How to create a better future for yourself.
Life becomes really fucking simple if you understand one thing.
Rewards compound the longer you delay them. Forgoing the small pleasure from a donut today means a ton of happiness when you look at your fit body three months from now. You just need to stick to it.
Discipline is the ability to choose these future rewards.
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Studies show disciplined people are happier because they choose long-term benefits and avoid future problems.
âHigh self-control does make you happy.â
â Roy F. Baumeister
Read also: 5 tiny habits that lead to huge results (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
But delaying gratification is hard â use these seven laws to boost your discipline the smart way.
The Law of the Suck Will Help You Stop Suffering
Discipline will always be hard because it is about doing hard things.
But while the pain is mandatory, the suffering is optional.
âIt may look as if the situation is creating the suffering, but ultimately this is not so â your resistance is.â
â Eckhart Tolle
A few years ago, I was walking to the gym through a cold, German winter night at 2 am. The wind was howling, the snow crunching under my boots, and icicles formed on my beard like pimples on a 14-year-oldâs face. There was nothing pleasant about the experience, but I felt great.
Why?
Because I embraced the suck.
When you face discomfort, donât resist it. Feel it. Let it suck. Smear your face with mud, pant, and curse the gods if you have to. But embrace the experience because itâs part of life.
Youâll realize itâs not the situation that makes you suffer, but your resistance to life as it is.
The Law of Regret Will Help You Take Action
Thereâs no worse feeling than I wish I had.
The girl you didnât talk to. The workout you skipped. The porn you watched even though you promised not to. The alarm you snoozed, the things you said in anger, and the opportunities you didnât take because sitting on the couch was too comfortable. You acted against better knowledge and now have to suffer the consequences.
âWe must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.â
â Jim Rohn
When you face tough decisions, your ego comes up with a million excuses.
âYou deserve the treat.â
âYou can do it tomorrow.â
âJust this one time.â
Remind yourself that no matter how bad it feels now, the regret will feel much worse.
The Law of Complaints Will Help You Stop Wasting Your Energy
Youâre always better off taking action than complaining.
Iâve worked out at a run-down gym for a while. Every week, there was someone new who ranted about the rusty machines and leaking showers to everyone willing to listen. I understood their frustration, but they couldâve done a full workout instead of wasting their breath for an hour.
Ranting to your colleagues, bitching with a friend, or writing angry comments on the interwebz feel good, but only waste your time and energy.
âChampions never complain. They are too busy getting better.â
â John Wooden
Instead of wasting your time, ask yourself:
âWhat can I do to change the situation or get closer to my goal?â
Use your energy to improve your life, not rant about it.
The Law of Not Even Once Will Help You Stick to Your Commitments
The Trojan war was one for the legends.
After unsuccessfully sieging the city of Troy for over ten years, Spartan soldiers resorted to a list. They built a huge wooden horse as an apology gift, hiding their best men in its belly. After the Trojans took it in, the Spartans came out at night and opened the cityâs gates.
It was a blood bath.
With discipline, your mind becomes as unconquerable as the Trojan city. The Stoics call this your âinner fortress.â It canât be taken from the outside, only corrupted from the inside.
Donât let bad behaviors creep in. No five-minute snooze. No âglimpseâ at porn. No âsmallâ piece of cake while youâre on a diet. Little slips spread like a virus.
âNo more. No more excuses. No more: âIâll start tomorrow.â No more: âJust this once.â No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will.â
â Jocko Willink
Itâs much easier to draw the border without room for negotiation because you donât have to debate yourself.
Hold the line â donât let the Trojan horse in.
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The Law of One More Will Help You Leave Your Comfort Zone
Discipline means you have to take two difficult steps.
The first one. Without it, nothing will happen.
The extra one. Itâs where you leave your comfort zone.
My old gym buddy and I often forced each other to do extra reps. You sit there, tunnel vision, heart racing like a Nascar driver, and panting like a convict on the run. You feel like youâll pass out any second, but you can still bang out a few extra reps.
âWhen you think that you are done, youâre only 40% in to what your bodyâs capable of doing. Thatâs just the limits that we put on ourselves.â
â David Goggins
When you think youâre done, do one more.
One more rep at the gym.
One more page read.
One more hour working on your dreams.
These are the hard reps that pay off.
The Law of the Environment Will Make Doing The Right Thing Easy
Youâre not as free-willed as you believe.
You think you have agency over your life, but your environment influences you a great deal. Cookies in the kitchen, plump boobs on Instagram, and a friendâs party invite on your phone. They all determine how your night is going to end.
Thatâs why disciplined people design their environment in smart ways to make the right behaviors easy.
Gym bag packed. TV remote hidden. Books out. App blockers on the phone.
âIf your environment is not making you better, change it.â
â Mark Twight
Make good behaviors obvious and easy.
Make bad behaviors hidden and hard.
Make your environment work for you instead of against you.
Read also: 6 mindset that will transform your life and set you up for success
The Law of the Golden Standard Will Keep You on Track When Things Get Tough
As an adult, you can make your own rules, which is both the best and worst thing you could wish for.
The problem is nobody holds you accountable. As a kid, my parents scolded me for not eating my veggies. As an adult, nobody cares.
Thatâs why so many people break their own rules and lose trust in themselves every time they do it.
âKeep your standards even when everyone around you is losing theirs.â
â Habeeb Akande
Set one golden standard you wonât betray no matter what.
Daily meditation. Working out three times a week. Reading for ten minutes before you go to bed.
Stick to this one rule even if the world goes up in flames.
Summary To Help You Become More Disciplined
Discipline helps you build a great future by delaying rewards â use these seven laws to build it.
The Law of the Suck. Embrace it because resistance causes suffering.
The Law of Regret. Understand that regret is more painful than discipline.
The Law of Complaints. Instead of wasting your breath, use your energy to take action.
The Law of Not Even Once. Itâs easier to draw a hard line than to renegotiate it all the time.
The Law of One More. When you think youâre done, do an e usxtra rep.
The Law of Environment. Design your surroundings to make doing the right thing easy.
The Law of the Golden Standard. Set a level of minimum effort and stick to it no matter what.
âA disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.â
â Dalai Lama XIV
CONTRIBUTED BY Moreno Zugaro
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