Combat Atrophic Routines

“We are what we repeatedly do” - William Durant, The Story of Philosophy (describing Aristotle’s ethics)

Do hard things.

You can read about them.

You can write about them.

You can talk about them.

And all of that amounts to nothing.

Words and thoughts are lost in the wind.

One must do hard things.

Build a habit.

Build discipline.

Become what you are not.

I am thirty-six years old. I have realized over the years that in some substantial sense my life nearly stands or falls with a disciplined fitness regiment. I don’t mean to be dramatic. Fitness isn’t nearly everything. Nevertheless, when I am disciplined with my fitness I am also more disciplined in life: my mood is better, my mental atmosphere is cleaner, healthier — sunnier, you might say. I think of virtue and what it requires more often. I am quicker to make the difficult (but moral) choice, to do the hard thing that is required. In short, I am better. When I fall off, so, too, does everything else fall: food becomes entertainment rather than fuel (so why not make it better! tastier! have more of it, too!); my mood plummets; I question my value and my character (“I mean, if I can’t even muster the will to workout, I must be mentally weak! I am weak!); I start to waste time on nonsense (mindless social media engagement, television, intoxication, you name it).

Whatever it says about me, I must maintain my discipline with regard to physical fitness or I decline in unfavorable ways. Life is short. Death is real. That’s enough for me to commit to doing hard things every day so as to best live my short life. This website is intended as a reflection of that work. The act of thinking, reading, and writing about discipline and virtue — i.e., the act of creating for this website — helps me maintain my commitment by renewing it in word and deed every day. In other words, by the creation of such content, discipline and virtue become substantial parts of the atmosphere in which my life takes place, and that is the point.

Only the flawed need discipline, and that I am. It is because I want to be better that I concern myself with such things. But a commitment to become better, to do more, to become more — that requires constant renewal and hard work. If you find yourself with similar aspirations, perhaps you will get something out of this. That is my hope.