If you have struggled to find the discipline to get things done, even the things you really want to get done, I have a subversive and exciting solution for you.
A little back context and backstory.
When I was at school, the convent nuns would write on every single report card, “Jacqueline lacks discipline. If she would just apply herself, if she would just be disciplined, she would get so much further.” Constantly. I only just got through school. Because, really, I didn’t want to do the things. I I was only there because, like we all are, because we have to. Right?
However, I was also, at the same time, on stage, and I was on stage for 25 years. During those 25 years, I was known as a very disciplined actor. I would arrive knowing my words. I would have most of my music ready. I would even have some of my wardrobe sorted. I was never late for a rehearsal. There was there was this inbuilt discipline.
I got to noodling about this when I was building my business.
Why were there tasks that I simply couldn’t find the discipline to do even though I knew they would make me more money or build my biz, build the my clientele or whatever it is? I would find it so difficult to find the discipline to do those tasks.
What I’ve come to realize is that there is a vast difference between discipline and devotion.
When you are devoted to something,
the discipline comes naturally.
Take an example when I was raising kids. So your kid arrives and in the morning and it goes, “I’m hungry.” You don’t say, “Well, I don’t feel like feeding you today.”
You are devoted to that child’s thriving. Or you are devoted to your pets’ thriving. So you naturally do all the tasks that the thriving of those beings require.
You change the litter box. You go out and walks when it’s freezing outside, but the dog needs to poop. You feed the kids. You go to the school meetings.
You do these things because you are devoted to the thriving of that being. It is part of your identity.
The identity of someone who is devoted to this outcome or this thing, that shapes your actions in ways that you don’t even have to think about.
I was devoted to my stage career so much more than devoted to being to passing school and certainly not devoted enough to get a college entrance level passing grade. I was hella devoted to being the best I could be and the most professional I could be on stage.
Therefore, the discipline, the hard work, the hours that I put in, they didn’t feel like a must. They felt like who I am, an extension of who I am then or or was back then.
These days, what I’m finding as I built my business into something that is big enough to support my husband and myself now that he’s retired, I am finding the discipline to do the tasks that I used to kind of quibble about or put off.
Back when my business was more like a hobby – not a hobby in that I I didn’t show up for my clients, but a hobby in that I didn’t need the the income as much in that it was bonus income. It was a contribution to my family income.
When that was my season, it was okay for me to go, well, I don’t feel like making a video today, or I can put off posting that blog post.
These days, however, my identity as a businesswoman, as somebody who is creating a luxe lifestyle that she wants in her retirement, that identity, being devoted to this outcome, is shifting my discipline.
I am far more disciplined now in my business dealings than I have ever been before.
It’s also seeping into my health. I had a heart attack last year. I have since become devoted to being a version of me who is slender and strong and vibrant. Therefore, the discipline that I have never had in my life as far as exercise goes has translated into finding myself on day 93 of a consecutive yoga practice.
I am doing 20 minutes every single day, and I’ve even done it when I’ve been traveling. I’ve done it on hotel room floors and at 5 AM just before I fetched my husband from the station.
My devotion to that version of me has given me a discipline.
As you decide what you are devoted to, who you are in that devotion, your discipline will grow.
You find yourself easily doing the things that you used to put off because it’s who you are now.
So my question to you is, who do you need to become to find the discipline you want?
What is that devotion?
Once you find your devotion, once you build start to build an identity of She Who Is Devoted To This thing, you will find that in the moments where you quibble about whether you should do something or not, remembering who you are will help you do what will lead to your thriving.
By the way, this is the work I do. So if you want help with that, send me a message.
In every single client journey that I have had the honor of walking with alongside someone, the shifting of identity always creates the kind of change that they’ve been longing for for forever.
I am masterful at this.
My stage career taught me this.
And now with my coaching skills, I can take you through the same journey.
But it starts with choosing who you want to become, who you are in the devotion to that thing that you have chosen, and let the discipline grow on its own.
Because believe me, it really, really will.
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