Discipline is freedom
Discipline wasn’t just big in my household growing up, it literally was discipline. Discipline about where to keep things, when to sleep, when to bathe, when to talk - the whole nine yards.
Then I moved away from my home when the confusing school years of my life came to an end and I let myself a little loose, so to speak. I thought I could finally taste some freedom and live more spontaneously. And I did but very soon realized that real and lasting freedom only comes through discipline.
The word discipline gets thrown around in a bad light as if it’s a very regimented way to live. But I can say with utmost certainty that discipline can deliver results that being spontaneous/lively/artsy never can.
Motivation is spontaneous, that’s why you can’t rely on it much. It comes and goes. It’s that flaky friend who bails on you at the precise moment that you need him.
Discipline on the other hand is a way of being. It’s the shadow that will always stick to you, even and especially during the dark times.
“Strangely, life gets harder when you try to make it easy. Exercising might be hard, but never moving makes life harder. Uncomfortable conversations are hard, but avoiding every conflict is harder. Mastering your craft is hard, but having no skills is harder. Easy has a cost.” -James Clear
Way more work gets done if you’re disciplined rather than motivated.
These four sentences below sum up why it is better (& fun) to live a disciplined life:
- When you save even when you can spend is the reason you’ll always have money to spend.
- When you eat healthy even when you can eat junk is the reason you can eat junk anytime, at any age.
- When you workout even when you can waste your energy playing games is the reason you will always have energy.
- When you work even when you can just chill is the reason you’ll always have time and resources to chill.
In all these sentences, you’ll realize that discipline actually enables spontaneity.
Hard choices lead to an easy life, easy choices lead to a hard life.
It might not make for a better story but it sure will make for better, un-ignorable results.
