More important than your exercise or diet program is your self discipline. It doesn’t matter if you workout hard for a week, or stick to your diet for 3 out of 5 days. What matters is what how you act in the long run. How many “little cheats” did you let yourself get away with this week? How many workouts did you skip in the last month? Or the last year? The little things add up. Don’t make excuses for your own lack of discipline. It isn’t about just making yourself go to the gym or something you enjoy on some level. It is making yourself do the things you don’t want to do. The best rehab patients are the ones who tirelessly perform the repetitive boring physical therapy they have been prescribed. Day after day for hours on end. This might also mean you can’t workout for weeks or even months. You watch your body go away and you feel soft but you stick with it. That is discipline.

There are somethings you do just for the sake of building discipline. For example if you are a pasta lover you might cut out all pasta for a year. Not just because it is making losing fat difficult but to see if you can do it no matter what the situation, not matter how hungry you are. As an adult, no one is making you do anything. Do you lay in bed for a half hour or do you get up when you wake up? Do you let yourself mindlessly surf the internet for an hour then complain you don’t have time for things? I bet if you really look at yourself you just don’t have much self discipline. It will spill over into all aspects of your life for the better. We are experts at lying to ourselves and making excuses. (“I need to look at internet videos to unwind.” “I need to lay in bed because mornings are tough for me.”) Shut up. They are tough for everyone. You are just lazy and self permissive. Be tough on yourself and you will be a tougher person.