I DON'T BELIEVE IN SELF DISCIPLINE ANYMORE

I don't believe in self discipline as a rule anymore. 

When I was in high school I would go to school early every day to shoot hoops. Practice. Hard. Alone. In the gym. No one told me to. Then I'd do drills in the driveway at home. I'd read books, I'd watch videos, I'd earn money for basketball camp, I'd skip events with friends because I'd want to basketball games, basketball events... ok, you get it. 

Point is, I did it for love. People would ask me how I could be so disciplined?!!??? 

And I was like... no discipline here. It's love. 

That sort of set me up for the rest of my life. It's good and bad - in the sense that if I couldn't find a way or reason to love something, I couldn't do it very long. 

So if you were looking for someone who stuck to something out of a sense of duty, you wouldn't see me there ( I was also motivated by fear... so there's that. Another reason to learn the way of love). 

Since I started learning about this whole brain thought mental and emotional health thing and how our thoughts and beliefs impact our lives - It caused me to dig in deeper to this love thing. 

If you are holding on to something because you're just being disciplined, question it. Can you find a reason to love and head that direction instead?

Self discipline only lasts so long. It gets used up. Love is a totally different motivator. It doesn't count the cost. It doesn't calculate. It doesn't shrink. It grows and gets stronger. 

If you are struggling with an addiction, a bad habit, something you want but can't bring yourself to do, find the reason to love in the middle of it. It is no problem for me to catch puke from my kids in the middle of the night. I love them. It's my privilege to be the one they call. If it was only self discipline that brought me to the bathroom floor in the middle of the night . . . well... there'd be some kids cleaning up their own puke in the middle of the night. 

It's kind of like ... would you rather do what's "right" but hate your life or would you rather do what's right and love it? 

Love takes you where discipline can't.