France has banned corporal punishment of children by their parents/guardians this week. That means no smacking/hitting etc and I’m pretty sure it means in the home as well as in public. They haven’t outlined any punishments for transgressors but I am thinking that will come. I was occaisionally smacked as a kid and the funny thing is the only ‘beltings’ I can recall are the couple I felt I didn’t deserve. Not that I got many.
As a young mum, I felt the need to smack my son’s hand a couple of times but one day he came to me and asked me if I really loved him. He was around two when he asked me this. When I said ‘Of course, I love you!’ he said ‘Then don’t hit me!’ I was mortified, and of course I never hit him again!
It will be interesting to see how this new law plays out in France.
Discipline can be a scary word. My word for 2019 is focus and so far I’ve managed to keep my focus on writing about half the time I would have liked. I am probably a bit hard on myself but the last few days I’ve shifted my focus to discipline. I’ve read this article and that about how motivation isn’t enough and discipline is too much and frankly I’m fed up with it all. The hard truth is you need discipline if you want to achieve a goal. I’m working on the discipline to go to bed earlier (perhaps just one episode of Stranger Things tonight, honey…?), to eat a cleaner diet (put down all the fake ‘healthy’ processed food I was deluding myself into eating), and the discipline to put on my coat and go for a walk even when it’s cold and rainy.
I haven’t been wasting my hard-earned discipline on avoiding coffee though! Fuck that. If I am disciplined enough to do all of the above then the odd Flat White with Almond milk is my reward (some people might call that a punishment!) Four days in, so far, so good…
It’s ironic that I am posting about discipline when I haven’t really made time to sit at my computer since Friday. I started this post on Monday and I’m posting in on Thursday. I’ve been a little undisciplined in writing my goals out each day so perhaps I can re-hone my focus by using that little hack? I stopped doing it when we went to Bali in early May and I was really disciplined and focused then, so I’ll go back to doing that. I’m normally really dedicated to Camp Nanowrimo but I’m already behind in my word count this month…although if I included my blog posts I’d be well and truly on track.
Discipline is the ultimate in self-love if it helps us live our best life.
While I’m on the subject of goals, discipline and other fun stuff, I found a really interesting approach to the Law of Attraction techniques. A lot of people think that LoA is a load of twaddle but then since when do I care what a lot of people think? It’s sounds loopy but the WOOP method provides a scientific route to the Law of Attraction based on research and sound empirical evidence.
Back in 2005, my hubby and I decided to get a work visa (Grandparent’s visa – My grandfather was born in the UK) to live and work in England for 4 years. We wanted to give our son some different opportunities, travel more in Europe and I’ve always wanted to do the work abroad thing and due to life having other ideas I never did. Well we got our visa, we had out Wish and knew the Outcome we desired but after watching this video I can see that identifying Obstacles and Planning accordingly would have been very bloody helpful! Life intervened again and guess what, I never did manage to work in England. Things happened that we couldn’t really have planned for anyway, like my father in law being diagnosed with leukemia. Sometimes all the planning in the world still won’t change the outcome.
The WOOP method is similar to Tim Ferriss’ Fear Setting technique but instead of outlining the desired outcome Ferriss suggests we really get into the nitty-gritty of all the ways it could blow up in our faces. Interesting. I found this useful when thinking about the…err…extra winter weight I’ve put on, my winter coat I call it! I’m getting older and the old metabolism is slowing so I have to start exercising more and eating less/better because the worst that can happen is that I feel sluggish, and yes, get fat. The world will tell us that that’s fat-shaming and poor Joe Rogan gets hate-mail because he helps people lose weight and celebrates when they do, but hey, each to their own. For me, I like to be a certain weight and I’m not going to apologise for that.
So yeah, the worst for me is that I will become overweight. But then I think the question refers to what is the worst that can happen if I begin to push myself to exercise more and eat cleaner. I fear hurting my back again and I fear the ridicule of others when I eat out because I’m already a vegetarian on a gluten free (I’m coeliac, diagnosed at 15). What can I do to minimise the damage? Stay away from rude people who comment on gluten-free diets and insist on telling me that ‘Lettuce Feels Pain Too!’ I can’t really see a downside to eating better and exercising more. If I hurt my back I’ll re-do all the steps I took last year to sort that out and the worst case scenario is I’ll learn something new about myself in the process.
The real challenge is to truly be in the moment and be thankful for the physical health I have now, because god knows I wish I truly appreciated the body I had when I was 25 and thought I was hideous! Youth truly is wasted on the young.
Fave podcast this week – The Goodlife Project.
Christine, there’s a lot of practical wisdom in your post. At one point, I was reminded of something from Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata: “Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.” Flat White with Almond milk? I’ve never had one, but it sounds terrific. All the best!
ha, yes just a boring coffee with milk! 😉 How funny, I was over reading some of your posts and watching the clip of A Christmas Carol as your comment popped up. I do love a good synchronicity!
Focus is such a great word!
For a little fun – I nominated you for these questions but no obligation of course!
https://medium.com/@tammybreitweiser/73-questions-a0acfa66b7e1