Discipline

In this day and age, where we are constantly overstimulated and sedated by the technological advancements and the globalization of the mass media and social media platforms. It is hard to pay attention to anything for more than a second. Afterall, the reels that we look at are designed in such a way that rewards lack of patience and lack of attention so that they can get us addicted to it, so that we keep increasing the dosage to get even more stimulation.

Our dopaminergic systems are fucked up, we can't concentrate at all, even if we wanted to. We never realised that we became the rats that we often experimented on, but instead of being hooked on cocaine, we're hooked on information. We feel like we're getting to know the world, but not really, we're just being constantly distracted. So much so that a toddler has a better attention span than us.

This is quite the predicament, it's also pernicious in the sense that we don't take this problem seriously, even though it might be one of the contenders for the problem of the century.

Not all hope is lost though, there is still a way out of this. It's not magic and it's not simple. It's by integrating discipline into your life. Something which our ancestors have preached about so much so that it might be in the Ancient Wisdom 101. We thought we were too cool and too beyond all of that age-old jargon, or at least I thought I was. But sometimes in life, we turn out to be exactly like the idiots we thought we weren't.

Now, how might you go about it?

This is what you would want to ask if you have any sense at all. Don't worry, Daddy Madhav (yes, I just said that) has got a solution.

Seek discipline, but not in the way you'd think. Don't worry, I'll elaborate.

As long as you seek discipline from external sources, you won't get disciplined. The more you go on youtube to watch videos about discipline, the more undisciplined you will get. That's because you're trying out everything but discipline. You know that you're avoiding getting disciplined by going to these external sources but you'll do it anyway because your stupid brain rationalized and tricked you into doing the easy thing.

Anyone can watch videos, read books, look at other disciplined people to successfully implement discipline into their life. Successfully, Yes. But only for a rather short period of time.

And there is only one reason why you fail so many times when it comes to being disciplined, that's because you're looking at it the wrong way. You cannot seek discipline from external sources.

Don't get me wrong. It's not the books or the videos or the admirable people that are the problem, it's your inaction. What are you going to do with all that knowledge if you don't ever implement it?

Discipline comes from within.

You and only you are responsible for getting yourself disciplined. You know what the right thing to do is, but you don't do it anyway. You know that going out on the weekend is probably not the best course of action when you have a list of things to complete before the weekend. But you go out and party anyway. You know prioritizing instant gratification couldn't be more harmful even if you wanted it to be. But you do it anyway, because you're a stupid son of a bitch!

And there is only one reason why people do that.

Because it's hard. It's hard to get disciplined and even harder to stay disciplined. It's hard to do the right thing. It's hard to delay gratification. It's hard to go to the gym. So hard that you'd rather sit and procrastinate, even when you know that it wouldn't end well for you.

But it's harder to watch yourself get behind in life, to watch yourself waste all that potential, to know that you could have been more. It might be the most painful of all. Despite knowing that, you sit there and do nothing.

Start practising discipline. Start doing the hard things, because they are also the right things, usually. Make a plan, make a schedule and follow it. If you fail to follow it perfectly, do not worry. As long as you follow it partially, you still did better than what you did yesterday. But don't keep it that way. Do better the next day, so that you can be better. The goal is not to be perfect, but to be better.

Consistent gradual improvements beat everything.

If you can be better everyday, even in the slightest, you'll end up being way better than the distorted image of perfection you had of yourself in your mind.

There has never been a human being on this planet that achieved absolute mastery of his/her field without being disciplined. Even geniuses and prodigies need to get disciplined before mastering anything, you're no different. You too, need discipline to improve your life substantially over time, and you know that.

The ball's in your court, <Main Character>. Will you take the ball and shoot it in the net? If yes, then that takes a lot of practise, consistent effort and time. The only way you can do that is through discipline, not motivation. Because motivation is not consistent. You can achieve mastery in something, but a benefit doesn't come without a cost. The cost is high, no doubt about that. But compared to the cost of inaction, it sounds like a sweet deal.

So, can you get disciplined?

P.S. :- I’m gonna start using Daddy Madhav more often now, and Daddy Maddy is a strong 2nd contender.