But it will cost you everything if you don't."
Discipline is a muscle. Go Build it. Key is to understand different activities require different muscles.
Be mindful of picking your activities, but dont keep on waiting.
E.g. I know many people who go through bouts of intense fitness or diet fixations, take a lot of well-deserved pride in their discipline, and then hit a major event that temporarily precludes the fixation. They really struggle to get back on the train.
One major factor, IMO, is that they’re daunted by the intensity of what they achieved before. Obviously in fitness there’s a physical component to this, but there’s a significant mental component as well — especially outside of fitness.
Basically all I’m saying is you can (and should) gradually and deliberately dial up your sense of self-efficacy when it inevitably crosses some local minimum due to events outside of your control. You ought to build a self-image that’s robust to occasional and sometimes significant failures.
Goal Mindset = "reach difficult state of fitness"
Process Mindset = "Time to do my gym routine, just with lighter weights bc I'm temporarily weakened"
So I gave up on that. I go with the flow of my brain. When I can, I build and shore up systems that will survive chaos and reduce my cognitive load. When I can't do plan A, hopefully I can manage plan B, C, or D.
This seems to work pretty well. I'm more reliable long-term when I allow myself to be unreliable day-to-day. :)