Something I see all the time in my research and writing and talk about frequently in my coaching practice is the need to marry fierce self-discipline with fierce self-compassion.

On sustainable success, peak performance, and career advice.

THREAD 👇👇

Self-discipline: Pursuing what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it; focus on task hand; showing up consistently, even when you don't want to.

Self-compassion: Being kind to yourself in the midst of struggle; creating space to hold softly what you are feeling.
Research shows clearly that both self-discipline and self-compassion are associated with sustainable peak performance.

Self-discipline is your fuel as you move forward on your respective path. Self-compassion is your guard-rail: it keeps you on course when you go astray.
Self-compassion is especially powerful when things are hard or when you experience failure.

Why? Simple.

If when you fail you are judgmental and beat yourself up all you are doing is wasting energy. If you are kind to yourself, you can simply get up, adjust, and go again.
Self-compassion makes you fearless.

If you cultivate strong self-compassion you can take risks and fail and go to hard places knowing you can hold it all and still be okay.

It doesn't make hard things less hard; it makes you more able to handle them. (See work: @DennisTirchPhD)
Self-compassion is not automatic—it's a quality to develop.

Notice when you are being harsh on yourself. How does it make you feel? What would it look like to change that self-talk?

This isn't about brushing off every misstep. It's about not wasting energy beating yourself up.
When you are blowing energy beating yourself up or in a ruminative spiral ask yourself: what would I say to a friend in this situation?

We tend to be much kinder—and equally important, much wiser—when we are looking out for our friends than when we are looking out for ourselves.
"This is what is happening right now, I'm doing the best that I can."

A mantra I use all the time, with myself and my coaching clients. It snaps you out of your head and puts you back into the present moment. Also, if it's not true, you realize that immediately and make it true.
Self-discipline takes you to the hard places. It is the firm persistence to keep going.

Self-compassion is what gives you the courage when you are at the gate, and what helps you get back up when you are thrown down.

And then self-discipline gets you moving forward again.
If you want more evidence-based content on peak performance, sustainable success, and career advice give me a follow. I post threads like this 2x/week.

More from Writing

SHORT THREAD!

Simple Writing Trick to Avoid Plagiarism when using Templates

This may be useful for anyone but the examples here are more relevant to scholarship applicants

In other words, how to avoid the copy & paste syndrome.

Kindly RT to help others.

The past week brought some concerns about plagiarism in scholarship documents. For example:


Plagiarism is unacceptable at any level in academia and may lead to several undesirable outcomes, including revocation of admission offers or conferred degrees. So here is how you can prevent or rid yourself of the copy&paste syndrome


1. Don't use any template at all.
Just follow the darn instructions, or use helpful tips scattered all over the internet. Worry less about perfection.

I understand this may be hard for less experienced scholars. So if you must use a template, continue with the thread.

2. If possible, find more than one template.

This helps you identify the flow of ideas and the commonalities in the template. You can then develop your own unique document from this knowledge.

If you are still confused and must use a template, continue with the thread
I can second this observation through personal experience. I was only able to start writing because "it's just dumb weeb fanfiction quests, who cares." 100,000 pages of dumb weeb fanfic later, and I actually got better... but only because I was trying my best with every page.


"It's dumb weeb fanfiction" gave me permission to be bad, to vomit things onto the page that I knew fell far short of what I wanted it to be. To just write and write instead of laboring over six paragraphs for weeks like I'd always done before.

But I still *wanted* to be good.

Writing is HARD. And unfortunately, most people don't appreciate just how hard writing (or communication in general) is, and that cultural attitude infects writers, too.

You must give yourself permission to be bad. And realize that all writing is practice.

IT. COUNTS.

And as the folks in my mentions are pointing


... it's an excellent way to find out what actually resonates with other people - putting work out there. Even your early bad stuff you'll cringe at later.

What resonates is NOT easy to tell, because we all, inherently cringe at ourselves, a lot.

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🌺कैसे बने गरुड़ भगवान विष्णु के वाहन और क्यों दो भागों में फटी होती है नागों की जिह्वा🌺

महर्षि कश्यप की तेरह पत्नियां थीं।लेकिन विनता व कद्रु नामक अपनी दो पत्नियों से उन्हे विशेष लगाव था।एक दिन महर्षि आनन्दभाव में बैठे थे कि तभी वे दोनों उनके समीप आकर उनके पैर दबाने लगी।


प्रसन्न होकर महर्षि कश्यप बोले,"मुझे तुम दोनों से विशेष लगाव है, इसलिए यदि तुम्हारी कोई विशेष इच्छा हो तो मुझे बताओ। मैं उसे अवश्य पूरा करूंगा ।"

कद्रू बोली,"स्वामी! मेरी इच्छा है कि मैं हज़ार पुत्रों की मां बनूंगी।"
विनता बोली,"स्वामी! मुझे केवल एक पुत्र की मां बनना है जो इतना बलवान हो की कद्रू के हज़ार पुत्रों पर भारी पड़े।"
महर्षि बोले,"शीघ्र ही मैं यज्ञ करूंगा और यज्ञ के उपरांत तुम दोनो की इच्छाएं अवश्य पूर्ण होंगी"।


महर्षि ने यज्ञ किया,विनता व कद्रू को आशीर्वाद देकर तपस्या करने चले गए। कुछ काल पश्चात कद्रू ने हज़ार अंडों से काले सर्पों को जन्म दिया व विनता ने एक अंडे से तेजस्वी बालक को जन्म दिया जिसका नाम गरूड़ रखा।जैसे जैसे समय बीता गरुड़ बलवान होता गया और कद्रू के पुत्रों पर भारी पड़ने लगा


परिणामस्वरूप दिन प्रतिदिन कद्रू व विनता के सम्बंधों में कटुता बढ़ती गयी।एकदिन जब दोनो भ्रमण कर रहीं थी तब कद्रू ने दूर खड़े सफेद घोड़े को देख कर कहा,"बता सकती हो विनता!दूर खड़ा वो घोड़ा किस रंग का है?"
विनता बोली,"सफेद रंग का"।
तो कद्रू बोली,"शर्त लगाती हो? इसकी पूँछ तो काली है"।