Discipline

It's late at night.  I was actually good and stopped playing video games a little while ago.  It's time for bed now.  Nah, I'll just browse the internet for a bit longer.  Look up some more youtube videos, read some more articles.  Now it's past bedtime.  Meh... I'm too tired to think.  Don't want to move.  Easiest just to sit where I am and zone out for a bit.

Oh no!  I really should have been in bed an hour ago! What happened, why do I do that?

This happens far more frequently than I would like.  In the end it really comes down to one thing.  Discipline!  It's almost become a bad habit for me now, happening automatically without my thinking about it.  How can I fix it?

To me, discipline is easy enough to define.  I know how to obtain it.  You just... have to... do it.  I just need to actually start going to bed earlier.  Each victory gets me closer to where I need to be.  Each victory starts me in the positive direction and makes it easier to continue.  But then, each loss makes it a bit harder.  I lose some ground.  It's a constant battle really.  Either you are going forward towards something you want to continue doing, or you are forward towards something you want to stop.  There's no middle ground.

The good news is that no matter what it is, you can get better at it.  Get disciplined by just being really focused and committed to doing whatever it is, once, twice, 4, 5 times.  Before you know it you are doing things correctly and not even having to pay attention.  It's just habit now.  It's your new default.

The mind is an amazing thing.  You can teach it to behave pretty much any way you want, as long as you focus and just do it.  No excuses.