Staring At Your Shoes

There's a David Goggins clip that keeps doing the rounds where he talks about staring at his shoes for 30 minutes before getting up and going out the door for a run. The man everyone holds up as the pinnacle of mental toughness, dreading the thing he's about to do, every single time. I think most people miss the point when they share it.

The truth is he doesn't want to do any of the things he does, he just knows he has to. That's the whole thing about discipline, you have to work out a way to do it anyway. Not when the conditions are perfect, not when you feel inspired, not when you've watched enough motivational clips to get yourself moving. You just have to find your own way through the door when everything in you is saying don't bother.

It's easy to do things when the current is going your way. When the sun's out and the birds are chirping, everyone can do that. I've written about this a few times now, and I keep coming back to it because I keep seeing people treat discipline like it's a personality trait you either have or you don't. The really disciplined people are the ones that know they will struggle, know that times will be tough, and they embrace it. They look forward to it because they know they're going to find a way through, and that's where the real gains are.

My motivation comes in waves, it always has. I know that the hard days are where I'll improve the most, that struggling through them makes the easy days feel much better, but knowing it and dragging myself towards doing it are two very different things. I've stopped waiting for motivation to show up before I start because it never arrives when you need it. It's a fair-weather friend that disappears the moment things get uncomfortable. The only thing that works is having something you can't get out of, a commitment you've made that forces you through the door whether you feel like it or not.

Goggins stares at his shoes. I have my own version of that, and you probably have yours. The method doesn't matter, what matters is that you do it anyway.