The resilience-factor nr. 5. Confronted with the word discipline many people suddenly get the feeling of powerlessness. A bit of this kind of a story: ‘Tried it each year, but gave in after a couple of weeks.’ For many people discipline has something of a slightly demotivating and unreachable ideal. People with a high resilience-factor however, have a rather well-developed form of discipline, and are therefore better capable in enjoying life. They are less dependent on the change of mood or luxury-problems (like too much fat on the bones, too little or too irregular sleep, too little exercise, etc.).
In his newest book ‘Great by Choice’ Jim Collins gives an overview of 10 companies that even amidst of the great turbulences within the markets have kept on growing constantly and are still very successful and healthy. One of the principles that is distinguishing these companies from their main competition is ‘the 20 miles march principle’. If you are walking each day for 20 miles from out of LA, you’ll get to New York within 100 days. The Roman army forces have also lived by this rule (literally). They marched each day for 20 miles, and made camp at exactly that spot, no matter if it was only 3 PM or already 7 PM.
A good example of this ’20 miles march principle’ is the way that South West Airlines grew from a minor to one of the leading Airliners in the world. They decided to structurally grow each year with a certain percentage. With no more, and no less. Doing so they proved to be strong enough to face the most turbulent times, like after the 9/11 disaster. They are, for year already, the nr. 1 Airliner in employees-rating and are creating for 30 years straight a healthy profit.
What has all this to do with you and me, you might ask? Well, people with a high resilience-factor are living by this ’20 miles march principle’. They take on a healthy challenge each day, are consequently finishing their tasks. They decide themselves about the boundaries of their work and growth.
The organization Meisterleistung, which is specialized in training resilience, describes it as follows: ‘People with a high resilience-factor are able to pass short-term-rewards in order to work towards long-term-goals. Being able to experience, control and steer your own behavioural- and emotional-impulses is strongly connected to this.
Naturally discipline is not so much a goal in itself, but much more a tool! A tool to build a healthier lifestyle. There are 5 main factors to be considered here:
1- healthy exercise
2- healthy sleep
3- healthy nutrition
4- healthy finances
5- healthy rhythm
If you add ‘healthy relations’ to this list you would pretty much have the definition of health of the World Health Organisation. We will be addressing the topic of ‘healthy relations’ further down the road in the light of the resilience-factor 7. Today some more about healthy exercise…
Hippocrates already named ‘a walk’ to be one of the 3 pillars of health. Healthy movement is easier to realize than most people tend to believe. It starts with going for a walk (for about 30-60 minutes) 3-4 times a week. Others live by the 10.000 steps a day principle (which adds up to walking about 5-7 km each day), which is slightly difficult to realize on a normal office-day. But by making the most out of each opportunity you are still able to get a lot of exercise. For instance, take the stairs, take the bike, go for a walk after dinner instead of getting comfortable before the telly immediately after.
It’s ideal to combine these basic exercises with 1-2 times a week strength-training. Discipline is learnable, trainable and achievable! It is the art to start doing so in small and realistic steps, just to find your own rhythm, and to develop it into a habit. Before something becomes a habit it needs repetition though, generally between 36 and 50 times. In short, go for a walk (a real walk) three times a week, and do so for at least 4 months to let it grow into a habit.
A great book to get you started is ‘Keine Zeit und Trotzdem Fit’ by Gert von Kuhnhardt (one of my examples in regard to the topic of a healthy life-style). It is in German, but hey: I guess that is pretty great for all my German-speaking friends. Anyway, it will really help you to find a personal way to start a life with more exercise and movement!
Good luck, and enjoy it!
Paul Ch. Donders
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