Discipline equals freedom
We do most things in life on autopilot. It’s too exhausting to be focused all the time so we stick to our habits. That’s why it’s important to make sure we have good habits instead of bad ones.
Unfortunately, most people’s autopilot look like this:
– stop learning after graduating from school.
– work average jobs because it’s safe.
– stay in the same relationships, even if unhappy, because it’s safe.
– waste their free time on useless things.
I get it, coming home from a long day of work, all you want to do is to sit down in front of the TV and have a beer. I’ve been there. Don’t get me wrong, you need to rest — but what if you just spent one hour working out, learning a new skill, or anything productive? In one year that would be ~250 hours (excl. weekends) invested in yourself.
The same thing goes for the weekends. Most people do nothing all weekend because that’s the time to recharge from work. What if you did or experienced one new thing every weekend? In 10 years, that would be 500 new experiences. Again, rest is important, and I’m not suggesting bungee jumps or climbing mount Everest here. It can be as easy as going for a hike to a new place instead of the same one you always go to or trying a new restaurant instead of the same(safe) one you always go to.
Why?
This all comes down to this: it’s more exhausting to be lazy than to work towards our goals. Waking up every day, knowing it’s going to be another mediocre day, is exhausting and depressing. If it’s going to be exhausting either way, why not choose the “right” exhausting and get what we want?
The more disciplined we are, the more energy we will have, which allows us to have a better, more fulfilling life.
I live this every day. Days where I don’t have that much scheduled or have less work, I don’t get as much done, finding the motivation to exercise is more difficult, etc. And because of all that, I feel like sh*t. If I have a busy day, I somehow find time to schedule in even more things, get more things done, etc. and I feel really good.
Different pains
Besides the fact that being lazy is more exhausting and depressing, there are also long-term outcomes for our decisions, like:
- The pain of working out one hour every day or the pain of getting all kinds of diseases later on in life.
- The pain of brushing our teeth twice a day or the pain of visiting the dentist to fix our teeth later on.
- The pain of getting out of bed to work on our dreams when the alarm goes off early in the morning or the pain of looking back at our life and realizing all the unfulfilled potential.
To me, freedom is being healthy, working with/on the things I want, and having great experiences by doing cool things. To do/be those things requires discipline.
