The Dominoes of Discipline
If you don’t take care of the physical, you probably don’t take care of the mental. If you don’t take care of the mental, you probably don’t take care of the emotional. If you don’t take care of the emotional, you probably don’t take care of the spiritual. If you don’t take care of the spiritual, you probably don’t have alignment in purpose, deep meaning, frequent & sustained contentment, and freedom from anxiety.
Honestly, where are you at with these 4 deep elements in your life?
This isn’t to say that it’s all sequential – as in, you have to master the physical before moving on to mastering the mental. Yet in my experience it usually does follow close to this sequence over time…for those who are aware and get intentional about their own growth.
I find it’s rare that people intentionally carve out time to reflect on these topics. If I weren’t a coach I might not either. I’m grateful it’s in my wheelhouse and that this is my work. And further, it’s a big part of my life’s purpose to simplify growth concepts and put them in bite-sized, actionable chunks for you. It’s part of what I’ve been put here to do (purpose and meaning!).
So here are some actionable thoughts for you on this from my experience…
Physical
If you are not already, start by being active every single day. Don’t take a day off. Even if a Sunday might be a 3-minute stretch on the bed after a shower and that fricken counts! It represents you taking care of your physical body.
Walking is such a great exercise for the body – you know it doesn’t have to be the gym. Get outside. Don’t let the belief that activity has to make you sweaty and exhausting to be ‘worthy’ trip you up. Be active daily.
Mental
Mental Fitness is the term I prefer. ‘Mental health’ has usage in a different space…connotations of mental illness, diagnoses, and treatment - not my area of focus. I focus on the term Mental Fitness. Mental Fitness is your ability to respond to life’s challenges with a growth-oriented and positive mindset.
What does this mean exactly? It means that when you encounter ANY significant challenge in your life – you notice that you get beat down a little and it’s somewhat defeating, or you notice that you perk up and welcome the challenge for the learning, growth, and improvement you are going to experience by working through the challenge? It’s not 100% one or the other…but most people act primarily from one side of the fence. This decision / mindset is so critical and where most people haven’t been taught and cultivated the practice necessary to bridge that gap from ‘what’s wrong with this’ to ‘what’s good about this’. It’s the difference between having a mind that is your best friend, versus your worst enemy. It is often where the daily battle is won or lost.
The shift from ‘what’s wrong’ to ‘what’s right’ takes daily practice. I know because I’ve lived the shift. Still work at it every day. Getting stronger – more mentally fit.
For most of my life up to the last few years I’ve had a poor mindset. A defeatist mindset. I would focus on what was wrong with myself, other people, or situations/challenges. What was wrong in every aspect of my life. My health, my career, my own habits, my relationships. Everywhere! Whenever a significant challenge would come up, it would get me down. It is painful to admit to you, but I had defeatist thinking! And I would get overwhelmed easily. I would get down on myself. I would compare and judge and make myself feel shitty. I would get owned by pessimism, self-doubt, avoidance, and quitting too soon on hard things. …and I wondered why I couldn’t reach my big dreams and goals… it’s a no brainer. No more…Fuck that! Mental Fitness!
Emotional
Emotional Intelligence, EQ, Emotional fitness, Emotional regulation and management. All great terms for one of the most important skillsets you could ever have so that you control how you feel each and every day! It’s that important.
Your thoughts are the language of your mind; your pure emotions are the language of your spirit – your best self. Getting familiar with this language and how to ‘hear’ it is a lot to cover here…so I’ll save it for another time. However, the beginning of Emotional Intelligence is understanding what Viktor Frankl wrote in his groundbreaking book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, where he shares his greatest lessons learned while suffering in and surviving the Nazi death camps of WWII… And one of the key points was that his most powerful freedom was having choice. Specifically, the choice to respond to whatever challenges or situations were put to him, he had the freedom to choose how he assigned meaning and how he chose to respond. How he chose to react.
The relevance of Frankl’s hard earned lessons for you hear is that your Emotional Intelligence, as the simplest unit, is how you choose to respond when a negative emotion or thought arrives in your body or mind. How you react is your choice. You owning that responsibility and building that skill is the first step to strong emotional intelligence.
Spiritual
Spiritual health isn’t about religion, or rituals, or God per se. Spiritual intelligence, in very simple terms, is the ability to understand and connect with self (e.g journaling, reflection), finding meaning and purpose in life, owning the values and principles that guide your own actions and relationships, and experiencing increasing ease, acceptance, contentment, and peace.
Spiritual energy can be boosted by things as simple as a walk in nature, expressing gratitude, helping others, sharing an honest truth, and contributing in some way.
Deeper spiritual practices like mindfulness, meditation, yoga, connectedness, deep gratitude, altruism, and humility are lifelong privileges that only some tap into. The path to self-acceptance, self-appreciation, & self-actualization winds through spiritual intelligence.
None of these practices above are hard. They just take understanding their meaning at simpler levels – like I’ve shared above. Then adding intention - Purposeful action. In smaller, bite-sized chunks to start.
And the action needs to be consistent. Daily. That’s why the term ‘practice’ gets used. It is synonymous with the term daily habit. Discipline.
When you get serious about further progressing any of the four elements above, you will know you have because you’ll create a daily habit that represents your desired growth.
Until you have that daily habit, you are either not that aware, or not serious about, progressing. No judgement – just evidence. It is what it is.
Don’t just think it…DO it. Be disciplined. Stack small wins!
Small wins add up to be big wins.
Reach out for a conversation if that will provide you the momentum you want.
Book your free convo @ https://calendly.com/coachchrisw
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