My quality of life, part 3

In my previous posts, I talked a little bit about my personality and some of my history. I had a brush with death and that changed me, I kept trying trying to improve my health in every way possible and never gave up, I've got health and energy now, etc. Great. Here's what has improved my life the most:

Discipline

It took me a long time to realize that discipline is not about taking the hard line, brutally enforcing strict rules which must be obeyed to the letter. The word "discipline" conjured visions of stoic figures in military uniform and business suits, disapproving school teachers with rulers, and general discomfort due to deprivation. It wasn't a positive feeling. However, I was conflating discipline itself with sensationalized depictions of circumstances surrounding discipline. For what it's worth, revisiting these pre-programmed feelings and breaking them down logically was instrumental in getting me on the path to self-improvement.

Sustainable effort

The truth is, you choose how to learn what you learn, and you can choose a steep slope or a gentle one. I was never able to sustain the effort required to scale steep slopes. And so, I chose gentle slopes. Of course, even gentle slopes had two primary downsides for me:

1. Change took substantially longer to notice and I would begin to question whether worthwhile change was occurring at all.
2. Being a man filled with testosterone and machismo, there was far less to brag about. And bragging rights were like rocket fuel for continued effort. Without that, forget it. Or so I felt at the time.

Machismo was the easiest to leave behind, once I made the decision that intelligence was a superior problem-solving tool. Gradual, nearly imperceptible change was the real challenge.

Finding motivation

A small, incremental and theoretically "good" change to your habits is hard to gauge the effects of from day to day. So much so that it feels like you are being deprived of essential feedback and therefore robbed of motivation to continue nurturing it. In my next post, I'll talk about how my "health rationale" has evolved, and how it has helped to keep me motivated and consistent.