Resisting the urge

Not picking up my phone and not stopping running is the same thing in my brain.

Hey friends,

I’ve been thinking a bit about discipline lately. Not just motivation, but the mental strength that sits alongside it. The ability to go against your instincts for comfort and convenience. Side note: I’m unsure how much of this innate drive for what’s comfortable and easy is wired into us, and how of it has been rewired into us by companies.

A few weeks back, I realised I’d slipped into the habit of sending too much time on social media again - that muscle memory of just picking up the phone and scrolling. I knew it was impacting me in bad ways, my brain clarity, perception of self-worth, general calmness in life. But on the surface, my monkey brain loves the way the slot-machine mimicked dopamine triggers the Zuckerberg machine provide makes me feel.

That feeling when resisting the temptation to pick up my phone - going against what’s easy and comforting - is quite a distinct feeling.

I get the same feeling when running. Today I ran my first half marathon (woohoo!). Every inch of my body was telling me to stop, although I knew I wasn’t pushing to the point of injury, I was taking it slow and have progressed up to it etc - but it was a real mental effort to ignore what my brain was telling me in the moment.

Not stopping, resisting that instinct for the comfort, was quite hard. And it felt pretty similar to resisting the instinct to pick up my phone. Like the same part of my brain was being activated. The same muscle.

Discipline does seem like a muscle. It’s activated when motivation ends. And the more you train it, the stronger it gets.

Same with focus. Attention. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t noticed their attention span shrink over the last few years - the muscle get weaker. But I also think that if you’re intentional about it, if you sit with a book instead of your phone, or even just resist the urge to check it for no reason, you can build that focus back up.

The key is being really clear in your mind about what’s best for you, and then being intentional about your actions. But easier said than done!

When do you resist the urge? How does it make you feel? Why?

Have a great week,

Ben