I have a difficult time relaxing; I constantly feel I need to do more. Relaxing is something that I have been working to become better at and one of the strategies I have found helpful is discipline. Today I will share my thoughts on the balance between discipline and enjoyment as it may not be obvious why being disciplined allows me to relax.
This is how I imagine the relationship between discipline and enjoyment. Two opposing forces that need to be kept in balance.
Discipline and enjoyment in balance.
Two much of one and you won’t have enough of the other. When I am too regimented with my routine it can take the enjoyment out of activities as everything becomes a ’task’ that must be completed. Too much focus on enjoyment and it can be easy to let things slides.
Out of balance.
But at the same time you can’t have one without the other. No enjoyment and one won’t be able to maintain discipline. No discipline leads to unbridled enjoyment, and thus nothing is enjoyable.
Missing one and everything falls apart.
By being disciplined, I am able to ’turn off’ and relax knowing that the balance is being kept. I don’t have a feeling of guilt about not being productive because I know I got done what I needed to. By being disciplined about the important things, I allow myself to relax and enjoy. In doing so I am able to continue to stay disciplined because I was able to recharge. It is a positive feedback loop.
One of the best strategies I have found to maintain discipline is dedicating blocks of time to one activity and scheduling these blocks of time. Scheduling blocks of time for something forces discipline and you then don’t have to worry about whether it will get done because you have time dedicated to it. Say you are wanting to learn to draw, if you schedule 30 minutes every morning to draw, you don’t have to feel like you should be practicing drawing during your evening youtube binge because you know that you have time scheduled for drawing. This allows you to enjoy each activity more.
– Mitch
Quote of the Week
Discipline equals freedom - Jocko Willink
Favourite Things of The Week
How to Start a Start Up and Technology Enabled Blitz Scaling (Youtube)
These are two Stanford courses which have been recorded and are freely available. The courses are taught by and feature many silicon valley founders (LinkedIn, AirBnb, Stripe, Y Combinator, etc). I like to watch the lectures while I eat lunch.
The Ecstasy of Gold (Live) - Metallica, San Francisco Symphony (Spotify)
Gets me fired up.