Discipline is self love
jasonleow • 5 Dec 2023 •
I love this definition of discipline:
“It’s the strongest form of self-love. It’s ignoring something you want right now for something better later on. Discipline reveals the commitment you have to your dreams, especially on days when you don’t want to. The future you is depending on the current you to keep the promises you made to yourself yesterday.”
That’s spot on. That’s all of it.
Discipline isn’t self-punishment nor self-flagellation. It’s self-love. Discipline is wanting something better, to be better. And what’s love but wanting something better for someone, to give to someone unconditionally? And when that someone is you yourself, that’s discipline as self-love.
Sometime we think self-love means pampering ourselves, letting ourselves enjoy life, indulge a little. I can understand the necessity of rest, but too much indulgence too often isn’t discipline. It’s weakness. Indulgence is giving in to short term. Discipline is abstaining for the long term.
Indulgence is short term thinking. Discipline is long term thinking.
And you know what they say, “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”
Make easy choices now, and you’ll have hard life in the future. But make the hard choices now, and you’ll have an easy life next time.
Either way, it’s going to be hard, some way or another.
By making the hard choices now, we’re choosing our hard, instead of it being chosen for us later on.
Discipline today, dreams tomorrow.
Comments
@drodol Oh I love Jocko! His 4am tweets are one of the reasons why I was inspired to wake early for deep work! 100% in his camp of discipline is freedom.
That’s an interesting breakdown. Quite true. Times when discipline breaks down is when I think too much and give too much weight to those thoughts…
I like James Clear’s practical pov - it’s about designing the environment instead of relying on willpower, so that discipline is easy.
Good ol’ Jocko and James Clear. I really should dust off my idea of creating the alter ego of Jim Muddled, who dispatches contradictory and useless advice.
@therealbrandonwilson LOL please do - I’d def follow
“Discipline equals freedom” - Jocko Willink.
I realise this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3UkRFyaALI
On my way to work, I was listening to an episode of DOAC featuring Mel Robbins, and she said interesting things about discipline (and motivation).
But one of things I liked was that she said, there is a chain response that goes: sensation > perception > feeling/emotion > action.
So the example was, I want to get early in the morning, and I set the alarm the night before. When the alarm goes off, my first reaction is UGH, it’s cold, dark, I’m groggy I don’t want to do it… after all that, then has to come the decision (action) to get up.
By consciously breaking that chain, and starting with the ACTION, we can really get ahead (and be disciplined).