“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.” -Eliud Kipchoge
My friends who have traditional corporate careers marvel at how I can be at the lake every Friday during the summer, but never ask about the fact that I am sitting at my desk working before six am every day, seven days a week. Even from the lake I have the discipline to work before the sun is up so that in the afternoon I can be free to swim and think.
My ex complains about being out of shape but doesn’t have the discipline to not buy junk food, to cook healthy, or to invest time in working out every day. The discipline to say no to short term pleasure buys long term health and the freedom of movement and from pain it provides. My children choose to follow the path of discipline as much as teenagers can, and are physically and mentally healthier than their cohort because of the tradeoffs they have chosen to make.
In my 20’s I was disciplined to work like a madman without distractions from 7:00 to 5:30 every day before going to my martial arts class, then sat down to study every night instead of watching tv like others did. That sacrifice made my credentialling exams ridiculously easy and accelerated my career well past my peers that lacked the structure to study daily, the internal fortitude to focus, and the unrelenting will to grind daily for a decade to buy freedom for the future. A bad meeting for them would spin them out of control emotionally and they would self-destruct by being a slave to their passions instead of mastering and harnessing them as I had learned to do through training and repetition and experience.
Moods are natural, as we are part of nature and all things ebb and flow like the tides of the ocean or the phases of the moon. But even on a moonless night we can still carry a light and venture forth in the dark. Even when we are tired, we can choose to move forward. The decisions to not stop until we are done, to do instead of complain, to grow instead of stagnate, are all about the discipline we develop to make the better choices in life. Choose the path of discipline to be free.