides to try to keep this new routine going, so he makes a healthy breakfast. After eating some egg whites and broccoli, he realizes that he's still hungry, since he did just run for the first time in two years,

[00:05:14] so he grabs the nearest box of Lucky Charms and has his way with it. What happened there? Why did he seem to fail so badly, and why does this sound so familiar? Because he tried to change too much at once, and he was out of willpower almost as soon as he started. Hopefully, this is really how the second story ended. The young man realized he tried to change too much at once, started to learn more about discipline and willpower, and began making smaller changes. His next morning consisted of a two-minute run.

[00:05:43] He slowly increased his run time over the course of the next three months until he could run a 5K without stopping. Happy now? I definitely feel better about his life. This example may be a bit extreme, but it's also real. Real people make decisions like that every day because they were never properly taught how willpower works. You only have so much. You just listened to part two of the post titled Four Steps to Creating Discipline,

[00:06:13] A Complete Guide, by Caitlin Bruce of MoneyMiniblog.com. Big non-profit hospital systems are making billions on 340B medicine markups. Hospitals can spend on luxury perks while engaging in aggressive debt collection practices. They get rich while patients like you pay more. Tell Congress it's time to hold hospitals accountable. Washington should fix 340B.

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[00:07:10] from okay to very high. Know your sleep score with Apple Watch. iPhone 11 or later required. And thanks again to Kalen, who, along with his wife, had $24,000 of debt and wanted out. So he became a student of finances. The couple is now debt-free and building wealth, and he shares what he's learned over the years with you on MoneyMiniblog.com That's a website featured very regularly over on one of our other podcasts, Optimal Finance Daily, where we, of course, narrate blogs

[00:07:40] covering personal finance and money topics like how to save more, make more, and invest more. So please do check out that show for some great additional content from Kalen. But I think that is gonna do it for today. I thank you so much for being a subscriber to the show. That's, of course, how we keep these podcasts going for you. And hope you have a great rest of your day. So I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Monday show. And that is where your optimal life awaits.