4 Things 240+ Injections Taught Me About Self-Discipline

Back in 2014, I was given a frightening diagnosis of Bilateral Pulmonary Embolism – blood clots in my lungs. As a result and as a precaution during my most recent 2^nd pregnancy, I was prescribed a daily blood thinner to inject into my abdomen every day while pregnant and also for at least a couple months postpartum.

For someone with a fear of needles and a history of anxiety, this reality was hard to stomach (no pun intended). Like really hard. I remember ugly crying at the thought of having to start the first dose and borderline feeling crippled with fear. I knew that I would need to have a high level of self-discipline to be able to force myself to do this every day.

Self-discipline is essential for anyone to have if they want to achieve something that is outside of their comfort zone, difficult, or challenging. All of the tasks and responsibilities in life that you know you need to do or should do, but absolutely do not want to do, often require a large dose of self-discipline in order to accomplish.

For example, we know that we should exercise, eat healthy, maybe update that resume and apply for a better job, or get started already on that desire to start our own business. We deep down know that doing these things would help us achieve happiness in life and provide the ability to buy or do what we really want. But, for some reason, these things are the hardest for us to take action on and are often easily shifted to the back burner.

As time went on, the injections became easier. And, now after finishing 240+ daily, consistent injections, I recently reflected back on this experience and what it has taught me about self-discipline. The following are the 4 specific lessons that I learned that I want to share in hopes it can also help someone else:

#1: The fear of a negative consequence happening often motivates us more than the fulfillment of a positive goal. We tend to more easily force ourselves to do difficult things when we are afraid of something bad happening if we do not. Most people force themselves to go to a job they hate because they are afraid of losing the roof over their head or the food on the table for their family. We file our taxes and obey the law out of fear of receiving fines, penalties, and/or other negative consequences or punishment. We wear seatbelts (or at least should) as a safety precaution to potentially avoid injury in an accident. And so on. However, if only we could just apply this same principle to completing the difficult tasks and activities in our lives that would have a positive impact on a long-term ideal goal if seen through to the end, think about how much better we would feel about our lives. We are always looking for that instant gratification, or avoidance of an instant threat or consequence. Because the reality is, nothing for the most part is going to happen if we put off taking action on a positive long-term goal for just “one more day”.

#2: You have no idea what you are capable of doing/achieving until you jump in and just do it. Growth happens when you push yourself outside of the confines of your comfort zone. Doing so makes you feel empowered, and as though the limit or ceiling of what you are capable of accomplishing is suddenly lifted higher, which makes you feel even more capable of doing other things that you once thought could never ever happen as well. This creates a positive cycle of increasing motivation, taking action, and seeing results.

#3: Reward yourself daily after you complete the difficult task. Make yourself do the annoying, pressing task first and then treat yourself – even if it’s just a small reward. Something as simple as eating ice cream, going shopping, or taking a walk to enjoy a nice day will give a positive incentive to help spark consistent action.

#4: Have some type of plan in place to guide you and motivate you towards a goal. For example. if you were taking a road trip, you would want to have some type of map or GPS to know where to go and to track your progress. It helps to create at least a loose plan to set expectations and milestones to know mentally how long you need to do the task. And, to track progress and remind yourself of the benefits and rewards you can potentially reap in the end. For me, I knew that I had about 11 months of injections on my plate and entered a somewhat automatic phase to complete it on autopilot. I knew I had to do the shots every day, and the quicker that I got them out of the way, the better. The same applies to growing a business or achieving another difficult goal or dream. You must be clear on and know what needs to be done, for how long, and motivate yourself to knock it out daily regardless if you feel like it or not if you know it’s for the better in the long run.

In my personal example, my fear of something happening to me or to my baby was enough motivation to force me to do this difficult task every single day; however, the benefits from doing it and the fact of it increasing the chance of a healthy pregnancy and baby is also what motivated me.

I never missed a single dose, and each represents the courage that I had to gather daily to be able to get through the pain, bleeding, and bruising that came along with each of them – especially as my baby bump grew larger.

I am very thankful to all of my doctors and nurses. And to my family for helping me through this. I was at one point scared to even have another baby after the clot scare, but it is amazing what you can get through with the right positive mindset, discipline, support, and with the proper focus on the finish line. I pray that everything remains healthy, and am looking forward to finally getting back to normal! 

So the takeaway of this post – if there is something you are putting off in your life that could change it for the better and provide you with the life you ideally want to have – go for it. Set a plan, consistently work on it every single day regardless if you feel like it or not. Take the initial small steps to set it in motion today. For you have no idea of the amazing things that you are capable of achieving if you do not jump in, give it your all, take action, and try!