The Secret Benefits Of Discipline

Undoubtedly, discipline is the most important skill a person can develop, yes, a skill.

Not only is it one of the best predictors of success, it can have an incredible influence on the overall well-being of your life.

We’ve all heard successful people stress the importance of discipline, but they never tell you why. 

That’s the aim of this blog, to give you some insight into why discipline can and has changed so many people's lives.

But before we get into that, I’d like to clear up something many people need to hear.

Stop Relying On Motivation!!

“I don’t feel motivated today” - The Loser

If motivation is something you rely on to get stuff done, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Motivation is only working when you feel like doing it the most, but you won’t always feel like doing it. Motivation comes and goes, and it’s mostly gone, so if you need it to complete a task you have set, you have already lost. 

Motivation is a feeling and an emotion, and like all feelings and emotions, it is fragile. Discipline is facing all the uncomfortable feelings you will inevitably face, and just doing it anyway.

Motivation is setting the alarm, discipline is refusing to snooze.

I’m not completely dismissing motivation, if you have it, use it. It’s an effective tool when it’s available (emphasis on when).

But be very, and I mean very cautious when dealing with motivation.

Okay, now I have gotten that off my chest, let’s move on.

Discipline, what is it? Discipline is an essential skill that will allow you to work despite discomfort. Without discipline, you will constantly let yourself and your goals down by failing to commit to a specific goal, likely due to the friction and difficulty that comes with the necessary endurance. Discipline will allow you to continue making the continuous improvements needed to successfully achieve a goal. 

If you’re familiar with the concept of discipline, you will already know this.

That is why I'd like to instead focus on two benefits of discipline that are not talked about enough. 

Discipline Is The Best Form Of Self Love

When you set a goal, when you commit to something, you're essentially giving birth to a future version of yourself. This future version, although not yet real, is now relying on you to make it so.

Whether it's pledging to shed pounds, becoming successful, or kicking a habit like drinking or smoking, you have created a future version of yourself that has successfully completed these things.

The only way this version of yourself can become a reality is by enduring the process for long enough and continuing to do the necessary work.

By giving into discomfort, by not completing the work, you have let that version of yourself down, they are relying on you to keep the promises you have made, and you have failed them. 

You might think the consequences are only felt by the hypothetical version of yourself that isn't even real. 

But they are you, you have failed yourself.

You will feel this too, whether it be subconscious or not. Not only in the distant future either, but in the upcoming hours, days, and weeks that follow, you will feel it. 

Discipline is the antidote to this self-sabotage. Discipline will allow you to keep the promises you have made to yourself, and you will make your future you proud.

We have all heard the usual forms of self-care, whether it be regular exercise, meditation, journaling, dieting, or drinking more water. These things have delayed gratifying outcomes, meaning choosing a long-term goal over a more easily achievable one. If discipline is not present, we never get to experience the gratification that can come from them.

With all of this in mind, I hope it is clear to see how discipline is the best form of self-love, it allows you to take care of yourself in the best possible way. 

Discipline = Freedom

One way to approach this would be to explain how having discipline allows you to stop procrastinating and wasting time when it comes to the things that need doing. Now although this is very true in its own right, it’s a little obvious and I will refrain from wasting your time.

I’d like to instead explain the other way discipline leads to freedom.

As I have already mentioned, feelings of discomfort will inevitably come. These may be self-inflicted, but often they come from external things completely out of our control.

Now, let's say, you let these feelings stop you from doing what you know you should do, and the feelings come from things out of your control, you’re actively becoming a prisoner.

You’re letting external circumstances dictate how and where your life goes, discipline will set you free, discipline is the key to the cell.

Discipline will allow you to regain control over your life, you will decide what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it, and it will allow you to stick to such plans. 

Life will no longer feel like something that is happening to you.

One of the biggest things I felt when I started to build discipline, although I didn’t know it at the time, was a wave of freedom I had never felt before.

I had the same job, drove the same car, and lived in the same house. But I felt free. Being in control of your life means everything suddenly no longer feels permanent and you no longer feel helpless.

I have never liked my job, and I still don’t, but I no longer hate it, and that’s because discipline allows me to continue taking the incremental steps that will eventually lead me to reach my goals and quit my job. 

Same job, different eventual outcome. 

Even if you do not hate your job, even if you love it, it doesn't matter. We all get lost in the rush of life, we get bogged down to the point that it makes us feel trapped. 

But it’s not life that traps us, it’s our own mind, conquering it daily is the most effective way of removing the shackles.