One Target, One Shot, Multiple Kill
It doesn’t matter which one you hunger for: self-love, self-care, self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-development; all or a subset of them, the answer to all of them is rather too straight forward.
I wish there was more to write about but the simple answer is:
self-discipline
Self Discipline
SELF DISCIPLINE
SELF… okay you get the point.
Many things thrown around these days on social media as self-love, self-care are nothing but the things that spice life up once in a while. Love is an everyday thing. You live with yourself every day. So, the true self-love is what you do daily that lifts up and honor your mind, body, and soul; not the once in a blue moon treat you manage to get.
Let me make this more relatable.
Imagine someone else slept for you, ate for you, drank for you, exercised for you and did all the things you need every day to be your best self. Imagine that this person fed you junk, gave you only 4 of the 7 hours of sleep you needed, didn’t drink enough water but drank sugar-rich soft drinks and caffeine to give you energy. These left you sleep-deprived, and nutrient-deficient. Your body is tired almost always and nutrient deficient even though it is fed too much food. The response to your frequent lows is more of the same.
Imagine that at the end of every month or every 3 months, this person gave you a vacation, took you to the spa, took you shopping, did the ones in a while stuff to spice up your life. Like the cool kids say, they gave you a blast. But at the end of it all, this person faithfully brings you back to the same survival mode they had given you a blast to forget and continues the cycle promising you very soon you’ll have that blast again.
I’m sure you’ll think this person is hates you. You’ll not think of their treats as love. You’ll call it manipulation.
But this is how we tend to live. We are constantly on survival mode with the promise to self of the treat we deserve. And the reason for this is fundamentally because the highest form of self-love > self-discipline is hard.
Self-discipline is the highest and ultimate form of self-love, self-care…. It is also the only way to genuinely feel that you are being to yourself the person you want to be to yourself. You can’t love yourself without self-discipline. Self-discipline is how you love yourself and care for yourself. Not only that, but it is also the only thing you can do to produce the genuine, inside-out self-esteem, self-confidence that you need.
You do not get the fruits by obsessing about the fruits, you get good fruits by nourishing the tree at its roots. Self-discipline is the roots, focus on it and the tree will produce all the desirable fruits.
