How Discipline Can Set You Free

How Discipline Can Set You Free

People either love or hate the word "discipline". If you hate it, it's probably because you know there are plenty of ways you could and should improve your life situation, but you haven't (yet) implemented them. You may resent people who have succeeded in applying some common sense life tips because you feel like a failure in comparison. If you love the word "discipline", you too see that there are many ways to improve, and you are eager to learn and start applying some fruitful tactics in your own life. My goal in today's post is to encourage the haters to become lovers, and the lovers to become haters. Wait...

Cornerstones of Discipline

First, let's start with what discipline is. Discipline essentially boils down to doing the things we ought to do, regardless of our immediate feelings toward them.

Health

Everyone already knows the foundations of how to live a healthy and happy life, but sometimes we deceive ourselves into believing we can achieve the same results without putting in the effort. Everybody knows that exercise is good for losing weight and building muscle. It's also basically a panacea for just about everything health-related. Same goes for nutrition: eating a diet of primarily whole foods, including lots of fruits and vegetables, and saying no to simple carbs – like bread and sugar – is bound to improve health outcomes across the board. That's right, bread and pasta aren't healthy. The third factor of the disciplined-life trifecta is getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Every. Single. Night. Waking up at the same time every day to maintain your circadian rhythm (body-clock) is a surefire way to boost your energy level during the day, and you'll feel mentally sharper and physically better to boot. But this isn't news to anyone.

I called it a trifecta, but I feel the need to include a fourth cornerstone of a well-rounded lifestyle. Meditation is another daily practice I would strongly recommend, and I hope you'll hear me out. This one isn't as obvious as the others, but it makes a lot of sense to set aside some personal time to bring a deeper sense of awareness into your life. Many people think this is all pseudo-scientific spiritual nonsense, and if you are one of these people (as I used to be), I urge you to read my posts on awareness and spirituality. Meditation can be a formal sit-down, or it can be an informal mental unplugging in the grocery store line. Having more periods of conscious awareness in your day allows you to more easily accept life and all of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune it throws at you. The worst that could happen is that you get frustrated for "not doing it right", but it's the effort that matters. You will get better at settling into your mind if you regularly practise silencing the chattering mind.

Personal Finance

This next one isn't as focused on health, so I won't group it into the four main recommendations above, but it remains incredibly useful. I'm talking about financial responsibility. Way too many people spend their whole paycheque (or even more than what they earn) within days of getting their hard-earned money.

Before I go any further, let me just point out that it's incredibly detrimental to use money that you don't actually have. A credit card is for earning points and/or cashback, and it is to be paid off in full every month. Using one any other way is bound to lead to financial struggle.

Anyway, back to saving: Warren Buffett, investor extraordinaire, says it best: "pay yourself first". Set up your bank account to automatically put at least 10% of your income into a high-interest savings account (or preferably invest the money in index funds. More on this in future posts). Having some financial stability is way, way more useful and reassuring than getting a new pair of shoes every month or a gimmicky gadget you found on Amazon. "But this one isn't a gimmick, it will really improve my life dramatically!" I always recommend sleeping on it, and if there's any nagging part of you that says you don't really need it, I would heed the warning.

Putting It In Action

Alright, so we know what we should do. Exercise, eat well, sleep well, meditate, and save money. How do I even begin? The answer: start with one small change. Pick from the above list and make a small adjustment to your day-to-day to begin building a good habit. Next time you go to the grocery store, buy some carrots as a snack instead of chips. If the first thing you see when you open the cupboard is a load of junk, you will automatically go for the junk in a moment of weakness. Make the healthiest food the most easily accessible. In this case, the easiest place to exert your newfound discipline is at the grocery store: if you don't buy it, you can't eat it. Then you don't even have to try to be disciplined with food at home, it'll be your default state, and a new normal will emerge.

When it comes to exercising, perhaps you'd prefer to do just 5 sit-ups a day at first. Whatever it is, make yourself accountable. If you don't trust yourself, do yourself a favour right now and write a reminder, or make a calendar that you can check off. Do anything that you will see and that will increase your likelihood of following through.

Here are some tips for following through with your chosen life change:

• Be sure to negotiate a reward with yourself. Acting like your own tyrannical overlord is a sure road to failure. Instead, allow yourself a treat, something pleasant, when you have accomplished a goal.
• Remember: if you take on everything in this list at once, you will probably not succeed. Choose something that you really could do. If it feels too difficult, make it easier to the point that you think you can do it, and improve from there.
• Know why you are making the change. Is it for general self-improvement? To lose weight? To help deal with diabetes? Perhaps it's just to feel better about yourself. In any case, know that you will feel better about yourself if you just trust the commitment you make to yourself right now.

This may seem daunting, and maybe you disagree with this whole self-help line of thinking. "How do you get pleasure if not from letting loose from time to time?" you ask. I'll answer this by going the spiritual route. The reality is that you have access to joy without requiring anything external. You don't need to buy a fancy car or a box of cookies to be happy. The feeling comes from within, and to be aware and present in the moment can be even more satisfying than those objects of your desire. If that doesn't work for you, the sense of accomplishment you'll get from sticking to your game plan, of being disciplined, will far outshine the taste of a cookie. When you eat the fifth cookie, do you really get the same sense of satisfaction as your very first bite? I can almost guarantee that you don't. This is the result of hedonic adaptation, a psychological mechanism that makes you adapt to your situation, whether good or bad. Even if your mind thinks you need another cookie to feel good, your baseline for pleasure is now up, so you don't feel as much satisfaction. Such is life: you get more so you want more. You can stop this insane cycle at any point, you just have to consciously make the decision to start your transformative journey.

Take Aways

The mini-moral here: nothing in excess. You can absolutely allow yourself a few guilty pleasures from time to time. There is nothing wrong with that. The key is to be fully aware that you are allowing yourself this luxury, and to be absolutely grateful to yourself for this rare opportunity. Apart from that, your day-to-day life should not involve succumbing to the world of materialistic excess and bad habits. Having a slice of pizza every day is not a rare treat; you are eating one every day! When your treats become a ritual, they are no longer treats. Set yourself a proper routine that you can be proud of and stick to it. One step at a time, and your small successes will compound into completely revolutionary changes.

Exercise, eat well, sleep well, meditate, and save money. Pick one to focus on and start now!