Get Disciplined

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse. And you were listening to the podcast One Life. It's time to get disciplined. So for the longest time, I used to associate discipline with lack of freedom. I used to think that if I put time into my business, I was disciplined about doing that. It would take me away from the things that I love, the things I like to do. And what I found was the opposite to be true. And that by being more disciplined, I actually was able to get more freedom. Kind of sounds like for a lot of people, especially for me, it sounded like a complete oxymoron. So I wanted to go into a couple stories of how that's played out in my own life. So this way you could kind of mirror that back in yours. But also, I want to tell you three, there's several reasons why or what might throw you off or might sabotage your ability to be disciplined. But I'm going to show you three that I noticed in the two examples I'm about to give you. And those examples are defeatism. Defeatism is chopping yourself, saying you won't be able to achieve whatever that goal is that you're setting. After escapism, escapism is like without fully completing the tasks, just kind of doing it half assed and giving it maybe like an 80% rather than your 100%. And third, delayism. Delayism, is that putting it off for a later time? Because if you put it off for a later time, technically you're not lying to yourself. I mean, who knows? A later time can mean any time and you're not made wrong for that. So last year I completed my first physique. Sorry, physique competition. Say that three times fast. Before I did this competition, I did not know what I was going to be in for. I went to my coach, he drafted me out a meal plan, he drafted me out a workout plan. I looked at it, I'm like, oh my God, how am I supposed to do this? But I looked at it. It's funny. I joined the competition because a friend of mine had challenged me. He said that I couldn't and wouldn't compete. So I joined the competition shortly after that. I think the following, like the following day. So I had a different motivation pushing me forward in this competition. But I was looking at the meal plan and I was eating six meals a day, which meant I had to do a lot of prep work. And looking at this, I'm like, well, how am I going to eat that? I could eat the same thing every single day for six months. I couldn't even. I couldn't comprehend what I was supposed to do. And then on top of that, I had to find anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours a day to be in the gym. But funny, when we have the right leverage for ourselves, what we're able to do. I made sure that I signed up for the contest, so this way, I was locked in. And then there were two motivators. One was I was going to be on stage, so I didn't want to embarrass myself. So I made sure that I made the gym time every single day. I think I might have missed a workout, maybe. Maybe two workouts. I'm not really sure. Or I made all my workouts, but only cheated on two meals. One or the other. I'm not really sure. And the second one was this doubt from my friend, which pushed me forward, because one of the things with me is if you say that I can't do something, it has to be the right trigger. But usually when I get denied or someone says I can't do something, that I say, okay, boom. Focus on the object I want. And I go. So initially, it was hard to get that rhythm going to do the meal preps. And it was a real, real challenge trying to cook, trying to package everything. So this, literally, it was brainless. I needed to make it brainless so I could just pull it out, eat, and go. So every single day, I had alarms going for when I had to eat. And what I found was that it was by having this, like, this definite structure that I was able to achieve this goal of being in the competition, because it was like clockwork. The alarms went off. Boom, Time to eat. Alarm went off. Boom. Time to eat. And when people at the gym saw the results that I was getting, everyone was asking, well, what are you doing? What are you doing? Can you share your workout? Can you share your meal plan? And that's when I ran into the three sabotagers that we just mentioned in the first paragraph. We'll start with defeatism. I won't be able to achieve it. I was in the locker room. I can't remember my friend's name, but it was someone I worked out with. And he asked about my routine. He was complimenting the results he saw in my body. I said, you know what? It's not rocket science here. This is exactly. I handed him the paper. I said, this is exactly what I'm doing. And he looked at it, and he goes, my God, you have to eat all this in one day. I said, yep, and this entire workout is one day's workout. I'm like, yeah, that's one day's workout. Oh, my gosh, man. I don't think I could do that. I can't do that. It's too much. And then something funny happened at that point. That point, I felt very proud. And, well, that's one of the finishing points I'll go into, is what I'm about to say right now is I felt very proud knowing that everyone had the same resources. I gave him my plan. I gave him my meal plan as well, but yet he didn't want to do it. He didn't want to commit to it. So let's go to number two, escapism. Escapism is when you duck out without fully completing, without fully committing to the task in its entirety with all of your energies. Throughout my workout, I had several workout partners, whoever was there. Sometimes my workout partner couldn't make it, so I would work out with someone else at the gym because I liked having someone there to kind of push me, to give me that extra couple reps in when I was about to fail. I probably, looking back, I probably pushed a little bit too hard because my muscles were. The exertion was so heavy that I had a hard time repairing, and I could feel the acid building up in my body. But I just pushed through anyways on pure adrenaline and pride. And I would be on the workouts. And then as I'm going down through the list, these people wanted to have the same result that I was getting, which is the reason why they started working out with me in the first place. But then they would duck out. So, you know what? I'm done. I'm gonna call it quits. I'm gonna go shower and leave so I can get home. Had nothing to do with, or even if it did, if they had to get home, it shows the level of commitment. If the result they wanted was to have the body that I had for that contest, it was all done for them. All they had to do was show up. All they had to do was copy the same exact steps that I was doing. But they didn't delayism. There were some people who also said, oh, you know what? Yeah, let me have your plan. I'll start it X in the future, some point in the future, maybe they will. If they get enough pain behind them. Maybe they decide that they want to make that change, that they're done with being overweight. They're done with having these muscles with no specific tone to them, and then maybe they'll have that pain trigger, which. It'll flip the switch, and they'll make the change, and they'll follow the plan. Who knows? Well, those were just the three experiences that I saw in that weightlifting competition. And then we'll talk about the conclusion. But before we go there, I'm gonna give you one more example. College. So in college, I dated a girl, Julia, for six years, or just about six years. We started dating my sophomore year of college. And during that time, I was nearly failed out of school. We spent so much time together that school didn't become a priority. But then something happened after that first semester in my sophomore year, I thought to myself, I was on academic probation. I said, oh, my gosh, if I don't get literally straight A's for the rest of my college career, I'm not gonna get into the school of finance. I'm the school of business. I wanted to major in finance at the time. I did major in finance at the time. But it was like my life flashed before me, and that flashing before me literally flipped a switch. So whereas school wasn't my priority before it became a priority, I spent every night at that time. My schedule was fairly hectic. My schedule, I was interning at an investment bank. Would go to classes, and then I would come home. I don't remember if I worked out, but I probably hung out with my girlfriend for a little bit, came home, and then I studied till about three in the morning, only to repeat it all again the following morning. I think only when you're in college can you possibly have that kind of regiment where you get, like, a few hours sleep and you're able to rally. And as a result of doing this, what I saw was that I was getting straight A's. So then semester after semester, I buckled down and I made sure that I got A's on every single test, every assignment that I had. My friends, they didn't even know who the heck I was. I hadn't been around. They would call it, like, the lost years, because they're like, well, where were you? I literally would stay home and study every single night. Because I knew what my objective was with this. There were some people who wondered, how did I do it? Actually, I was competing with one of my friends at the time. He was one of the reasons why I was able to do good in school. Because there was this competition. I wanted to make sure I liked a friendly, competitive spirit. So I wanted to do better than him. And I remember doing that. And he was like, oh, how long did you study for. And I was like, oh, studied for X amount of hours. I think it was one of the tests was like 20 hours I studied for. He's like, oh, my God, I don't have the time. I didn't have the time either. I made the time. I made sure I studied. I stayed up to like three, four in the morning sometime, maybe even later than that. I can't remember. But I remember coffee being my primary source of fuel. But then there were also those I inspired. There was one friend, my friend Mike. He saw the turnaround I did. He's like, man, you really inspired me. You made me. I thought, if you can do it, then I can do it. So he started studying and he started getting good grades. His major was real estate finance. So in closing. So what's the conclusion? What did you get out of all this? And that discipline. The point I tried to make in the beginning was that discipline equals freedom. So how does discipline equal freedom? Does it sound like there was any freedom in my schedule when I was doing the workouts, when I was doing the studying for my classes? Yes and no. At first glance, you would say no, but actually, yes, because I was disciplined. First of all, there's the goal in mind. I knew what my objective was, and with that objective, I had a block of time on my schedule that was just for studying for school and then the same thing for my workout. Every single time my alarm would go off, I knew how to eat, and then I also had the block time to be at the gym. The freedom is that you're taking the time to do what's important to you. The freedom is knowing that you have this structure in place that's going to allow you to thrive. Because when you have that time blocked in on your schedule, it's easier to plan, right? Like, if you just start your day nonchalantly with no specific plan, you're going to take whatever the world is throwing at you because you didn't set the intention for that day. So where's the freedom then? And then the last point, in terms of what I'm proud of, the most proud moments of my entire life have been those moments where I was disciplined. This was a big. I was at an event, I think, last week, and this is a big aha moment for me. Huge aha moment. Because I never made the correlation. For me, I'd always put like, discipline means no freedom. Discipline means I can't travel, yada, yada, yada. But the exact opposite was true. When I looked back at the most proud moments I've ever had in my entire life. Discipline was the centerpiece. Discipline was the cornerstone in which that accomplishment was built. Because unless you're disciplined, unless you have that structure, unless you have those habits in place, you're not going to achieve your goal, maybe haphazardly, maybe if it's an easy goal and you have this aptitude. But as you grow and you try to push beyond that even further, good luck. So I hope you guys understand just how important discipline can be and setting up a strategy in order to make yourself win on your terms. And I hope from this episode you will actually become disciplined in carving out the time for yourself. As I had mentioned, when you have that. When you have nothing on your schedule, you're left to the winds. You're left the winds to kind of push you throughout your day. Take the discipline, make the discipline. Decide what's important in your day, and make sure you book that first. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode titled Get Disciplined. If you enjoy this, I ask you to share it with your friends. Share it with your family. Leave some comments on itunes and whatever other podcasting service that you subscribe to. If you have some stories you'd like to share and how discipline played a role in one of your accomplishments, you can message me on Instagram at Donny D O N N Y Rouse R A U S Again D O N N Y R A U S None of this would be possible without Rouse Coffee. It's my personal business, but actually, it's very true. Coffee is very much a centering point for me. It helps me kind of go inward, helps me relax. It helps me take an objective look at this world and of myself. So maybe that'll do for you. You can check that out, too. Rousecoffee.com R A U S C-O-F-F E-E.com I highly recommend trying the cold Roman bottled espresso. You won't try anything like it anywhere. And that is it, guys. Again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next week. This podcast is brought to you by RouseCoffee. I believe that coffee is one of the most powerful rituals in our day and that it has the power to shape our day for better or for worse. More than that, it's a moment to just be. It's about taking time for ourselves to stop the busyness of life and to make time for what's important to us. If this resonates with you, I encourage you to try RouseCoffee Co. At www.rouse r a u s coffee C-O-F-F e-e.com use the discount code ONELIFE, all capitals, one word to get 10% off your first order. Remember, life is short and is what we make of it. So remember to take a moment and enjoy now.