Struggling with discipline

[MagusOrion]

I am new to occultism practices and magick. I find the subject fascinating and completing. It makes me feel whole in a way many other things have lacked the ability to do. But one thing I am struggling on within the practice is discipline.

This, as I’m sure you know, is essential to maneuver within these practices well. Any advice from Mages who struggled once upon a time or even still struggle to do their meditations, read their books, and be generally mindful?

 

[Digiquo]

Start small. If you try to do everything at once, it will feel overwhelming and you'll inevitably fail to meet the expectations you've set for yourself, which may only push you away and further from your goals.

I started with a simple dream diary. Dreams are probably the most magical thing the average person interacts with almost every single night, whether they want to call it magic or not. Develop this habit before attempting more advanced or complicated. It builds a new routine into your daily life that's magically oriented, even if only slightly, which can then act like a stepping stone towards other magically oriented goals, like reading a particular book in full, creating an altar space, performing a ritual, etc.

Also keep in mind, discipline is basically just another word for willpower. Willpower is a finite resource, once you spend it on resisting the impulse to do one thing or not do something, you have less to spend later on potentially more important choices. The trick then, is to completely remove those things in your life that test your willpower, rather than trying to overcome the temptation of them with sheer resolve. By not even having the option to spend it on meaningless distractions, you have plenty left to tackle the truly important goals.

Examples: if you have a penchant for raiding your pantry and eating all of your snacks instead making a proper meal for dinner, stop buying snacks completely and substitute for healthier more complete meals. If you struggle with doom scrolling for hours, delete all the apps on your phone responsible for the behavior (social media and tik tok are a plague on our attention span for this reason). If you can't help watching lots of porn and straight jorking it all night, consider downloading browser extensions that specifically aim to block such websites and images. Anything technology related like that can also be rectified in part by downgrading to less sophisticated technology, like trading in your smart phone for ye olde flip phone.

In short, discipline in all things, mundane or magical, requires taking small steps and taking proactive approaches.

 

[HoldAll]

They say it takes about 30 days (or 40, according to some Indian traditions) to develop a beneficial habit. You can use this period to experiment - some people like to stick to a fixed time of the day, others prefer a more flexible schedule, mornings, evenings, etc. I've found it best to anchor my practice to a specific mundane activity, for example brushing my teeth - if I turned on the TV afterwards straightaway, I'd feel that something important was missing, so brushing my teeth has become a cue for my daily practice that's as good as inescapable. I'd recommend to shoot for practicing daily instead of, say, three times a week because what you basically want is get into a rut, and any 'days off' would make such habituation harder and throw you off. And as @Digiquo said: start small. Ten minutes of meditation are enough in the beginning, always provided you practice daily.

Mindfulness becomes easier with (empty-mind) meditation, even second nature if you practice long enough. It has reached the point with me where wandering through the streets thinking about this and that now feels like I was robbing myself of the experience of walking and enjoying myself, and I don't ever want to go back to the days where such absentmindedness was the norm.

Reading: I only ever read books that captivate me, so reading is simply a pleasure and not an obligation.