365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 33: On Things You Can’t Rush

The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women

are assigned.

—Fred Brooks

 

32

Patience  and  self-discipline  are  close  cousins.  If  you  want  to  reject

instant gratification for the sake of accomplishing your long-term goals, it

might  take  months  or  years  before  you  receive  your  big  compensation.

Without patience, you’ll get nowhere.

While  sometimes  you  can  force  results  to  come  more  quickly  —  by

pushing yourself harder and being as diligent as you can during the process

— oftentimes things take time and there’s no way to rush them, no matter

how many resources you apply.

Like  pregnancy,  some  things  follow  a  natural  schedule  you  can’t

control.  If  you  fail  to  identify  which  things  cannot  be  rushed,  you  might

misapply the power of self-discipline and instead of achieving them more

quickly, fail to achieve them at all.

For example, a body has a natural limit of how much body fat it can

burn during a week without breaking down your muscle. If you try to rush

the process by starving yourself, the most likely end result is an unplanned

cheat week that will not only take you back to square one, but most likely

add some additional body fat to your frame .

Even  with  things  that  are  difficult  to  measure,  such  as  learning  to

control  your  mind  so  that  you  can  eventually  radiate  optimism,  you  can’t

force yourself to change overnight. Rewiring your brain takes time, and it

doesn’t matter how much time you spend meditating or reading books about

emotional control; a process that is so profound takes time.

Generally speaking, if it has taken you years or decades to develop a

negative trait, don’t expect that you can reverse it within weeks or months.

Approach  such  undertakings  with  the  belief  that  you’ll  do  your  best,  but

that you won’t get discouraged or frustrated if the process is slow. It would

be as futile as a woman complaining that pregnancy lasts nine months.

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