The Life Of Discipline

In this blog, I’m going to discuss a topic on one of the main factors that I attribute to the many successes I’ve achieved in my life and many of the ones to come, as I know through self-discovery that discipline is a path to mastery.

My relationship with discipline started when I was very young. At least that’s when I started to recognize the benefits. When I was 15 years old, I decided that I wanted to change the way I looked physically, so I chose to cut out all the food that I was binging on, which consisted of chocolate, crisps, soda, milk, fast food, fried foods—you name it.

I also committed to exercising daily, which consisted of running and bodyweight exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, etc. I was strongly committed to transforming the way I looked from a chubby teenager to an athletic-looking young man. The day I decided to take this path was the last day of the six-week holiday, and I remember it like yesterday. At the time, I didn’t have much knowledge of exercise or nutrition, I didn’t have many role models to look up to, and there was nobody in the family who had been on a trajectory leading to athletic heights.

My father passed away when I was very young, and much of my environment, and those around me, were leading a path to ill health. I knew what I should not eat, so I decided not to eat it. Over the weeks of summer, there were lots of temptations, but I stuck to my commitment. I ran every day; I did press-ups and sit-ups every night. I ate only clean food and resisted any yummy temptation that I was faced with. I stuck to the plan, and I went back to school after 6 weeks with a 6-pack. Everybody was shocked, and in fact, I was shocked, what it led to was more confidence, self-esteem, and the awareness of knowing that if I zoom in and focus on my goals, if I applied discipline when faced with temptation, I could achieve more goals and fast-track the results. This led me on a path of health, fitness, and wellbeing, and started my fascination with the body and mind relationship.

I know what separates those who commit fully, and those who do not, and the outcome of both is often a deciding factor of success or failure. Science is evolving, and we are gaining a deeper understanding of the mind, the body, and the spirit, which is intriguing.

From working with many clients over the years, I’ve had my fair share of excuses presented to me of why people are unable to follow a diet or routine plan. Much of this can be related to the impressions left on them from their past experiences, however, some of it is genetic, and the unique difference in the way the brain is designed. One of the problems that I know many people have is their association with the word discipline altogether. Is that the word often triggers emotions of when that terminology is used to teach a lesson. Whether it was at school or home, but often came in the form of aggression, which left it dent or sting, to say the least. The word discipline gets thrown around, triggering the wrong emotions.

As much as I was a disciplined child regarding the term mentioned above, I developed a very loving relationship with discipline, and it’s only grown over the years. You see, what I realized a long time ago is the depth of discipline that we can obtain is limitless, as, the longer we live, the more opportunity we must be disciplined, and the more we must expand awareness and consciousness.

So, what is discipline?

And how can we use it to help us in our lives?

This is one of my main goals at this point in my life as I’m a leader to many people who want to lead a life of success, and I know that discipline is the key to unlocking our potential.

Discipline is doing the things that you don’t want to do but you know you must do. Let’s be honest, that’s a lot of things.

When I was 15 years old and went from eating a lot of junk every day to only eating clean food, I had to be very disciplined as I had so much temptation, hunger pains, low energy, etc. In time, it just became a habit and required no discipline at all, which is why I would always ask myself ever since that day, what are some of the challenges and difficulties which require discipline I’m facing right now, and then I would lean into them. It’s not because I love to suffer. It’s because I know that if I could develop a deeper level of discipline, I would achieve a lot more. It is in the moments when I’m tempted the most that I can learn more about myself.

Even to this day, I eat the same food every single day. Granted, fluctuations depend on my caloric needs. Sometimes on the weekend, I need more than I do during the week. But following a strict diet for me nowadays requires no discipline. I’m leaning into more challenging areas in life, like controlling my thoughts or emotions, not just my actions. How do I internally respond, not just externally? And the reason remains the same as why I’m on this quest. It’s because I believe with true discipline, we can be the best version of ourselves.

There are parts of my day, every day, which require a tremendous amount of discipline. It takes discipline to get up at 4 AM, push yourself through physical pain, or study to the point where your mind is hurting. It takes discipline to have lengthy conversations with people where the answer is very clear to you, although they are just not willing to receive that information, or ready to, and so on.

All the circumstances in my life have changed since I’ve been applying discipline throughout. What has not changed is the method I use to apply discipline, and it’s very simple, but not always easy to execute, especially when you’re enduring a lot of pain and suffering, physically, mentally, or emotionally.

I love this quote because it’s so true. Just think of a time when you had something so devastating going on in your life. This could have been losing a job, losing a loved one, or facing a significant setback. In those moments, your circle of thoughts is all related to the current situation. You are consumed in it, and it becomes your world.

And it doesn’t have to be anything as disastrous to distract yourself enough, It could simply be picking your finger up in front of your face and staring at it, paying attention to all the details in the finger—the blood running through the veins, the nails that you probably need a good clean. But if you do this for long enough, what will happen is everything behind your finger will blur. If you keep focusing and concentrating, you’ll only see your finger, and you’ll only think of your finger. You will be your finger.

This is the tool to take you from the misery of the present into the pleasure of the future through visualization. When you wake up in the morning and snooze the alarm or stay in bed, it consumes you. But if you override that thought with what getting out of bed will lead to, that could be a gym session that will enable you to lose fat around your midsection so you start to see your abdominal muscles, whatever, but it will trigger motivation, and then you act accordingly. For some, this visualization method needs to be stronger.

It could be imagining themselves on the beach on vacation, looking fit. It could go deeper, where they imagine that girl they’ve been wanting to date for so long is on the beach, pointing at them and laughing as they look so fat. You see, the motivation there will be the same because it’s only enough as required to trigger the movement, but how strongly we focus differs based on whatever it will take. And that’s where discipline comes in. It’s about doing whatever it takes to keep you focused on doing what you know you need to do, regardless of whether you want to or not like to but must!

When you do this for long enough, it becomes a habit. It requires no discipline at all and no motivation at all. You will achieve a 6-pack or whatever else you were using the discipline for, but you will also be equipped with the knowledge and tools that will allow you to focus on what you’re doing, and what it will lead to, which means you can be successful in anything that you want to do, generally speaking.

In 1972, the influential marshmallow study demonstrated that kids waited on average six minutes before eating a marshmallow placed in front of them, despite being told they could have two marshmallows if they waited 15 minutes. The kids who delayed gratification for longer either did so by waiting for the marshmallow or distracting themselves. Close to 16 years after the marshmallow study, the children from the experiment who showed delayed gratification were shown to have better academic success, SAT scores, social skills, and emotional competence than those who showed a lack of discipline.

Brain imaging research of the original marshmallow study participants in mid-age showed differences in prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum activity between high and low delay-facing temptation. Kids’ ability to demonstrate self-discipline is influenced by the environment and those who face reliable environments are more likely to succeed.

Kids with low self-control during childhood are more likely to smoke and have relationships attributed to adolescent smoking. It appears that self-discipline or delayed gratification is not straightforward. There is evidence suggesting that low and high levels of self-control in children can influence our choices and lives, but our beliefs regarding the environment play a significant role too, given that our capacity for self-control can improve and how we build more self-discipline in the future can also be associated with the environment we create.

The research studies on discipline are why I’ve decided to prioritize the discipline of our children because that is one of the main drivers of my actions nowadays—to set an example and ensure that the world I’m influencing, which is the vision of the future, is one that, even if I’m around long enough to endure, would be one that I have created with more pleasure, stability, and discipline.

Let’s take a deeper look beneath the surface and understand what is going on in the brain, and what determines whether we can turn on this prime mover that we know all too well only leads to success, regardless of the impressions left on our subconscious mind. Our parents were right, and their parents were right before them: discipline is the key. However, at the time, they were using the only tools they knew or had to use. Now we have papers, studies, articles, and so much information on the topic.

Science has taught us that the frontal cortex in front of the brain is responsible for executive control or the ability to regulate behavior and thoughts. This region of the brain is crucial for the development of discipline.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, plays a role in self-control and decision-making. Dopamine releases are associated with pleasure and reward, and individuals with lower levels of dopamine are more susceptible to impulsive behavior. On the other hand, individuals with higher levels of dopamine are better able to control impulses and make more strategic decisions. The ability to develop more discipline also relies heavily on the frontal cortex, on the trigger associated with pleasure. And what most high-performing individuals are seeking is dopamine.

What we know about willpower is that sometimes against the odds, if somebody has tremendous willpower, they can get up off the floor on the ninth count in a boxing match with a heavyweight champion of the world. It’s like a spirit that comes into them, and everyone is rooting for powers, often compared to a muscle. It can be strengthened with regular use. This is because the brain’s control system can be trained through practice and repetition. Just like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it becomes, which, of course, encourages us to seek to become the best we can be, to choose the path least walked, the more challenging routes.

The more discipline we apply and the more feedback we receive, the stronger willpower ultimately grows, and the more habitual our actions become, to the point where we can maintain this level of ability. Or we can see, the areas of error in our life, and by applying discipline to turn them into new habits, using less energy to do the necessary.

Habits are powerful forces of influence behavior and decision-making. They can develop through repeating actions and can lead to established discipline by reducing the need for conscious effort. It becomes a subconscious movement, and as we know, the subconscious is 95% of brain activity, or at least that is what the study shows us. Daily repeated actions are leading us towards the life that we will habitually live. You can see how if we were repeating many of the actions daily that we know will take us off course, which are driven by the subconscious mind, habits formed over years of bad decisions, it will shape our future, for the worse!

Every action will trigger an emotion, and emotions play a significant role in discipline and self-control. Emotion regulation and impulse control are key components of discipline, and individuals who are better able to control their emotions are more likely to exhibit self-control.

The science of discipline is a very complex field that involves the interplay between the brain, behavior, and emotions. To me, it’s very exciting because I am living a life of discipline, and that is leading to so much progression and development not just in what I set out but I’m looking for ways within me to improve myself, which I know will improve those around me.

Understanding the neuroscience behind self-control can help individuals develop effective discipline techniques, and strong habits, and achieve their goals. With regular practice, discipline can be a powerful tool for success. The challenge will always be applying what we know we need to do, regardless of how uncomfortable that may feel.

It’s this desire, the fuel of my drive and my motivation that keeps me disciplined every day, as I know the actions I take impact not just me but all around me. And I’m not talking specifically about my family members, my clients, or my friends. I’m talking about every living being on this planet because we are all consciously and unconsciously connected.

So now we know more about discipline and its benefits, I’m going to give you some tips that you can apply step-by-step that will, if you follow and use discipline to be consistent with them, they will lead to a more disciplined life. As I mentioned previously, there’s always more depth that one can aim to control.

Step one – Acknowledgment.

To change you have to be willing to change. The first step is to recognize that you need more discipline in your life, and you have to decide to take the path that will bring more challenge and more difficulty but also more success. If you set out from the beginning to take the easy option and find a shortcut, then discipline is not for you. But if you want to be fulfilled, and achieve whatever you set out, then you need to understand that it’s going to take more than just a want. It’s going to take resilience and discipline consistently.

Step two – Finding purpose!

Every action you take is going to require discipline. It needs a purpose to motivate you. If you get out of bed just to get out of bed, it’s probably not going to be enough to stop snoozing the alarm. But if you get up out of bed early to improve your discipline, even if you have no demanding task to attend to by being up, it could be enough, but it will also help if you have a strong purpose. Like getting up to exercise because you want to achieve a goal, reading one book a week because you want to improve your intellectual capacity, or saying no to that extra donut because you have a holiday coming up and you want to look your best. You need a purpose, and you need to remind yourself of that purpose whenever temptation creeps in to persuade you otherwise.

Step three – Visualization.

Once you have a purpose in life or a short-term purpose, to give a reason why you are making the sacrifices and disciplining yourself, you need to improve your visualization. Your imagination needs to run free, and you need to zone in on your creativity to exactly what you want the outcome to be. This is something that you want to think about so often that it becomes ingrained in your subconscious mind. Where the body doesn’t recognize whether this is a memory or a projection to the future or current moment, as it’s so strong that it overrides any other thought or temptation that arises. It helps to create a vision board or screensaver on your phone or laptop or even post pictures on the wall or quotations in the office that remind you. Whatever you need to do to cement your reasoning into your mindset every action you take is driven towards just that, no matter how big or small.

Step four– Routine.

Creating a plan of action, whether you have the intellect, the knowledge, or the experience to even confidently plan if that will lead you to where you want to get to, is still important to plan the outcome you desire. Structuring daily objectives that you believe will help you achieve your desire is necessary and will help improve your discipline because, at times, things will be harder than not. It could include waking up at a certain time every day, going to bed every night at the same time, exercising five days a week for one hour a day, or drinking 5 liters of water a day. It helps to structure your meals at different times of the day and to stick to those times as best you can. And the more disciplined you become, the more structured you can be, and the more you realize how much is available to zone in on the tasks that can be the most rewarding, further enhancing your motivation to be more disciplined.

Step five – Reward.

Whenever you set yourself a challenge, a task, no matter how meaningless it may seem on paper, if it’s something that requires discipline to achieve, and you do achieve it, reward yourself. For some, positive reinforcement is necessary to acknowledge the small victories. This reinforces your relationship between applying discipline to tedious tasks or even the painful ones, and the more you do it, the more it will lead you to instant gratification and pleasurable results.

This could be as simple as choosing not to listen to any music or refrain from looking at your phone while you drive to work, or at work. If this requires discipline, and once you achieve what you set out to do, be kind to yourself and reward yourself with some positive affirmation that you are on the way to self-improvement.

This principle applies to everything, and the bigger the win, the bigger the reward. So if you get up at 4 AM and spend time working out, pushing yourself past your limits, despite how you felt before you started, despite the many times you wanted to throw in the towel and finish the work early, by pushing through with discipline, regardless of if the outcome is what you want, by rewarding yourself with the credit you deserve, you are solidifying a bond and a relationship that will continue to develop and grow.

By acknowledging that you want more discipline, constantly revisiting your purpose and developing it further, improving your visualization and zoning in on truly why you are doing what you’re doing, consistently structuring your routine so you maximize your time efficiency and rewarding yourself every time you apply yourself to new challenges, discipline will keep you on this path.

As they continue to speak out loud on my phone, I can then email myself the draft recording, to put the sound into words, edit the mistakes, condense it down into easier-understood text, and see if I can add some more sophisticated wording to trigger your emotions and encourage you to be more disciplined, all of which before sending it to my team, so they can add images, and post online to be read, I find myself scratching my head and rubbing my eyes because this tedious, tiring task is one I honestly don’t enjoy, especially with my family over in the park in the cool of sunset. However, I am doing the things that I know I need to do to achieve the results I want, even if I don’t want to do them at the moment.

If you like this blog, then I would be pleasured to hear from you, as I am sure you too on a quest to be the best, unlocking the depth of knowledge within us, leading an exciting, exhilarating adventure.

Christian Williams