First Bite

I was listening to Jocko Podcast – as one normally does – and he and Echo talked about how discipline is gained or lost with the initial decision. Take a bite of that donut, you’re very likely to finish the whole thing. Refuse to take a bit out of that donut, you’re very likely to not eat the whole thing.

My mind quickly darted to original sin, the scene where Eve then Adam partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I didn’t have to think too hard about it. The connection is very strong; I’d just never bothered to look for it.

I struggle with getting up in the morning. What, you too? The alarm goes off, you are tempted to hit Snooze, go back to bed. Do you do it? Do you get up? Same principle applies completely. If you resettle in your bed, you’re very unlikely to get up till the alarm chirps at you once more. If you get up right away, you are very unlikely to crawl back under the covers. Indeed, you no longer feel able to sleep!

It really always comes down to that one decision. I suck at making the right one, so believe me, my finger’s pointing at me first. But making that first choice leads to more choices along the same line. From C.S. Lewis:

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

Don’t take that first bite of temptation.