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Writer's pictureTina Boogren

Episode 26: Discipline Over Willpower

Description: What's the difference between discipline and willpower? We know willpower is a finite thing, but what steps can we take to maintain the discipline to achieve our goals?


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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is our third season and our 26th episode. This week's invitation is to think about what it means to have more discipline than willpower. Let me say that again. I want you to think about what it means for you when we think about having more discipline than willpower. This is something that comes up again and and again and again for me. And, every time it just kind of stops me in my tracks, because I'm like, That's it. That's exactly it. It's not willpower that we should be searching for or wishing for, or hoping for.


We've talked about this before. We know willpower is actually kind of this finite thing and in fact, one of the things that makes willpower disappear is making choices and decisions. And, we know that as educators whoof, we make lots of choices and decisions. So, instead of thinking about willpower, I want us to shift our thinking to discipline. Now, I think for us as educators, discipline kind of has a negative connotation, because we think about disciplining a child, right? So, I think maybe that's why my brain gets, it gets kind of tripped up here, because I don't really like that word discipline and yet discipline's exactly what we need. When we think about discipline, discipline is just disciplining ourselves to do things even when we don't want to do them.


This is the hard self-care, right? It's it's easy to stay up on the couch watching episode after episode after episode of whatever show it is, right? The discipline is the self-care where we actually get ourselves up off of that couch, and we put ourselves to bed. It takes discipline to be able to do that. We know that it takes discipline to work out or move our bodies when we don't want to, but we do it anyway, because we know if we start to play that tape forward in our mind, we know how happy we will be and how glad we are that we did the thing when we get to the other side. So, this week, as you move through your week, I want you to think about where you can apply more discipline rather than wishing for or hoping for or searching for more willpower. What would discipline look like for you?


And, maybe what you do is you get your actual calendar out and discipline yourself to write things in your calendar that you are going to do just like you would any other appointment. Like literally write in your calendar when you're going to move your body and what you're going to do. Write in your calendar when you're gonna go to bed. Set an alarm on your phone that nudges you towards bedtime, that when that alarm goes off, it reminds you, Oops. Okay. Time to move away from the screen. Time to wash my face, brush my teeth, start winding down, move the screen away from my eyeballs. Right? All that good stuff. Maybe you put into your calendar just different, even things that you're looking forward to as a way to discipline yourself to bring that joy into your life this week. Like discipline yourself that you are going to reach out to two of your friends this week that you haven't spoken with for a little while.


I, for me, discipline ... First of all, discipline number one. Like I said, I kind of had to get over my negative connotation of that word, and then I had to think about for me, like, what do I need to move myself towards discipline? And, for me it's that accountability in some way. And, I know that's not just me. I know that most of us really need that accountability. And so, for me, it's writing in my calendar. You know, I'm a paper planner girl. I, I write everything in my calendar, and part of the act of following through on my own self-care is disciplining myself to put it in my calendar, and then I'm much more likely to follow through with it. So, that's what I want you to think about. What is discipline? First of all, just take a little time like me and think about what comes up for you when you hear the word discipline, and how can you maybe kind of shift your thinking on that?


Or, maybe it's a different word that, that we're looking for here. Maybe someone will have a great word instead of discipline to think about. For me too. And, once we kind of get our handle on what discipline means for us, and again, I'm really thinking about discipline over willpower, then how do you discipline yourself? What does that look like? What are kind of those boundaries and nudges and promises and commitments you need to make to yourself? And, how are you gonna make sure that you follow through with them so that we don't forget about them in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives? What are you going to ... What tool are you gonna utilize to discipline yourself to follow through with your own self-care? This ... If you've got ideas, of course, I'd love for you to jump over to the Facebook group and share over there. But, that's it. That's what I want us to think about this week. That's your invitation. Discipline over willpower. Discipline over willpower. What does that mean for you When you reflect on that, how does it make you feel? How are you gonna implement that? What does that look like for you this week? I'm cheering so hard for you.


As always, a huge thank you to Brooke for making this happen. Thank you, Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do. And for you, my bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Let's discipline ourselves into having an amazing week. You're awesome.

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