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Towards the end of nearly every seminar I lead, someone says a version of the following: \u201cOkay, this all makes sense. I can see that this is the way that I should be working. But I\u2019ll need a lot of discipline to keep it up\u201d.<\/p>\n
I think there are two opinions expressed in that last sentence. One \u2013 explicit \u2013 that they\u2019ll need discipline, and another \u2013 implicit – that they don\u2019t have that discipline. Their opinion may be informed by their history. They perhaps have some prior experience (with dieting or exercise or learning a new language) that has them thinking that they don\u2019t do so well with things that require consistent application, so \u2013 no matter how much sense the GTD\u00ae methodology makes – they feel they won\u2019t succeed with it long-term.<\/p>\n
I think that the key to their success \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 is in how they are thinking about the challenge of implementing a new behaviour. I\u2019ve noticed that when people talk about needing more \u201cdiscipline\u201d, what they generally mean is that they struggle to get themselves to do things that they really don\u2019t want to do. If that is the case, then I\u2019m pretty sure they are right, they won\u2019t manage to do that thing.<\/p>\n
I know from my own experience that once I tell myself that I need more discipline to do something I\u2019ve basically set myself up in opposition to myself. There is a conscious part of me saying \u201cyes, you should do this, it will be good for you\u201d. Great.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there is another \u2013 subconscious, and much more powerful – part saying \u201dYes, and broccoli is good for you too, but ice cream is waaaaaaaay more fun!\u201d In my experience, over time, the second voice always wins. I can manage to get myself to do something that requires \u2018discipline\u2019 for a day, a week, sometimes even a month, but eventually, I\u2019ll be found with my face down in a super-size tub of Haagen Dazs. Every time.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t think that approach to discipline works all that well. Not when it involves trying to get myself to do things that I know will be good for me, but that I don\u2019t really want to do.<\/p>\n
What does work, and has always worked, is getting very clear on the benefits of why I\u2019m doing that thing. Not clear as in, \u201cbroccoli is good for me, and\u2013apparently\u2013great for my intestines\u201d, but clear as in \u201cI love the experience of living in a body that is able to run, jump and play because I eat more broccoli than brownies\u201d.<\/p>\n
With GTD, I think I got lucky; this happened the first time I skimmed the book on a plane to New York. The idea of working with a \u201cmind like water\u201d – more productively, with less stress \u2013 was so clear and attractive to me that I can honestly say I\u2019ve never had to force myself to do what is suggested to get there. That is not to say that I haven\u2019t worked at it, or that sometimes I haven\u2019t worked quite hard at it. It just has never felt like trying to get myself to do something that I didn\u2019t want to do. The goal was so clear, and so attractive, what it \u2018cost\u2019 in effort to get there was a price worth paying. There is a world of difference between thinking, \u201cI have to process my inbox because it will be good for me\u201d, and thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to clear out my inbox so I can get back to that sense of relaxed control that works so much better than everything else I\u2019ve experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 17 years of working with the methodology, that last thought is what has driven every single enhancement to how I work. From the first hesitant \u2013 and somewhat backwards \u2013 implementation of the book, through my first, second and third seminars and on to getting coached and learning to teach the methodology, everything has been about getting more of the relaxed productivity that was promised when I first skimmed the book at 35,000 feet.<\/p>\n
Haagen Dazs still calls more loudly than a salad on any given day, but \u2013 in that domain at least \u2013 there is still more to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Towards the end of nearly every seminar I lead, someone says a version of the following: \u201cOkay, this all makes sense. I can see that this is the way that I should be working. But I\u2019ll need a lot of discipline to keep it up\u201d. I think there are two opinions expressed in that last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,311,318],"tags":[949,53,157,93,191,327,1069,127],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144319"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=144319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}