Hey, what's going on guys? So today I would like to talk about a topic I get asked about all the time, and that is self-discipline - and specifically what I'm going to do in this article is share an exercise that I have done in the past and that I believe is one of the best ways to build a universally applicable mental toughness and self-disciple. You can apply it to basically any situation.
So here is the exercise and it comes in the form of a challenge that I am going to issue you. If you are willing, for the next 30 days, taking ice cold showers every single day.
Yeah, now I know I know some of you flinched just from the thought of doing that, but just like I said, I've done this and the fact that I did it for 60 days and now on a regular basis I end my showers cold even though I do them warm at this point. So the question is, "Why is an ice cold shower challenge the best way to build self-discipline?"
Well to answer that first I would like to talk a little bit about what self-discipline is. At its core self-discipline is the willingness to accept discomfort, and that could be in the form of physical pain or it could be in the form of discomfort from denying yourself instant gratification in service of making progress on longer term goals.
In either case, your ability to deal with your discomfort is a skill that must be built through repeated exposure. It's as Aristotle once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit." and if you take the words 'self-discipline' and slide it in place of 'excellence' (in Aristotle's quote), the quote still holds up. And the great thing about this process of building self-discipline is that no matter how you do it, it's an adaptable skill, much like a focus or will power or the muscles in our body - it's able to tackle a variety of different situations, even if it was trained in a different way.
So we've laid the foundation of self-discipline but the question still remains, "Why the heck is an ice-cold shower any better than any other method for building that mental toughness?" and the answer is two-fold.
First and most importantly, taking a cold shower is an exercise that is particularly resistant to excuses. So take something else like writing a term paper for example; so you have a term paper coming up and its due in a week. This is an opportunity for your brain to come up with lots insidious clever little rationalizations for not doing it now. You might tell yourself, "Hey, I've got plenty of time remaining, there is no need to rush things now. In fact, I do work better under a deadline anyways so I'll be more creative if I wait till Friday to start, so I might as well chill now because my schedule seems to be clear, right?" And in any case, you are going to come up with some rationalization that seems to make sense instead of telling yourself the truth which is you are lazy and you just don't want to do the work.
By contrast, taking a cold shower affords you no opportunity for this clever little rationalizations, because you are already going to take a shower everyday anyways so you are left with nothing but a simple binary decision; either you turn that handle to cold and embarrass discomfort head on or you avoid that discomfort and turn the handle to hot, and regardless of what choice you make, you know the reason you made it is because of your ability and your willingness to accept or not accept that level of discomfort.
The second reason why this is such a good exercise goes back to what I was saying earlier; you are going to take a shower anyways, so you are not taking any extra time out of your day to do this. Instead you are just facing that same decision you make every since morning, and you are choosing discomfort rather than comfort, and every time that you do it you are building that universal mental toughness that you can use in every other situation; and it really is universal, otherwise people in boot-camp wouldn't be forced to scrub floors and toilets because that wouldn't apply to combat situation. But it does, and in the same way, a cold shower challenge is going to apply to your homework or that side project you've been doing when you get home from work, or that gym session you've been trying to convince yourself to go to. All of these things draw from that same reserve willpower, grit and mental toughness that you build every single time you face discomfort willingly.
So that's it. I've set my peace and I know not everyone is going to like this challenge. And hey, I get it, this is ice cold water coming down on your face every single day for 30 days; that's not a whole lot of fun. But like I said I have done this challenge myself, in fact for double the amount of time, and I really did see a result.
Now the creative people among you may realize that there are other things you could do that you already do every day where you could just choose the uncomfortable option rather than the comfortable one. So if you have any additional ideas for self-discipline exercises I would love to hear from you down in the replies below.
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Cheers.