Ever developed self-discipline? (...starting from zero.)

[apropos of nothing]

How'd'ya do it? What was the hardest thing? Would you do it again?

[rhythm ranch]

Lack of self-discipline is without a doubt my biggest problem. I'd love to hear some useful suggestions as well. Of course, without self-discipline I'll never implement any of the ideas.

[workshed]

I have to give myself little incentives... like "if i can get this work done tonight, i'll let myself do some recording tomorrow."

Or if it's writing/recording music, the best thing you can do for discipline is to have a set schedule. At first you may run into times where you are scheduled to write music and completely no inspired. In that case, do the best you can. Once you get into a routine, the inspiration won't be so hard to come by.

I used to have zero self-discipline, but I've gotten better over the years. Although the TapeOp boards haven't helped too much with my progress as of late.

[Mr. Dipity]

Lack of self-discipline is without a doubt my biggest problem. I'd love to hear some useful suggestions as well. Of course, without self-discipline I'll never implement any of the ideas.

I think that the most important things are to

• Get started.
  
  Work at it in the same kind of time frame you would for physical fitness (i.e. a couple of years, not a couple of months).
  
  Get used to the fact that you'll never actualy be 'self-disciplined' and that you will always be screwing up: all you can do is minimize the frequency and severity of the screw us.
  
  The hardest part is staying on track. In fact, that's the only part.
  
  Practice makes perfect - it really does feel like jogging at times. If you lay off for a week, you find yourself needing to expend all this effort that you wouldn't have if you had kept at it.
  
  Keep a record

I'm >not< self-disciplined, but I'm a lot better than I was.

[Isolation]

i'm german on both sides of my family, i'm all about self-discipline...





and punishing others...






and wearing latex at odd times of the year...

[bellulah]

man, you know what? if you have any kind of life at all you can't schedule stuff unkless you do it by day. like, "okay, thursday i'm gonna do the laundry and sweep, friday will be for mixing or whatever." and even that
gets fucked sometimes.

like today, was gonna be my cleaning day (since i am such a domestic god) but then my dog decided to go toe to toe with a skunk. so i was left to deal with that.

but it's all about perspective. i don't think i spelled that right, but if you are a lone dude in an apartment who does music, your prioirities are gonna be significantly different from mine - a married dude in a house. my wife, pets, and laundry come way before mixing or mastering or whatever. but you in that apartment? fuck all dishes and whatnot, let's play guitar.

so just decide what's the most important and do it. people spend too much time worrying and shit. dude, are your bills paid, or as paid as they can be? do you have a roof over your head? are you healthy? if you got those things, then it's time to rock. all that other shit will fall into place. if you sit down to write a song and you're not inspired, that's universe/god code for "dude, you shouldn't be writing right now. remember you gotta mow the lawn."

take stock of what you've got, make sure your priorities are in order, and then take care of yourself. and if your definition of taking care of yourself includes "eat. poop. fuck. rock." then do it. if its more "poop. clean. poop." then do that instead. (though i don't know why 'fuck' wouldn't be on a list. ever.)

sorry for the rant - the angry undertone wasn't directed at anyone here- i've just heard alot of it lately and it's just weird to me. there's nothing you can do about the election. get over it. there's nothing you can do about ashley simpson and the shitty state of the industry. get over that too. but you being tired? ah, now that you can do something about. don't play enough music? you can fix that too! don't be afraid to be a little selfish. (that was my biggest thing.)

so be healthy, and make yourself happy. i swear to god everything else will fall into place. you'll all of a sudden have a fresh outlook on life, and that in and of itself is more inspiring and energizing than any drug ever made.

josh

[workshed]

man, you know what? if you have any kind of life at all you can't schedule stuff unkless you do it by day. like, "okay, thursday i'm gonna do the laundry and sweep, friday will be for mixing or whatever." and even that
gets fucked sometimes.

I totally hear you there... I have wife, two kids, dog, cat, house, my own business. I guess my point was not to make some anal schedule that you have to stick to or else. I just mean making it a point to set aside a time where you get to do your thing. I kind of have to do that mentally to separate family life from work life from play time. Honestly, with all the distractions I have, it's hard to find *any* time, but I can at least try to say that at night after kids are in bed, I get to dink around with my recording gear. May not happen very often due to other circumstances, but at least my wife acknowledges that after hours is my time to fuck around.

Anyhow, I don't mean to sound defensive -- just wanted to clarify my position. I actually agree with you quite a bit!

-Bret

[drmorbius]

I oscillate between disciplined and not so. What helps me is to understand whatever it is I want to accomplish in very clear terms. When I find myself to be undisciplined, often I can trace it to not really wanting deep down whatever it is I would attain by being disciplined.

Another way to look at it is that if you really want something, you'll hate yourself so badly when you behave in an undisciplined fashion, that you wind up being disciplined without having to force yourself. How's that for some Yoda shit?

[Jeff Wobblybottom]

Ya gotta have some discipline to raise hogs boys, back here on the farm you gotta be pretty handy with a whip if ya wanna keep control, sure helps to have a shotgun at times too. Sometimes you gotta keep to your rules whether ya wanna or ya no wanna, like beating yo wife, once a week without fail, otherwise ya just telling her to go out and get herself impregnated by other men. Don't send her no wrong messages, same with hogs. Be wise.

Good boy.

[ulriggribbons]

If it means enough to you, you will find the discipline to do it. If it doesnb't, you won't. It's that simple.

Forcing yourself to do stuff you don't want to is torture, not discipline =)

[apropos of nothing]

T for the replies, all. I appreciate y'all's words and looking at the thread and stuff.

I'm going to ask what is more or less the same question, but from a slightly different tack.

(Incidentalloy, this isn't for me. I would never ask for therapy on a public web-board. This is for a friend. A hypothetical one. Actually he may not even be a friend. He's just this hypothetical guy I know. I don't even really know him.)

So going momentarily with Doc Morbius's tack, that one really works towards one's true goal, and sabotages what one's false goals are. Say this guy's true goal is for the universe to leave him the hell alone and just let him play his fucking guitar (or synthesizer).

Okay, we'll call that primo over-all goal.

Now there are sub-goals that have to be achieved in order to achieve the primo goal. The sub-goals include but are not limited to Working at a job in order to make a certain amount of money in order to have enough to survive at the primo-goal. Also helpful would be the furthering of said fellow's education and career so that he would not have towork as hard or as much, again with the goal of being left the hell alone so that he can play music.

So none of those sub-goals are really compatible with the primo-goal, despite their neccesity in achieving of said primo-goal.

So how should our theoretical dude-guy go about integrating his mildly incompatible sub-goals into his primo goal. Should he redefine his goal? How can he develop gumption to navigate his subgoals (which he resents) to the end of achieving his primo-goal (for which he lusts)?

Thoughts? Cackles of derision?

[djdrake13]

If you're just disciplined to drink, fuck off, and get retarded till you pass out every night, its pretty easy to fulfill your dreams.