When someone asks me if I am Disciplined, I always judge myself overall in all areas of life and answer, “No”. That’s what I used to think about myself.
I tried waking up in the past and managed to do it for a few months, but life eventually turned for the worst and I stopped. Just goes on to prove that I am, in fact, not disciplined, right?
Wrong. I am disciplined, even though I don’t wake up at 5 AM. I am just disciplined at certain parts of my life and flexible for the rest.
It’s only recently that I realized I don’t have to be “Disciplined” in all areas of my life. I am not trying to be 100% disciplined, a machine that can stick to the plan no matter what. I am just a mere mortal, trying to improve some parts of my life.
This is called “Atomic Discipline”.
Atomic Discipline: Discipline in a specific part of life. Everything else remains flexible.
– Samiul 😎
Examples of Atomic Discipline
Atomic Discipline is a shift in perspective. With this concept at my hand, if anyone asks if I am disciplined, I will answer: “That depends on which area of life we are talking about”. I am not disciplined with exercise, but I am disciplined with:
- Finances: I use YNAB to track all my expenses and monitor each category.
- Phone Usage: I have disabled my phone notifications and intentionally added app launch delays that I respect.
- Blogging: It takes discipline and planning to continue publishing a post on every even date for more than 4 months.
For those of us who are struggling to be more disciplined in life, breaking down life into smaller parts and applying discipline in isolation is more effective. Give it a try or just think for a bit to see if perhaps you are already disciplined in certain parts of your life.