Developing Discipline: Part 1 | How to *actually* work towards your goals every day 💪
This month, one of our special classes will focus on developing discipline!​
I've met so many dancers who start ballet in hopes of developing discipline. They aspire to be the calm, quiet, focused dancers we see at the barre. Discipline is quite elusive, and something I've always wanted to have myself, too.
​Discipline is how we achieve our goals, whatever they are.
Your goals might be:
Learning ballet, a language, or an instrument
Reading
Gaining flexibility
Finishing your pet projects
Eating healthy
Drinking less coffee/alcohol/etc
Meditating
The sky is the limit​
Without discipline, we'll never reach our goals. But with it, we can do literally whatever we put our minds to! Now that's power 💪
Believe it or not, I've never considered myself a "disciplined" person. I've always really good at doing things for other people or things that are required (e.g. school projects, answering emails, assisting teammates, taking the dogs out, etc), but never was good at doing things for myself on a consistent basis.
When I was running Broche Denver, my daily routine looked like this:
Get out of bed 5:30 on the dot. Sit down at the computer to start working by 5:45 am
Monday-Friday: Finish working at 9 pm. Sat/Sun: Finish working at 3 or 4 pm
Yikes. Not exactly the healthy lifestyle I encouraged my dancers to adopt 😳👎
​In September 2019, I got fed up with my own inability to stick with any personal goals. Since then, I've been working to develop and define what being disciplined means to me. My goals have changed and morphed, but since that random day in September, I have done something every day just for me. For no one else but for me.. because I want to, I'm curious, or I'm passionate about it.
Passion makes Progress.
Since closing our Denver studios and starting a new life with Broche Online, I’ve been even more determined to take better care of myself and help you do the same. COVID was the lowest point in my self-care, though I did still manage 15 push-ups each day (my goal at the time).
It's been eye-opening how important it is to take care of ourselves in order to make it through such challenging times. Making time for ourselves is more important than ever. And trust me, you have to make it. It won't just appear.
Over the past 60 days since moving out of Denver, my mornings have evolved to look like this:
Sometime between 5:30 and 6 am, get out of bed and sit quietly with coffee until I feel ready to greet the day (I do my best not to check social media, but am not perfect)
Read a book until 6:30 am
Listen to a Spanish lesson podcast while I cross-stitch until about 6:50 am
Exercise, meditate, etc 7:10 am-7:45 am
7:50-8 am get dressed and pick out whatever earrings strike my fancy
8 am walk the greyhounds
8:30 am chat with my bff and fellow business owner Julee
9 am start working​
I use my Dancers and Dogs wall calendar to keep track of my morning routine. Here's what August looked like for me:
August Self Care Calendar
In case you're curious what those letters mean...
E = Picked out earrings (haven't missed a SINGLE day since Jan 1; I know, it's a weird goal, but it was one of them!)
F = Foam roll
Y = Yoga
B = Ballet
W = My own warmup to work on my specific imbalances and things I need to work on
M = Meditation
P = Pointe
S = Strength/HIIT Cardio (my least favorite)
R = Deliberate Rest. Not just "didn't feel like it" but like "wowzers, I'm exhausted and super hungry and just need to take a second" -- though I only needed this once in 60 days
This routine took a while to develop but now I look forward to it every morning and am super bummed when I oversleep and have to miss part of it.
Bummed to sleep in?! I know, my younger self would NOT understand!
Mornings have come a long way since a year ago 🎉
Over the next few blog posts and within our September Monday evening live classes, we'll cover:
How to know what you even want to work on each day
How to have the confidence to change your routine and try something new when the people around you might think it's weird
What happens if you get tired or need a break
Reasons that our brains come up with to hold us back from our goals
​I'll be sharing stories of my own journey through push-ups, piano, indoor cycling, and now yoga/meditation/ballet/Spanish, what I've learned, and hopefully help you get on your way to achieving your goals, too. It's really fun once you get into it 😃​
Need a little motivation? This week's YouTube video will surely get you fired up to dance!
Enjoy these beautiful snippets of the dancers in our community and why they dance. If you want to share your story, reach out and I'd love to feature you!
And finally, don't miss Denise's story on Broche Banter
You'll find her in class with us most days of the week. She survived a stroke, tornado, and a horseback riding accident, and is STILL dancing!