· 3 min read
Why should you be internally disciplined?
Internal discipline is an antifragile source of motivation that gets the job done, eliminates the need for "how" questions, makes you stronger, and allows you to focus on achieving your goals without relying on external systems or motivators.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
I realized the root cause of why even when I created a had so many systems. I was failing. Because their systems were all external. I needed something internal that drives me. I needed Discipline.
What is Discipline?
Discipline is having a plan about doing or not doing something and then sticking to the plan regardless of how we feel.
We may feel good today and we do the tasks. We may feel bad today and we still do the tasks. And we do the task both on good days and bad days as if nothing happened. i.e. there is no performance degradation.
Much of life’s success is not in the intellect. It’s a repeated process / execution
We pedastalize genius, insights and new. We think it’ll solve everything or the person who has these features will solve everything.
More often goes the uncool “actually doing the work”. It’s easy to come up with ideas. But only when an idea is implemented it becomes useful.
If you look at good leaders, even prime ministers like Narendra Modi, he may not be the best at foreign policy, but that’s not his job, his job is to decide to have the best foreign minister, and then remove any impediments or inefficencies. i.e. this does not require a 200 EQ, this requires an organized disciplined process. At the same time, you’ll find that the PM is disciplined and organized in all aspects of his life.
Internal Discipline is the source of truth and it gets the job done
You cannot rely on motivation. Motivation is fickle and fragile.
Discipline on the other hand is antifragile. It gets the job done and done fully.
You can rely on discipline. It’s the only source of predicting the future. You can count on it.
Internal Discipline gets all jobs done
If the task is small, it gets done. If the task is big, it gets done. It doesn’t matter what the task is. Is it hard? Does it make you fearful? Does not matter.
If you have discipline. You get it done.
Internal Discipline eliminates the need for “how” searching answers
- How do you work out? → You work out.
- How do you learn to program? → You learn to program.
- How do you wake up in the morning → You wake up in the morning.
Discipline makes most “how” questions irrelevant. Therefore, it’s a time saver.
Internal Discipline makes you stronger
Internal discipline demands being strong and doing things despite the adversities we face. These adversities can be in the form of feelings, tiredness, weakness, or outside factors. Overcoming these daily makes us stronger.
By focusing on internal-discipline, the goals, and systems will take care of themselves
You should be the driver of yourself. Not externalities.
Externalities even systems are fragile. Internal Self Discipline is Anti-Fragile!
The problem is your systems will also fail if you are lethargic and lazy. Internal Discipline will not allow that!
You will be better at managing that and updating your systems if you are disciplined! Therefore, by being disciplined your systems would also not fail.
When you have internal discipline, you may not need external discipline or external systems. You are internally driven.