Discipline or Regret

In each moment, we make a choice about who we are right now. That choice can be highly conscious or it can be highly distracted. Right now, for example, you can reflect on the choices you’ve made so far today - how conscious have these choices been? What I mean by “conscious” is making a choice to act with full awareness of what you are doing and why you are doing it, down to the basic elements of the way you carry your body, the movements you make (e.g., brushing your teeth or picking up a cup of water), the tone of your voice, etc. And what I don’t mean is contrived effort to make all of these actions a certain way you think you should behave, but just very clear awareness about how you are carrying yourself in the world in each little moment. I call this “spiritual discipline.” Letting each and every little action and behavior be an outer manifestation of the inner clarity of your mind (what does the way you walk and the tone of your voice say about the inner state of your mind?). I believe by paying close attention to this on a microscopic level it then becomes much easier to live a good life on a macroscopic level - things just seem to work out (because you are exerting the discipline in each moment to act with full awareness rather than distraction).

This quote summarizes the point I’m trying to make:
“We all must suffer one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is that discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”
– Jim  Rohn

To me this quote references the potential regret of living a life full of habitual thought and distraction versus the discipline of catching yourself thinking again and again throughout the day, allowing yourself to return to just what’s happening right now, and opening up to the possibility of this moment, to the person who is right in front of you, to nature that’s happening all around you, to just pure wonder at being alive at all… to remember how you really deeply want to be living and then ask the question, “does this behavior right now represent that deeper version of myself?” If it doesn't, the behavior is only reinforcing and adding to the regret pile that has built up over time. It may be painful to look at the regret pile, but that’s the only way to begin to chip away at it (discipline) versus continuing to add to its potentially crushing weight. So, in each little moment you can ask: “What does this action communicate about me?
”Is this an action of discipline or regret?”

***And, as always, there’s no need to judge or criticize yourself for “actions of regret.” The fact that you are simply noticing and giving yourself the opportunity to do something different is the essential first step.

Which path do you choose in each moment? The path of discipline or of regret?