STOP IT!
Anybody out there remember the Bob Newhart comedy bit: “Stop it?” You should check it out, because as silly as it was, he wasn’t far from the truth! Watch it here.
What energy this fall has brought! It seems like everyone is vibrating at a higher frequency, especially the children who are simply not settling down, and we’re all busier than ever.
For many of you, conference prep and delivery have just finished and it’s time to get on to the next big event! THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING!
I haven’t escaped the frenzy. Working from home and for myself has tended to mean being “on” all the time. Without the boundary of “going to work” life is often over-scheduled with fuzzy start and end times.
I thought I’d made it a “priority” to discipline myself around mental health. I set up regular massages that get me out of the house at least one day a week and I usually stop working long enough to spend at least a couple of hours on Sunday shouting at the TV during my team’s weekly game. (Although if I’m truthful, often there’s a computer on my lap at the same time!) Honestly, this is not enough.
The quote above is from The Montessori Method (1912), chapter 5 “Discipline.” I know the reason it resonated today…my lack of discipline is not only catching up with me, it’s starting to take a toll.
There’s a lot of talk about self-care these days, and I agree, we all need it! But there’s another aspect to care management that, at least for me, needs to be considered. That aspect is discipline….all around LIFE DISCIPLINE.
I’m a disciplined person. When it comes to work, I am pretty good with deadlines; I show up on time; I generally manage to do what I say I will do. The big exception to that level of discipline is when I’m writing…that always takes more time than I anticipate.
When I opened up The Montessori Method and read that quote, it was the preceding words that gave me a lesson…the one I want to share with you. Here’s what I read:
“If discipline is founded upon liberty, the discipline itself must necessarily be active. We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.”
That’s when it hit me…the liberty I’ve experienced since choosing the life of self-employment is pushing me to grow in the discipline of self-care. As I considered the things on my TO DO list that are more or less about life sustenance, my own sustainability, I realize I still have a long way to go to mastering THAT discipline.
So I’m going to do a challenge: Daily Discipline through the holidays! (If you’re a member of the Demystifying Cosmic Education FB group you can join me! Here’s a link to join the group and participate. https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifyingCosmicEducation)
I’m going to commit to a new kind of planning that puts focus on the discipline of stopping!
- I’m going to say no at least once a day to something that is tugging on my time.
- I’m going to stop working after an 8-hour work day (with a goal of turning that down to 6 hours ASAP) and having a 4-day work week for real.
- I’m not going to do anything EXTRA to support this except make a little post-it note that says…
Just say NO to “DO IT!”
Just say YES to “STOP IT!”
Here’s to making it public…
