Introducing ‘The Discipline Project’

There is a certain irony in the fact that I haven’t written a post here since this one about the death of the procrastinator inside of me. I could very easily spin my lack of new Primility posts on being so wrapped up in not procrastinating important tasks that I just haven’t gotten far enough down on my to-do list to write here; but that would be mostly disingenuous, so I won’t.

The fact is that I’ve struggled ever since I launched this blog to really understand what I want to do with it. There have been a few posts here and there, and I know what the overriding theme of the blog is — what primility means — but I just haven’t been able to coalesce all of my many thoughts on the subject and ideas for blog post series into anything coherent and consistent.

Until now.

Acknowledging a problem is the first step towards overcoming it…right?

Several months back, during the summer, I started a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Despite generally feeling happy from day to day, I figured it couldn’t hurt to see if there were ways I could add even more happiness to my life. Despite me, a single dude from the Midwest, not sharing much in the way of daily perspective with Rubin, a married mother of kids living on the east coast, I found much of what she discussed useful.

For the first several chapters, that is.

You see, like many things I start with great intentions, I never finished The Happiness Project. It sits half-read on the table next to my couch. The most recent action it got was several hours ago when I used it as a paper plate substitute for some pretzel bites I was munching on while watching football. Happiness indeed!

It occurred to me today, as it has many times over the past several weeks, that this is a habit I need to eliminate. Not pretzel popping; oh no. Sourdough pretzel bites make a lovely snack and a terrific beer companion. And certainly not watching football. Those who know me know that habit is not dying anytime soon.

No, the habit I need to eliminate is starting something, feeling good and excited about it, then inexplicably stopping it before completion.

As Kenen Thompson might ask, (Ooooh-eee!) what’s up with that?

Demanding more.

Seriously, I don’t get it sometimes. Whether it be a book, a workout program, a plan for eating better, a new blog, or a number of other projects or activities, I often find myself not following through like I wished I would.

Granted, it’s not all bad; not by a long shot.

I launched Midwest Sports Fans in the summer of 2008 and it’s stronger than ever, with a goal of 12 million pageviews for 2012. The company I am a part-owner of, Orangecast, recently launched Synthesis, one of the best managed WordPress hosting offerings available anywhere. And so far so good on the most recent project, The Assembly Call, an IU basketball postgame I host with a couple of IU hoops fanatics – we’ve had a show all ten games this year, and the previously moribund Hoosiers are 10-0. Success indeed!

None of these achievements, nor others I didn’t mention, occur without some serious stick-to-it-iveness.

But I’m still left gnawing feeling that I’m capable of more. Much more. And as 2012 approaches, I want to indulge this feeling and do something about it, because I think it is the essence of primility.

I am glad that I can take pride in the successes I have achieved, but I feel humbled when I look back at missed or overlooked or forlorn opportunities.

I have the pride to know that I’m capable of achieving anything when I put my mind properly to it, but humility sets in when I think about how many times I’ve put my mind to something but shortly thereafter forgotten about it and then not held myself accountable.

I pridefully see in myself the potential to do so much more than what I’ve already done, but I humbly know that I need to attack 2012 differently to get a different result than I got in 2011.

That’s where The Discipline Project comes in.

The Discipline Project

I’ve been knocking around ideas in my head for something like this ever since December of 2010, when I got the idea to write “30 Rules for 30″ – basically 30 tenets to guide my daily actions in my 30th year. I even wrote out the 30 rules, but I never got around to posting them, as I promised I’d do; and I certainly never got around to following them.

It’s a shame too, because when the idea first hit me I was really excited about it. There was no follow through though, so here I sit roughly a year later still seeking, wanting, craving some way to more consistently hold myself accountable to my goals.

Quick but relevant aside:

A couple years back I watched highlights of a Tom Izzo press conference when Michigan State was in the Final Four. Someone asked him what he thought heisrole was as a coach. He said, quite simply, that his role as a coach was to “hold players accountable to their dreams.” I thought this was a brilliantly succinct way to sum up what a coach should be. The best coaches bring the best out of their players, which should in theory guide said players in the direction of their goals.

I love that quote. I also refuse to believe that we necessarily need coaches to do this for us on a daily basis.

Of course we need coaches in our lives. It is of the utmost important that we always be humble enough to learn from those who know more and have more experience than we do. But on a day to day basis, I do not think we should have to have another person who holds us accountable to our goals. We should be able to hold ourselves accountable to our goals.

To me, that’s the essence of discipline; certainly it’s the essence of personal discipline.

And that is my goal for 2012: I want to learn how to hold myself accountable to my goals. The Discipline Project is how I am going to do that, and I will be taking you on the journey with me here at Primility.com.

What next?

The next steps:

• Define my goals for 2012 – because how can I hold myself accountable to them if I don’t know what they are?
• Chart long- and short-term courses for achieving my goals – because how can I expect to reach the achievement of my goals, my ultimate desired destination, if I don’t have a roadmap to follow?
• Monitor constantly and publicly – because both will ensure accountability.

As I go on this journey, I’m happy to have anyone jump onboard who wants to. I don’t need to just hold myself accountable for my goals; we can hold eachother accountable for our goals.

And don’t worry, I won’t take it personally if you wait a week or a month or longer to make sure I’m serious about this and actually follow through on it, given my checkered history with bold proclamations here at this site and other places. I’ve earned that doubt.

In the interest of full disclosure, that same doubt has been whispering in my ear through every keystroke of this post. Why wouldn’t it? I’ve done some good things in my time, things I’m proud of; but I’ve left a lot of other worthwhile successes on the table because I haven’t been willing to hold myself accountable and demand the daily discipline of myself that it takes to consistently achieve goals.

Writing this post is step one in what I hope, no expect, will be a long and worthwhile journey towards rekindling the fire of discipline and achievement that once burned within me. It’s still there. I can feel the embers. The coals remain warm. Now I’ve just got to get the fire started and then feed it regularly so it never goes back out.

So that’s the idea. That’s The Discipline Project.

I’m excited. Let’s do this.