NO such thing as “Discipline”

Discipline

Discipline noun · /ˈdɪsɪplɪn/

Training yourself to control what you do, follow rules, and behave in an orderly way, or a specific area of knowledge and study.

Welcome. The definition of discipline sounds restrictive (and that’s true). We all need some form of discipline. Why, you ask? To get things done. Otherwise, we’d all be bums.

Discipline is a wonderful value. The only problem is that it’s often understood wrongly or used wrongly. Discipline is a tool, and it’s meant to work for us. Here’s how it works:

It’s great at helping you value and put first the things you have to do. It isn’t so great when it means doing something no matter how you feel or what is happening around you. Those things are also important. Ignore them, and you can hurt yourself. It also becomes a problem when we use willpower to discipline ourselves, which is very common.

Willpower

Doing what you’re supposed to do even when you don’t feel like it, by using mental and physical effort.

You can try very hard to be disciplined. When you have to do something but don’t feel like it, you force yourself with willpower. That’s what we usually do. We use willpower to discipline ourselves.

Unfortunately, it can only last so long. You won’t be able to keep forcing yourself to do things you never feel like doing. Your willpower runs out. & when it does you won’t have another way to make yourself do things. Then you may feel angry at yourself (Why don’t I do what I’m supposed to? I’m such a loser)

Instead you have to do something that makes it easier to be disciplined in the long-term.To live with discipline, you have to accept it. It shouldn’t be something you fear or try to avoid if you want it to work for you for a long time.

~ If you know what you should do, you will do it.

This is true, but it doesn’t help anyone. It’s great to know what’s important, but it doesn’t mean you will always do what’s best for yourself. Usually, this is because it isn’t easy.

So how can you fix this? You’ll have to take the “training” part of the definition of discipline more seriously. By “training,” it means getting better at discipline.

Discipline is real, but the first thought that comes to mind “doing what you’re supposed to do even when you don’t feel like it, by using mental and physical effort” is wrong.

If you want to train discipline, you can start with habits.