What is discipline?

This is a blog committed to delivering daily notes on discipline to your inbox. 

Discipline has a strange reputation. It either causes you to wince and squirm or sets your heart and mind to racing.

You’re either all in with discipline or can’t stand to think about it. 

Whichever your reaction, you may not have paused to think about exactly what discipline is, its role in your life.  

That’s what this entire site is about. It’s dedicated to the single aim of helping you see how discipline applies to every area of your life. 

There isn't one facet of your life greater discipline couldn’t improve. Mainly because discipline isn’t about changing the world around you. It's concerned with shaping the you that’s in the world. 

The American Heritage desk dictionary gives you the following six definitions for discipline: 

dis.ci.pline - 1. Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, esp. training that produces moral or mental improvement. 2. Controlled behavior resulting from such training. 3. A state of order that is based on submission to rules and authority. 4. Punishment intended to correct or train. 5. A set of rules or methods.

This blog advocates for a discipline that encompasses the very best of these ideas and not as a dry, dusty idea your dad or coach tried to force on you. 

Discipline is the voice in your head telling you to get out of bed, to do things you’d rather skip and to hang in there a little longer. 

It is usually the first to speak to you in the morning and always has your best in mind. 

Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else. 

Listen to his voice and heed his wisdom. Instead of ignoring and running from his prompts, lean in. 

For all, that discipline may be it is certainly the pathway to victory in every area of your life. 

What you can control

The only thing you have total control over is how you choose to respond.

You can’t control the weather.

You can’t control how others speak or how they act.

What you can’t control is staggering.

But so is what you can.

You can control you and your response.

No one else can do that. Only you.

Control

A thousand different things determine the outcome of your life. 

Of those thousands of things, you have control over only a handful. 

The temptation is to waste energy and effort focusing on things outside your control. 

Resisting it takes discipline. 

The discipline to identify the handful of things within your control and own them like crazy. To forget about the rest and banish them from your mind. The discipline to live in the present moment undistracted by what’s going on around you. 

Discipline keeps you on the path when those thousand different things come calling. 

Defining Success

How you define success is critically important. 

Focus on things within your control, not circumstances over which you have none. 

Winning, for example, is something you have little control over. Other competitors and external factors could derail your chances. 

You’ll be crushed if things don’t pan out. Worse still, you won’t reach your full potential. You’ll be focused on beating the next guy’s potential instead of your own. 

Doing your absolute best, however, is fully within your control. You can do something about it. 

Define success in these terms. Define it by your level of effort instead of a scoreboard.

Of course, effort means nothing if you haven’t prepared. 

Make giving full effort to preparation part of your definition of success.

Redefine success to mean giving maximum effort every day to everything in your life—family, friends, work, training, helping others, etc.  

Do this and you’ll walk away a winner no matter what the scoreboard says. 

No secret path

There are no secret steps or hidden paths to success. 

It doesn’t matter whether you’re building a business, growing a family, or working towards any important goal, there is only one thing that truly works. 

The one thing that works is honing your craft, day in and day out, doing the right things over and over again. 

It’s not difficult to comprehend. It’s just really hard to do. 

Committing to the process requires a lot of you. It requires things like grit, accountability, confidence, passion, and discipline. 

These things may come more naturally to some than others, but they are all things you can develop and grow. 

You can’t control what you were born with, but you can take giant leaps forward in developing character and discipline today. 

 That’s 100% within your control. 

Apply yourself to those things. 

Commit to them. 

Make them your watch words and see how far they carry you.