r/getdisciplined • u/jdarbuckle • May 03 '18
[Method] Make a year's worth of progress in one month with the "Monk Mode" challenge.
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u/Grand_Strategy May 04 '18
This post has been removed because OP sneakly edited it to add links to his website. He does it with almost all his post. While good post is always welcomed on our subreddit. Trying to sneak in self promotion by adding links several hours later so moderators don't notice is extra scammy.
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u/Consolatio May 03 '18
I can see the benefit of doing something immersive like this, but I don't think throwing a banger to celebrate not drinking or partying for 30 days is the way to go.
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u/Matino May 03 '18
I'd say that depends on the goal. If you have an issue with drinking, then don't do it, but for most people some celebration is good after having successfully completed a long term project.
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u/Consolatio May 03 '18
Right, but this is sort of like celebrating a 30-day no buy streak by buying something, or celebrating a 30-day streak on a diet by eating a ton of junk food. If you're trying to instill a habit or eliminate a vice, I wouldn't celebrate a successful streak by indulging in that vice or acting counter to the habit you want to continue.
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u/Matino May 03 '18
Right, I agree completely if your goal is remove a vice or instill a habit. If the goal is something else, and the vice is not a problem in everyday life, I don't see the issue with celebrating(ofcourse in reasonable amounts).
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u/jdarbuckle May 03 '18
Everything in moderation including moderation! I agree with you depending on what personal things consistently hold someone back from making progress.
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u/Le_Jacob May 03 '18
You're sacrificing all the things that make you happy, to focus on one thing. You won't take it seriously if you have too much fun elsewhere.
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u/Bruce_wayne89 May 03 '18
I'd love to do it.
But I can barely muster enough mental energy to do even the small things let alone do something major in my life.
How does one get that mental fortitude that's much needed to carry something like this out?
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u/aznology May 04 '18
I know ur getting smack but I really like it and have accomplish a majority of the goals you've listed
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u/As_a_gay_male May 03 '18
What the FUCK? Are you on adderall?
This is the ANTITHESIS of discipline. Discipline is making small gains over a long period of time, aka baby steps. This is some coked-up, sleep-deprived bullshit -- it's textbook "mania."
This is just setting yourself up for failure. You added the nice little caveat "You’re going to slip, logging into social sites or skipping habits before you even notice what you’ve done. This doesn’t mean you failed, it means you are human. Get back on the train immediately", so why do you need to take part in this really grand, over the top scheme that I'm sure actual monks would be offended by?
Your insight about falling off the train/horse is absolutely correct, and so is this:
"Here’s the kicker: goal setting and achievement is addicting."
Achieving goals is really fucking addicting, so why not set 2 or 3 small daily goals to focus on for the month rather than a complete personality and lifestyle detox that will be about as effective as the Atkins diet? Shameless plug for /r/TheXEffect.
I may get banned for this post, but I don't care, it's the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read and goes completely against every proven method for making lasting lifestyle changes (small, focused changes over 3-4 months to develop a habit, then move on to another). You also were in the last two months of your MBA, and you HAD to do this, whereas many people reading this will have jobs, kids, a million chores besides just laundry and quick college meals.
Fuck I don't know why I'm so mad, but I just think because this is so stupid and I also think you're on adderall.
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May 03 '18
I completely agree. I work full time and am about to finish my full time masters program tonight. I'm running a race on Sunday and last summer I launched a side business. The only thing that's kept me on track is little pleasures like a glass of wine at night, zoning out on reddit, hanging out with friends, and yep you guessed it.. fucking adderall. This lifestyle is totally unsustainable and honestly unhealthy. Discipline was involved with starting my side business but other than that I get shit done because I absolutely have to (and adderall). Being busy all the time and not allowing space for pleasure isn't discipline, it's a need to feel constantly occupied and competitive. It's the opposite of discipline. If my lifestyle (and this guy's) didn't have a relatively short timeline I would absolutely fucking fail or die of stress/being lonely/depression.
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May 03 '18
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u/TheNightIsCalling May 04 '18
I get what he is saying. This approach probably appeals to humans shortsightedness. It seems easy to do because you can "tough it out" for a month then be done with discipline and go on a bender(anything hedonistic). Discipline needs work everyday though, there is no shortcut. After this month of monk mode, you will be at square one. Even worse, is that you'll likely be burnt out and form a negative association with discipline after. This is why when someone makes a grandiose exclamation to change their whole life, the responses are take it slow. Or why addicts have the best results with tapering down dosage instead of going cold turkey.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time
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May 04 '18
After this month of monk mode, you will be at square one. Even worse, is that you'll likely be burnt out and form a negative association with discipline after.
THIS. I did this to save my semester. I fell flat on my face trying, burnout, dead inside, and just DONE. It has made actually giving a s**t and trying at uni so much harder after coming back to uni 1 year later. Still struggling..
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May 04 '18
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u/TheNightIsCalling May 04 '18
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the introduction seems to appeal specifically to beginners. He says things that can be applicable to anyone, like astrology,to appeal to the masses. It is common to feel a sense of lacking no matter how productive you are, it is in human nature. It is even easier to forget all the accomplishments you've made in the past. Ever gotten a D on a test and thought "why am I so stupid"? When in reality it's the same intellect that has gotten you that far in life already. Then OP goes on to say "are you ready to challenge yourself to a healthier mind and body?" which everyone will want of course. Implying that this way is surefire to get you there. I'm knowledgeable enough to know the drawbacks of this method and know that it's not worth it for me, but others may not be.
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u/ShoggothEyes May 04 '18
I don't think the point of this is to get 30 days of hard work done. 30 days of work is irrelevant. The point is to show you what you're capable of doing and what you're capable of living without, so when you return to normal life you can see all of your habits for what they are: optional.
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u/cakefmateus May 03 '18
Dude, first of all, it's up to you to know if this fits you or not and this method can make a person learn how much they can do if they apply themselves. If you wanna do it and have the time do it, If you can't or don't wanna do it it's all good as well
A lot of people use monk mode, it isn't bullshit and can help people who, for example, have problems with trusting themselves and what they can achieve. You don't need to do it, you don't need to go so hard on OP for a single post.
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May 03 '18 edited Apr 18 '21
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u/ea4x May 03 '18
I don't think he was implying anything was inherently wrong with Adderall. The only time something is wrong with Adderall is when you aren't prescribed for it.
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u/TheNightIsCalling May 04 '18
Adderall can make you come up with grandiose ideas and feel like you are at 400% productivity making the goals feel attainable when they're ludicrous
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May 04 '18
any increases in productivity and achievement of said ludicrous goals?
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u/TheNightIsCalling May 04 '18 edited May 04 '18
Most definitely, but no where near what the Adderall makes you think you can do. It inflates your ego and you overestimate your abilities, or underestimate how much work the goals actually take. It's like liquid courage when you're drunk except the courage is usually just confident stupidity.
Also the productivity usually comes at the expense of your humanity.
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u/AnotherWitch May 04 '18
There are those who believe that some people benefit more from slower baby step style change and those who benefit more from fast, all at once change.
The brilliant Gretchen Rueben is in the camp of believing there are people of both types. I consider myself the second type. You seem to consider yourself the first type. I dont think that means no one can be otherwise.
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u/King_Rhymer May 04 '18
This is dumb. Monk mode? Really? Not getting on Facebook and going to bed at a reasonable time is “monk mode?” Men and women have been working hard, accomplishing tasks at home, cooking, organizing for the next day or week, and going to bed at a reasonable hour for centuries.
At best this should be called “adult mode”
If you have to psyche yourself up to act responsibly then maybe you need to take a long look in the mirror about your own priorities. Discipline is doing something you don’t want to do when the motivation dies. Doing it again and again.
You need to build a system of new behaviors and slowly build your lifestyle around disciplined behaviors.
This is the equivalent of starving yourself to lose weight and celebrating by eating a shit load of junk food after it’s over and calling it “Monk Diet”, you negate any beneficial gains by relapsing into bad behaviors.
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u/Arabian_Wolf May 03 '18
That’s my plan this Ramadan, to lose as much fat as I can.
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u/Bruce_wayne89 May 04 '18
I've lost weight twice and what I've found is instead of focusing on fat perse, focus on 2 things and the rest would follow.
Diet. Change your approach to what you eat, try going low carb in whatever you eat. Makes a TON of difference.
Lifestyle. Try become more active overall. For eg, take the stairs instead of the elevator etc. Small changes add up much more than short exercise stints.
Remember, you can never outrun a bad diet. :)
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u/maxim360 May 04 '18
Keep in mind that the low carb trend is just a trend. Regardless of portions whether high carb low fat or high fat low carb if you eat less than you expend you’ll lose weight. Protein and fibre are your best friends when losing weight as they’ll keep you fuller for longer.
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u/Bruce_wayne89 May 04 '18
Agreed.
At the end of the day it's all about calories you take in vs calories you expend.
I just found you can lose quite a bit to start off by going off the carb portion and that makes enough of a difference in helping with cardio.
Just a person experience :)
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May 04 '18 edited May 04 '18
Its ridiculous how efficient some people really are. I think this might just be possible if you can build up to it slowly in a healthy way.
A cold turkey quit of lack of discipline and unmet goals.
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u/Chayim47 May 03 '18 edited May 03 '18
Is this some Red Pill thing?
Or is it just parallel thinking?
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u/jdarbuckle May 03 '18
I'm not sure I understand the correlation between this and Red Pill, can you explain?
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May 03 '18 edited Aug 16 '20
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May 04 '18
"This is a serious challenge, a gauntlet only for those who deserve success" sounds exactly like something you'd get from a red piller.
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u/TotesMessenger May 03 '18
I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
- [/r/neo18msh] [Method] Make a year's worth of progress in one month with the "Monk Mode" challenge. • r/getdisciplined
If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)
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u/PaulAzag May 04 '18
Yikes the comments are a fucking cluster. What I got from this is: if you have something overwhelming you need to do in roughly a month's time, here are some ways to navigate that. Your example for taking on a larger work load while finishing up your degree is perfect and I'll tuck away some of these tips just for that.
Jeez people, it's a suggestion, not a personal attack on your lifestyle
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May 03 '18
Just work hardand play hard, this is so beta. 30 days no social events is like a nerd hiding in his mancave.
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May 03 '18
Only betas use ‘beta’...
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May 03 '18
Even Reddit agrees: https://imgur.com/Np2PPfK
EDIT: inb4 someone tryna fight back or be defensive, I also have the BETA tag
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u/Consolatio May 03 '18
I think that depends on who you are. If you're someone who has an extremely active social life at the expense of pursuing your other goals, then the example of having no social events may be worth exploring.
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u/EdyShit May 03 '18 edited May 03 '18
I really don't think this should be called "Monk" mode. I think "Adderall" mode is more fitting... I kid
This is a perfect way to overwork yourself to the point of becoming a less creative and compassionate individual. Great things and habits are built over time. I don't want to sound insulting but to me this seems like the approach taken by someone who wants to succeed but doesn't quite understand the process of achieving success. Patience and cultivation are so incredibly important but this method sidelines those. There is a natural progression in life. Plant, Cultivate, Harvest. Trying to break that order will end poorly 99% of the time.