It’s been one of those weeks. It hasn’t been bad, by any means. I’ve just felt drained and low energy and haven’t wanted to do much. Unfortunately, for me, I’ve had a lot to do. Blowing things off wasn’t an option. I had to push through.
It’s been a bunch of small things. I had forgotten I agreed to sub a Zumba class on Monday. That meant I had to cancel my personal swimming lesson, which frustrated me a little. But, I had committed to it weeks ago, and therefore, I had to follow through. I also ended up teaching for just two people for my Wednesday class, even though I hoped we could cancel and I could go home early. But, I had promised a student a special birthday fitness mix and I knew it meant a lot to her. Therefore, I pushed through. I had a few other appointments this week that aren’t usually on my schedule, making for longer days and less personal recovery time. And even as I write this, I’m facing some other upcoming obligations that I’m not looking forward to. But once again, if called upon, I have to step up to the plate and fulfill those as well.
Part of the issue is that I over-extended myself. I obligated myself to a bunch of extra things and found myself resenting it later. That’s on no one but me. I’ll modulate my time and energy better next time. In the meantime, I have to honor my commitments.
I recognized the value of this even more when I was talking to friends on Twitter this morning. We were discussing how frustrating it is when people don’t follow through or make good on their word. It not only erodes personal trust; it bodes poorly on your professional brand. All we really have in this life is our name and our word. Why sully them by being a flake?
If courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway, then discipline is not feeling it at all and doing it anyway. Let me assure you that I have not perfected this and I don’t always execute it well. I just come from a long line of relatives who instilled a suck-it-up-buttercup work ethic, which has served me well in life. Feelings were seen as a luxury and weren’t taken into consideration at all when “ish” had to be done. You just did it. It’s about duty and honor. It’s about maintaining integrity in a world that doesn’t seem to require it as much.
I still have growing to do, for sure. I need to not only do what’s needed, but also be positive about it. And if not positive, at least neutral and not mean mug my way through it. There are no brownie points awarded for doing stuff with an attitude. But hey… progress, not perfection, right?
It’s hard to do what you don’t want to do and to not do what you do want to do. Human nature would rather only do what feels pleasant. It would rather do whatever it feels like doing in the moment, regardless of what previous commitments were made.
But a disciplined person, one of honor and integrity fulfills commitments even when it hurts (Psalm 15:4). Basically, he or she intentionally does what needs to be done whether it’s easy or not.