Why brushing my teeth is key
I had a revelation this week.
When I’m exhausted at the end of the day, I occasionally convince myself that I can skip brushing my teeth before falling asleep.
“It’s fine. I probably only miss once or twice a month. I’m SO tired.”
Then it hit me — if I don’t have the discipline to do these small, boring tasks, then it says something about my ability to be disciplined in other areas of my life. One of the definitions of “discipline” is an
activity or experience that provides mental or physical training.
Mental training is everything. “I will do this. I hate it, but I’m going to do it anyway. Over and over again. This repetitive task is the obstacle that IS the way.”
Ever since then I’ve decided to brush my teeth no matter how tired I feel. It’s not that brushing my teeth 100% of the time truly matters, but rather it’s my ability to be disciplined to complete daily boring tasks.
This journey towards real discipline started for me in the past year or so. I had to be honest and say that I hadn’t taught myself how to be truly disciplined.
Now I’m finding that discipline is not restricting, it’s actually the door to freedom.
Hi, I’m Ryan, the Founder of Treehouse ????
My mission is creating the future of education, so I can help as many people as possible. If you enjoyed this post, please like and comment. Thanks!
Founder | TEDx Speaker Coach | Creator, Behavioral Storytelling
7 年I completely relate to what you’re saying, Ryan. When I decided to get serious about my health and start working out I started going every day, seven days a week. Even though I know I’d likely get enough benefit out of 3-4 days a week, that makes it too easy (for me, at least) to start down the slippery slope of excuses. With 2-3 days between workouts it's too easy to skip one and say I'll go next time, only to skip again and again. I know this from experience because it's happened again and again! By going every day there are no down days. I don’t experience the break that I might want to extend. It's part of my day, every day. That shift has made a huge difference and even though I don’t want to go every single day, I never regret it and I never contemplate skipping.