Exercising Self-Discipline

There are many expressions like “exercising discipline”, “mental toughness”, and “staying strong” that all evoke the idea of working out mentally in the same way we do to build physical strength. The last 100+ days with KTC have been eye-opening to me as it relates to mental toughness.  Like everyone here, I joined to quit dip and it was a struggle.

I made a daily promise to stay quit and initially it was an internal battle all day long to stick to it. After winning this battle day after day, I came to realize the simple power of quitting one day at a time. The promise was public, but really, I was making a daily commitment to myself and I was holding firm to it. I was finally becoming honest with myself. It’s hard to explain to a non-addict how nicotine can cause internal debate and conflict- just like in cartoons with the angel and devil on shoulders. It’s a damn hard thing to win an argument against yourself!

Discipline Applied Elsewhere

It didn’t take long before I realized I could take the same trick for nicotine and apply it elsewhere. I started long distance running almost every day. Same approach: I made a forward-looking commitment to myself the day before each workout, and then I held firm to it. I went from multiple alcoholic drinks per day to just a few drinks total the last several months. Same deal- post the daily promise to the crew and stick to it. The list goes on; in many small ways that I’ve been able to accomplish more and improve my physical well-being simply by setting goals and not accepting my own BS excuses when it came time to execute.

Quitting dip was my exercise to build the mental toughness “muscles”. Each day I stay quit, I get a little stronger, and it’s a flex of how strong I’ve become. Now I can use that strength and apply it to all sorts of goals. Thanks to KTC, I have come so far from the wimp who was driving around to multiple gas stations in the middle of the night to find another can.

Thanks to everyone in the KTC community who has played a part!

-donsotheraccount (Dec 23)