Day 285 & Breakdown of Discipline with Friends

Day 285 Record Keeping
Day 254 Fixed Meditation 
Day 200 Bodyweight Exercise  (stretching)
Day 127 Writing = 82 (editing meditation book)
Day 300 Eating = 57
Day 57 Work = 52
Good sleep, slow wakeup. 

Breakdown of Discipline with Friends
The last few days I had the great opportunity to visit friends I haven’t seen in a while. Discipline, of course, went down hill.

I drank more than my maximum - though to be fair, it wasn’t that much more. The first day, my food control was great, but the next two days it went completely out the window.

And on top of this, 2 days of recording went out the window - though surprisingly, I did almost everything else.

Looking back, my self discipline has improved - BUT my question is - what can I do to make it even better?

I believe that implementation intention is a fantastic way to deal with this - I need to get into the habit of writing down an implementation whenever I’m in a situation where I might feel compromised.

I am all about experiencing life and friendship to the fullest - in fact, a huge part of this project is to do just that - to master skills and habits so that I can go back into the world stronger that I was before.

But eating right isn’t an impediment to that. I could have easily gotten something at these restaurants that was a solid option. Occasionally sharing some drinks with friends, great. But does one less drink really make a difference in the bonding process? No - in fact, though it’s harder, it actually helps it because I can ask the right questions with greater control.

Before this year, I would be so down on myself for these mistakes - I’d be berating myself and feel bad for the next few days. What my meditation has taught me is that this is a waste of energy, and I will bring all my skills to bear to not waste a moment to negative emotion.

I know what I did right. I know what I did wrong. And I know how to improve. Nothing else is important, this will help me get better without dragging me down.

Day 250 & Friends Visiting

Day 250 Record Keeping
Day 218 Fixed Meditation 
Day 164 Bodyweight Exercise  (3x8 pushups)
Day 91 Writing = 66 (567 words)
Day 264 Eating = 67
Day 21 Work = 56
Great sleep, great wakeup. Tired and lazy.

Friends Visiting
I had friends visiting this weekend. That is great and all - I had a fantastic time and I feel very lucky to have seen them - it’s been around 7 years, and it was just like picking the friendship up again.

It did ding up the habits a bit. I went into “battle conditions” and minimized all habits in order to preserve them. This worked. But it is interesting that as soon as they left, the exhaustion set in and I couldn’t be bothered to do anything - missing my habits yesterday. All of them.

I have the sense that this has happened before. It’s been like string under tension - or muscles….Doing habits while having other things to do (not to mention space issues as they crashed in my tiny apartment) puts tension, and when it’s gone, the slack makes me all dribbly and lazy.

Picking them up again today was difficult - but I had to force myself to do it. And if my system was truly gamified I’d want to give myself extra points for having continued after this sequence - both the tension and the dropping of the habits - it’s just harder picking them up.