Great Discipline Experiment Redux
“Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois so that you may be
violent and original in your work.” –Gustave Flaubert
OK, here I go again. Am back from retreat in Vermont where, for one week, I practiced meditation, wrote, read, slept soundly–all the things I so want to do in my non-retreat life. I realize there are major differences!! Like on retreat someone else does the cooking and washing up. That’s a biggie. But still, I long, long, long for a life of order that grounds me and keeps me focused on my personal loves: spiritual practice, study, self-expression.
Once again, I’m tired of coming to the end of each day feeling like I lived half of my life while the other half somehow got sucked up by TV, poor planning, and, most of all, self-doubt that causes me to put off things that challenge me. (Which is basically everything at this point–I’m standing right on top of some big professional and spiritual moments.) So once again, I want to marshal myself.
The theme of this GDE Redux is the same as the last one: Take all the things you say you should do everyday (or most days) and do them. Now, these things aren’t earth shattering. They’re simple and should be within my ability to accomplish. Write. Meditate. Study. Exercise. Drink water. Take vitamins. It’s so embarrassing how simple those things sound.
I learned several very valuable things from the last GDE. I want to take them into account on this go round. They are:
1. The GDE didn’t give a crap about my energy level. Somedays, I simply didn’t have much energy, while on others I did. I became very confused about how to react to all this: give in to it or plow ahead with the schedule anyway? Last time, I gave into it. This time, I’m going to plow ahead.
2.T he main failing of the GDE was that it created enormous levels of aggression towards other people. Especially the ones I really like. My husband, for example. Instead of being people I care for (or not), every single being (including my cats) became instead potential friends or enemies of the GDE. I couldn’t tell my friends and family to have their mid-life crises or muse about vacation spots only during times that were convenient for me. The people in my world needed me on their own timetable and I had no idea how to reconcile this with my needs. This time, I’m going to expect this and not get freaked out when people need me, but just try to support them the best I can and then get my butt back to the experiment.
3. The GDE lives and dies on advance planning. If I left any part of the day to chance, it all fell apart. So for instance, tomorrow, I know I want to meditate, write, and go for a run. I also know I have to run an errand at Crate & Barrel and pick up some colleagues at the airport at 630p. So tomorrow AM the first thing I need to do is examine every hour of the day and plan when I’m going to do what. I need to do this for the entire week, actually.
So here is the schedule I’ve come up with. Please hold me to it:
Monday, Thursday, & Friday
6-730 writing & meditation
730-10 personal writing
11-4 other kinds of work
4-5 run
5-530 meditation
Because I have all day meetings on Tues and Weds, they will look like this:
530-630 meditation, journaling
7-5 meeting
I am completely open to suggestions! And in the meantime, please wish me luck. I will keep you posted and if I can do it, I know you can too. xoxox Susan
12 comments
I loved this. Especially 2. I constantly do this and then feel bad about it. I like your reframe. No schedule suggestions. I wish I was that disciplined. I am a chronic snooze button hitter. I have strayed so far from my path of meditation of late, I can’t even drag myself to a retreat for a recharge.
I support your efforts!! It reminds me something Pema has talked about – set your intention for the day.
Embarking on Great Discipline Experiment Redux, wherein I take all the things I know I should &want to do, &…do them. http://bit.ly/3i00vn
RT @spiver: Embarking on Great Discipline Experiment Redux, wherein I take all things I should &want to do, &…do them http://bit.ly/3i00vn
Wow. Good luck with your new planning efforts!
My failure in the past has always been with the follow-through. But my life of late seems to be screaming at me to get organized and maintain some discipline.
That’s a bit difficult because my natural tendency is to just let things flow. As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that it’s hard to direct the stream where you want it when you’re just going with it.
I’ll check back to send you some accountability.
Todd
P.S. I just found your blog tonight. I’m liking what I have scanned so far. I’ll be back.
Great Discipline Experiment Redux: “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois so that you may .. http://bit.ly/4rIDM6
Right. Abt 2 embark on Grt Discipline Experiment Redux. In which I am super organized&do everything I say I’m going to. http://bit.ly/3i00vn
Stumbled onto your blog about three months ago and have been enjoying it, especially this GDE thing. Good luck with your current go at it. So, you don’t think you should just get up at the same time every morning, instead of adjusting depending on what’s going on that day? In my experience, when I am most disciplined I jump out of bed as soon as the alarm clock goes off at whatever god-awful in the morning…I think it’s actually that energy of “let’s go!” that is the discipline. You know?
Wishing you luck & thanking you for the inspiration RT @spiver: Grt Discipline Experiment Redux. http://bit.ly/3i00vn
I must say that I highly admire the fact that you are undertaking the GDE again. I’m very tempted to join you for my writing career could use some more structure, but I’m still finding just the right “kind” of structure that doesn’t sacrifice why I began a writer in the first place – to help people (but I still to make $$ and pay bills).
Thanks for inspiring me to think about this.
I like this. I should put a schedule on paper too. Although, I seem to follow a schedule daily, it’s been more difficult now that my daughter arrived home from being in Spain all last year. She is living with us for her last semester. It’s been interesting, at best, and has really thrown my productivity out the window. I think writing out my schedule will help make me more disciplined.
So, I am writing my schedule out here: (it’s a bit more flexible because of my marathon training, but this is how it works for me)
*4-10 am train (run, bike, cross train for marathon, ironman, 1/2 marathon) (2 hours of working out)
* 6-7:30 meditate, writing exercise
* 10:30-12:30 spend quality time with Leon (my hubby), includes lunch
* 2:00-6:00 pm work (book, consulting, writing)
*** 3:00-4:30 pm write
*** 4:30-5:00 pm meditate
*** 4:00-9:00 pm playtime and rest
*note: each day is different depending on when my daughter wants to spend time with me, so this isn’t as concrete as a typical schedule. The key for me is to incorporate writing and mediation in my routine.
It helps and thanks for the motivation, Susan.
Kim
Hm. I hope that Saturday and Sunday are non-GDE days. We all need some days where there is NO discipline. Just not every day! Thanks for blogging about this. I always feel like a ninny when I can’t seem to do anything with any discipline whatsoever. It’s good to know I am not alone in forgetting to drink water and take my vitamins for the umpteenth time!
Susan, I heard you on one of Jen Louden’s online retreats and really like your clear, frank, easy to access presenting style.
Thanks,
Sally
Rad -I’m going to do it with you! Very inspiring, so happy to have stumbled upon your site -going through a tough time at the moment, and need to get it together. Will definitely keep an eye on this blog x