How to Discipline Yourself Without Buzz Kill!

I have a love/hate relationship with Discipline. I know I need it. I have it in certain areas, but a lot of times it's a buzz kill! Case in point: Drinking water. I know I'm supposed to do it but I usually forget. Or if I do manage to remember, I also remember that I don't like water! (#60)

I've tried so many things, including getting one of those water jugs that has happy saying on the side like, "way to go!" "You're on a roll" for every 8 ounces you drink. But, there I'd be at 9:00 at night, the happy water bottle more than half full still. I wasn't happy at all! But then I thought of another idea.

Alarms. We listen to them! They tell us to wake up. We do! They tell us a meeting is about to start...we stop what we're doing and get ready for that! So why not use alarms for more than just that? I tried it. I created an alarm for every two hours to remind me to drink water. Success? No.

What? Don't panic!! It was ultimately a success but here's what I had to do: It wasn't enough to say "drink water". I needed to be more specific in my "alarm". It's too easy to dismiss a "drink water" alert. So I made it more detailed. Instead, I mad my alarm say this:

"Pour a 16 oz glass of water. Drink by 11 AM." That's much more clear than "drink water". I know exactly what I need to do. I know which glass to use and I know when I need to drink it by. Way more helpful! Then 4 hours later the alarm reads: "Finish last water: Pour another 16 oz glass and drink by 3:00." There's no question as to what I need to do. I don't need to think about how to execute it because I've given all the direction needed. This has been a life-saver to me.

Now, I use Alarms for everything! And I over-communicate with myself about what I need to do so I don't need to tax my brain any more than it needs. Why re-create the wheel? It's been a brilliant addition to my discipline plan.