(Subscribe to my YouTube channel–there you will see me going heavy duty in setting up my new studio for a…well…I’m getting closer to a new podcast with each passing day. Including a whole new microphone/equipment set up. Let’s just say I’m in deep).

Ok-here’s the post:

As you know I’ve been doing the small steps thing for a while now. As in – my own practice.

But I want to stress this fact: I am still so much in my own small steps practice I can’t even tell you.

I am in my own work of defining who I am, what I stand for, and taking action to become that person more each day.

As I’ve said many a-time, I have a history of militancy. Note, I’m not saying I am a militant person, but rather I can document multiple times in my past that I’ve behaved that way. Hence the work I am doing to become more of who I truly am—a person who is not militant. Sound weird? Such is the Small Stepper’s life…Dare I say Nutty Nut Nut?

It’s just that I (the ‘me’ of the me/not me game) do not value militancy or hyper-discipline. Both have gotten me into trouble and both have led, at times, to a diminished quality of life. I have forced myself to keep to things at the expense of my happiness. There, I said it.

But, here’s the kicker….

Discipline (and even at times, militancy) have also facilitated things like this blog, smallsteppers.com, my podcast, vlog, music albums, and more. In other words, I’ve been able to start and finish things. I tend to actually, you know, get ‘er done.

But I think there’s a fine line between discipline and militancy. While accomplishing things can be wonderful, not so if what you accomplish is at the expense of a happy life.

I’m not anti-discipline—but I do want people to minimize the amount of discipline they need in order to live the lives they want to live. In other words, I want people to act without having to rely 100% on sheer discipline and will power. Of course we can force ourselves to do any number of things for a while. For a while. But rarely for as long as we might want.

The struggle, therefore, is how to become disciplined enough to achieve what you want to achieve, but not so much that you become a militant, rigid person.

We need discipline. We need energy, intention, and discipline to act, no matter how small the action. Fine.

But our mission (should we choose to live our best lives) is to recognize as fast as possible when we’ve become locked in a behavior that we no longer feel strong enough to stop. When we’ve become too disciplined.

Our mission is to always remember instead that we do in fact have the power and strength to change, to stop, and to adjust if necessary.

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