Muliebrity: Qualities of a Woman                                  Excerpts

Discipline: Your Best Friend

Okay. You’ve just read the title of this chapter, and you’re thinking to yourself, “I was with her right up until now. But I can’t take one ore person telling me that if I just got up a little earlier, did a little more, tried a little harder, I could have it all.”

Good! I’m glad if that’s what you think. Because I’m not talking about eh SuperWoman-you-can-have-it-all-including-a-nervous-breakdown rubbish too many of us bought in the Seventies and Eighties. When I say discipline, I’m not talking about doing more or working harder.

By discipline, I mean doing more of what gets us to our dreams, less of what doesn’t. Working smarter, not harder. Moderation, if you will…

Let me explain something here. Most of us can handle tons of stuff—after all, we’re women—as long as we feel it’s contributing to making our dreams come true. Think about it. When you’re doing something you truly enjoy, can’t you stick with it for hours and not tire? Most of us also realize that there are some things in life, like cleaning toilets, that we may not be crazy about doing, but that have to be done, and we can adjust to that.

It’s the truly non-essential stuff that isn’t getting us to our dreams that turns us into whining complainers. We’ve lost our balance, our equilibrium: the non-essentials have become too weighty, and they’re throwing our entire life off kilter: we’re doing too much that drains us, and not enough that enriches us. And we react to that unbalanced state by whining.

So from now on, when we hear ourselves use that awful tone of voice, or realize that people who count aren’t paying attention to what we’re saying anymore, let’s make a pact to “control” our behavior and stop whining. Then we should take a look at our lives, see where we’re getting weighed down, and decide what needs to be rearranged or has to go.

So discipline can help us contend with our busy schedules, because it helps us focus on what’s important, and teaches us when to push and when to pull back on what we’re doing. It helps us maintain our balance…

Moderation. How I love that word! It’s not all or nothing. Don’t believe that. Let’s adopt a new motto: “It’s moderation and everything!”

Deprivation is negative. Rigid schedules stifle us. So let’s keep a little bi of everything we love in our lives. Let’s do something on the spur of the moment: it’s rejuvenating to be off your schedule for a while. When we mix it all up, it’s fun and goofy and we get a fresh outlook on the everyday things of life.

For more information, or to purchase a copy of this book, click here6.