Why Discipline Equals Freedom

Discipline is not easy.
I will be the first one to tell you that disciplining yourself to do the things you need to do is hard.
The simple reason for this is that most of the things we have to do, we do not want to do.
Whether it be writing that essay you need to write for school, or going on that 5-mile run you promised yourself you would go on, performing these tasks often requires a great deal of activation energy.
Why? Well because it is much easier to watch that next episode of “The Office” or scroll one more time through your Instagram feed instead. These types of activities are easy and enjoyable to do and give us that immediate hit of dopamine that we so desire.
Trust me, I have been there. Those long and boring school essays are a headache to write and it sometimes requires hours for me to finally get started. Recently, however, I read Jocko Willinik and Leif Bain’s book “Extreme Ownership”. and it changed the way I approach discipline in my daily life. What they pointed out to me was
“Discipline Equals Freedom”
While this quote may seem simple at the surface, the meaning behind it is incredibly profound.
We get out of life what we put into it. If we waste our days away with social media, TV, and the other distractions in life, we will make no progress towards the goals and ideals that we truly value.
Time is so valuable and if we want to accomplish incredible things in this life, we have to discipline ourselves to do the things that we do not want to do. To give you an example of how I have adopted this principle into my life, one habit which I have implemented into my daily routine lately is waking up at 5 am every morning.
I have always been a relatively early riser, usually waking up between 7 and 8 am, but I have wanted to test myself lately and see how much I can discipline myself so that I can more effectively reach the goals I want to achieve.
I choose waking up at 5 am because those extra two hours in the morning could prove to be crucial for the long-term productivity that I would gain. While I used to dread the sound of my alarm and would roll over and snooze a few times before I would get out of bed, I have been waking up every morning with the idea that discipline equals freedom in my mind and that has made it so much easier for me. As stated in the book
“The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win — you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.”
What I have noticed as a result of applying this view on discipline in my life is that my days have been a lot more productive since. What used to require me a while to get started now happens a lot more quickly. I am not perfect by any means and still procrastinate more than I probably should, but I am already getting a lot more done in my day with this principle in the back of my mind.
Our time on this planet is truly limited. We can either decide to waste our days away, or we can discipline ourselves to do the things we need to do and accomplish far more than we could have imagined. The decision is up to you.
Originally published at stephanzimm.com on September 8, 2018.
