Intention VS. Discipline

“There is discipline; then there is flow. And there is a beautiful middle ground where you show up for yourself every day by honoring the things you want for you and your body.” – Kenzie Burke. Food, Sex & Money Podcast ep. 40

Thank you, Kenzie, for helping me discover a thought I could never quite label.

A long time ago, I discovered how I wanted to live my life. It was dramatically different from the way I HAD been living. Since that day, there have been many things I get frustrated by that people say or do. I never knew why or what exactly the reason was for my frustration.

This podcast episode answered that for me. What bothers me now is when people are so rigid and structured, they don’t give themselves or anyone else room to switch things up—no room for error. I was finally living my life through INTENTIONS instead of strict DISCIPLINE. I was living in my flow. Who knew!! And that is why I get bothered because I used to live that way.  

 

Discipline –

What does she mean by this? What do I mean by this? Well, let me explain. Discipline, to me, paints a picture of failure. One where you are mad if you don’t get XYZ done in a day, or if you eat a cookie after dinner and become frustrated you broke your diet. Things of that nature. It makes me think of people not allowing forgiveness to enter their lives in any way—especially forgiveness from themself. The dictionary definition of “discipline” is:

dis·ci·pline| ˈdisəplən | noun

1. the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

 

Is that how you want to treat yourself?!

Discipline yourself as if you were disobedient to YOU if you were to eat a cookie?! Heck no! That’s not how I want to live. To me, this only creates a sense of failure and internal heartache. It is difficult to overcome any obstacle, hell even getting through Tuesday, with such an attitude.

 

Intention –

in·ten·tion| inˈten(t)SH(ə)n | noun

1. a thing intended; an aim or plan

AIM OR PLAN! To me, this sounds like a much more productive way to schedule and maneuver your day. Often people seem to get tripped up by plans that get thrown off. They feel lost because their minds have always used scheduling and “the known” for their decisions. They automatically turn to anger and self-doubt when they don’t do something according to plan.

 

Wondering why the hell I’m writing about this??

Let me tell you. For the majority of my life, I had everything “planned out,” so I thought. I think you can agree that it is more common than not for everyone to have a reasonably specific life plan for their future. You see, the problem in doing this is that you are 1. shut off to new opportunities because they’re *not in the plan*. And 2. when your goal is {& it will be let me tell you} thrown off course, you will have no tools in your belt to deal with picking yourself back up. 

I’m not here trying to tell you what to do; I am not coming from a place of negativity, and please don’t stop planning if that is the way you function best. I want to share the beautiful way Kenzie worded the idea of intention VS. discipline. Intentions, Discipline, and Flow!

 

There is a beautiful balance to be had.

I found her point about ~intentions~ to be so powerful. 

I have been looking for a way to explain to myself, and others, the idea of setting intentions for yourself. The lesson in learning the difference will help to stay positive and avoid burnout. When you set goals and fail to meet those goals, you are doomed to feel bad about yourself. If you were to set INTENTIONS for the job, project, day, what have you, and fall short of everything you intended. That is much kinder than feeling like a failure. Because, after all, they were only intentions. As long as the intentions were good, positive, healthy, and helpful, you’re moving in the right direction!

✺ If you set an intention for your day, let’s say to watch a workout video right when you wake up and then sleep in. Don’t immediately feel shame and get mad at yourself. Instead, choose a different time later in the day to still get your workout in. 

✺ Allow yourself to listen to your body and what it wants. In honoring your body, you will have to live less rigidly, but you can find a flow. There is no reason why you can’t honor what is good for you and what you are used to doing. FIND-THE-FLOW!

✺ Set INTENTIONS for yourself, and don’t be so mean to yourself. Don’t discipline yourself. Allow yourself to be fluid and flow as it is intended. LET GO and let flow.

 

So I hope you can take something from this, and if not, that is ok too (: We are all on our own journey, and everyone is different. That is the beauty of us all.

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All my love –

xoxo, T ☺︎

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