Discipline Requires Work

 Hebrews 12:11

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

If you want to improve, you must work. It's that simple. There's no magic formula, potion, or recipe, and no process is perfect. You will not improve by being passive. You must actively seek to improve.

These are my current goals. These aren't all that hard by themselves. I'm already doing most of them. However, doing them all together at the same time "Andy Frisella" style and ACTUALLY being honest with yourself, keeping yourself accountable to your future self, is the difficult part. I don't have a timeline for these disciplines, but rather, I aim to add these to my daily life. I am going to make these my "new normal".

Discipline begets discipline. You start with 1 area and then add another then another then another, almost naturally. For many people, it may look like this:

    starting to go to the gym and lift semi-heavy things, which   leads to drinking more water, which leads to not eating so   many sweets, which leads to less screen time, which leads   to consistent bed time, which leads to________, fill in the   blank.

My progression appeared almost like magic: I started lifting weights, which led to running, which led to cutting out (mostly) anything but water, which led to eating less sweets, which led to eating less processed foods, which led to cutting out TV to save time in the day for family time, which led to reading more books....

This is just my journey so far, and I still have a long way to go. I have some really crazy, big running goals for the next decade. I'm thinking long-term here, not just the next race. No 2 journeys are the same. I have different struggles than you do. I am not naturally a runner. I'm training my body to do these things. I have to fight a very sedentary lifestyle like most of humans today. It's way easier to be stagnant and convenient than to be active and seek out ways to improve physical fitness. One thing I do now is park at the back of the parking lot and walk to the store. I don't do this at night or with my kids because I'm not going to make myself a target for evil people to do evil things. I like to go for walks at lunch. I have direct access to a neighborhood right behind my office that has a low traffic volume and so far, no stray dogs roaming around. You may not have access to this opportunity like I do. I would suggest that you have more opportunities than you think you do. I like to seek out opportunities throughout my day to get in a little physical fitness boost when possible. I wall sits at work to work on my static leg strength. I use an extra chair between patients to do step-ups and slow controlled step-downs. I work on calf raises and stretches at the stairs. I'm not perfect nor am I a fitness buff. I just know that I have a natural tendency to be sedentary so I have to actively resist those times with movement.

What little incremental changes can you start this week to improve your life? Don't underestimate the significance of an act of discipline, no matter how small. Can you wake up 10min early in the morning and do a few sit-ups/push-ups. Sure the physical work-out is good, but make no mistake, the growth will come from making yourself commit to waking up earlier. You will grow your life more than your muscles. BUT BE CAREFUL!! You will subconsciously add additional disciplines without even realizing it!

I challenge you to take out your phone and list 3 things you can do starting today to impose a little uncomfortable self discipline. Feel free to steal mine!

Rylee's Run 5k **Recap**

"Rylee’s Run 5k commemorates the life of Rylee Rae Vinson, who was born August 16, 2007, at thirty-two (32) weeks and passed away eight (8) days later due to complications of premature birth. Rylee’s parents, Jason and Jessica Vinson, established the RIBS soccer tournament in 2010 and Rylee's Run 5K in 2012 to help raise money for the hospital that has meant so much to them over the last several years - the Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Neuroscience Institute and NICU."    -Rylee's Run 5k

This was our first time participating in this event, and it certainly won't be our last. I love that the race was completely inside the Mike Rose Soccer Complex. There is only one way in/out and it's closed during the race. Most of the race is on the paved trail winding between the fields with portions on the road through the complex. It's great that the race is fully contained because there is ZERO traffic around the race route, keeping us safe for the duration of the event.

There were over 300 participants this year. I was surprised at how big the event was! Despite the amount of participants, the field seemed to spread out quickly, and we didn't have any issues navigating traffic. I tried to stay out of the way due to the jogging stroller I was pushing, but at the same time, I wanted to beat my goal so I ran the tangents as often as possible. I started way too fast, which is very typical of race day. I was aiming at 14:30 min/mi pace. That would put us across the finish line at 44:00. However, I glanced at my watch for the first time at the .5mi and we were running at 9:50 min/mi pace, which is entirely too fast! I knew I was in for a serious workout at that point. I had to walk way more than I wanted to, but I made sure to keep my walking pace up. Did I mention I was pushing a stroller with 100lbs of offspring? Ya, that was exhausting.

The race ended with a 1/2 lap around the big soccer field, on the grass. I was hoping so much that the grass was dry and not damp. Thankfully, it's a professional field so it's designed in a way as to shed water off the field and we were able to run on dry ground near the out-of-bounds line. I tried to hustle the last 0.1mi, but as hard as I pushed the stroller just wouldn't go any faster. The grass won. We finished strong though and headed to the post race grub.

This is one of best post race celebrations I've ever been to for a 5k race. They had free pasta from Venice Kitchen. I didn't get any but the girls said it was great! They had plenty of fruit, snacks, froyo, and drinks to choose from. There was also a kids area with bounce houses and slides. The girls loved that!

All in all, this race was one of my favorites ever. I've been out of the race scene for a while, but this one was fantastic! Location, celebration, course, support, food, kindness. All these qualities describe this event. We will be back next year.

41:44