The word discipline can have a negative connotation.  It sounds strict and boring, reminds us of being forced to do things we don’t want to do.  I’m not talking about a rigid, dogmatic, irrational discipline, which I’ve seen in people with a very closed mind. As in ‘ I must do this, even if it’s making me miserable because someone said so ‘ and it goes on for years or possibly a lifetime.

Also, this definition pretty much has that connotation –
“1.the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, with punishment or other undesired consequences for those failing to comply.”

This is more of what I’m referring to here –
“It is built by creating systems in your environment (reducing temptation), establishing habits, regulating emotions, and making consistent, conscious choices to act on long-term goals rather than short-term feelings.”

Without discipline, it’s impossible to accomplish our goals.  This is especially relevant in the arts. Because even if you truly want something, it isn’t always going to feel good and certainly isn’t going to be easy – discipline is required to stick with it. 

The question is – what are you willing to be disciplined for?  Not just on the superficial level, but on a deeper level. 

To me, it was clear early on in life that discipline leads to freedom.  It started out as being disciplined financially, which I realized at a very early age can only help you in life.  I’ve seen so many people caught in the trap of overspending only to end up in a really bad situation later on in life. It will always catch up to you.   Obviously that’s the easiest thing to do, anyone can spend lots of money. The human mind always desires more.  The challenge is to be disciplined with your money and live beneath your means.  Because the chances are, something bad will happen to you at least once in life and that thing will almost always require money.

I have had multiple instances of this, in the form of injuries and health problems.  You can get laid off, have injuries and illnesses, economic disasters, major home repairs, legal issues, etc.  Everything in our society seems to be set against financial discipline, which is probably why we seem to be approaching a financial disaster here in the US. It’s important to note that you don’t need a lot of money to have financial discipline. My parents started out with very little, they came to the US with nothing. It’s the mindset that matters. Because if a person has no financial discipline, they could be given any amount of money and they will not manage it intelligently. No matter how much it is, it will never be enough.

Financial discipline was the foundation the rest of my life was built on.  With it, I bought my first car at 17, it was a POS, but I was so damn happy with it. It was mine, paid for by me. I bought a motorcycle in my early 20s, because I wanted to see what it was like to be a bad ass biker (LOL, it didn’t last). I was able to get a second degree in my mid 20s that really paid off.  It gave me the freedom of not living paycheck to paycheck and most importantly, the ability of not having to rely on a partner or marriage for a stable life.  I think this is one of the most important benefits.  Because while the right relationship can be nice, I’m not into the codependence that’s been so normalized in our society.  I wouldn’t want to be forced to stay in a relationship because I’m unable to support myself.  This is one thing I knew, for sure, I didn’t want happening to me.

Another notable thing that financial discipline gives you is creditability. People respect someone who is disciplined, especially financially so. I know I do. This is almost automatic, it’s something you can sense about a person. It’s similar to the way I can often tell if someone was in the military in the past. They have a certain grace, a discipline about them. It’s very hard to put into words, but it is definitely a thing.

This discipline motivated me at work and to keep working even if I thought it was boring and useless, even if I didn’t necessarily need the money at the time. I always have my goals in mind and it keeps me on track. I don’t work just to work, I work to support my long term goals.

Another way discipline helped me was with my own mind. Over 20 years ago, it started out as an interest in Zen, meditation and mindfulness. It turned into applying these things to my life, not in a dogmatic way, but in a practical way. It led to a increased self awareness and this went hand in hand with financial discipline. Because you can’t have self discipline without self awareness.

The same discipline also helped me with art and music.  I started playing piano over 10 years ago and my dream was to be able to play piano and accompany myself singing. The piano was extremely difficult for me to learn, I wish I’d done it as a kid. I put in hours every day at the beginning, because I actually really enjoyed it. It still required discipline, because there were many other, easier things I could have spent that time on. I also wanted to become better at singing, because I knew I wasn’t doing it correctly.  I have accomplished both of these goals. I then moved to art, because it was always a passion for me, ever since I was a very young kid. Painting and drawing required a daily commitment to improve. So I gave up the time I had spent watching movies, videos, and most socializing and replaced it with working on art.

Even just taking a non typical path like working on art or music takes discipline to begin with. It’s the discipline to say no to what feels comfortable and to what you are used to doing, to what the people around you expect. Which is probably what prevents people from straying too far from the mainstream to begin with. My only regret is that I didn’t do this earlier, like in my early teenage years. The pressure to conform to general mediocrity was just too strong.

This isn’t about proving anything to others or comparison, it’s about choosing what you want out of life and working towards it and that requires discipline. It’s the rejecting of social BS because it temporarily distracts us. How much time do we waste on people and activities that don’t make us feel good and that are actually harmful to ourselves? Way too much, IMO. I was done with that shit a long time ago.

This is the difficult thing to do, much more so than drinking, zoning out in front of social media or Netflix at the end of the day. Why do people spend so much time on those things? Because someone is making a great deal of money off of them. So for me, discipline is a great act of rebellion. Funny, right? Because on the surface it doesn’t seem like it. That’s what I love about it. We spend so much time doing what other people want throughout our lives, for me, it’s a requirement to have personal goals and to work towards them. I want to master at least one thing in my life, and if I live long enough, many things.

So what is it that you want to do? Are you using discipline to pursue other people’s goals or your own?