Resilience Through Discipline
Life is hard, end of story.
If there wasn’t some degree of difficulty, there would be no reward. No light without darkness. No strength without trial.
In order to learn how to weather what’s difficult, resilience can be practiced through discipline. This becomes a skill, which becomes habit and eventually grows into an inseparable part of who you are. You build yourself every day, choosing who you get to become through your relationship with discipline.
It’s taking more discipline than I would like to admit to write this right now. I’m away from home, caring for an elderly family dog who had a seizure this morning. She deserves all the attention and love. Balancing her need for gentle, peaceful care, I’m also trying to help a young and intense stray dog I found on the road yesterday. She’s very unsettled and looks like she has had a litter of pups recently. This mama’s been through a lot. She jumps every fence and piece of furniture and can’t be contained. The two pups can’t coexist and I can’t be in two places at once.
[I have since found her family and learned Lola is a professional escape artist. She will be going home today.]
This takes focus and patience.
Those two things take discipline.
There is a creative solution to every problem if you slow down enough to think like a leader in your own life. I’ve found a few moments of harmony to write to you. I knew I wanted to talk about discipline and its importance, so I figured I may as well use the reality of the situation to remind you that life is always going to have messy phases. Messy is okay.
You’re doing a great job and you should be proud of yourself, no matter what is falling apart around you. If it hurts, have the discipline and courage to learn from it. We are all here doing the best that we can, and that’s never going to look like enough in hindsight. Give yourself some love no matter what.
Have enough discipline to do what’s right when it’s uncomfortable. Understand what you stand for, which values you’re willing to put it all on the line to uphold. Trust your gut, always. It’s never going to steer you wrong.
Discipline allows you to open up emotionally to experience your situation in full presence. Moving forward or sitting in an unpleasant situation isn’t meant to be comfortable. We’re meant to keep moving anyway, through discomfort and whatever makes us feel raw, vulnerable, heartbroken, scared, unsettled, nervous. Feel all those things as you go. There is so much power in your ability to be present with your emotions while you’re facing something you would rather not. That takes discipline.
Compartmentalization takes discipline and strength. Facing things afterward takes incredible courage. Both are important.
Don’t be afraid to do what’s hard.
Discipline will teach you more about yourself than anything else and allow you incredible freedom as you grow past what you thought were limitations.
This is self love.
I will allow whatever this day carries me through with an open heart. I know that I am exactly where I need to be right now and I wouldn’t have it any other way, difficult or not.
I hope this gives you a little courage to face what makes you hurt and know you can still thrive.
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If you’re interested in going deeper on how to take your power back and live an empowered life, check out the TRM© program. Thrive in adversity and master the art of being human.
