What is discipline?
Discipline is doing something other than what naturally befalls you – Peter Ralston
What naturally befalls you is to follow your strongest/most salient impulse moment to moment. By impulse I mean anything within your body and mind that is trying to drive you towards doing or not doing something. This includes any craving or aversion, desire, or emotion.
Discipline is acting contrary to your most dominant impulse. Discipline is doing something other than what your strongest impulse is urging you to do.
Examples
- Your strongest impulse is to eat cake in front of you. Not eating the cake is discipline.
- You feel tired after a long day, and your strongest impulse is telling you to rest. Going to the gym is discipline.
- You feel angry and your strongest impulse is to yell at the person in front you. Overriding that impulse and remaining calm, is discipline.
Why is it difficult to be disciplined?
To be disciplined is to act contrary to your natural impulses (inclinations, cravings, aversions, and feelings). By natural impulses, I mean impulses that are present for you without any effort.
‘Impulses are there to drive your behavior. Impulses are difficult to not follow because they exert pressure on you in order to drive you to take a certain action. Not taking an action is also an action.
How does an impulse exert pressure on you in order to drive you to behave a certain way?
An impulse consist of a thought that is connected with energy in the body.
If you just have a thought without any bodily energy connected to it, it will not feel like it is pressuring you to behave a certain way. It will simply just be a neutral thought.
For example, the thought I have to dress up as clown and sing Christmas songs in the street, will not feel like something you have to act on it because it is not connected with energy in the body. At least, for most people I hope. It is simply a neutral thought and it doesn’t require any discipline to not act on that thought.
On the other hand, let’s say you are on a diet to lose weight, and to achieve your goal you decided to stop eating unhealthy high calorie foods. This means, you have to break a habitual pattern. Namely, your habit of eating unhealthy high calorie foods.
So, imagine you are sitting at home alone in the evening. You have nothing to do, and suddenly you remember you have a pizza in your fridge. In that moment, to not eat the pizza requires discipline (unless you are already very satiated).
Why?
Because the thought I want to eat pizza is connected with energy in the body. The thought may be unconscious and just show up as a urge/craving in the body. An urge or craving is a thought that says ‘I need….(f.ex. Pizza)’ that is connected to energy in the body.
A craving/urge can be conscious or unconscious. You can make the impulse (urge/craving) conscious by simply stating the opposite and waiting to see if your body and mind gives a reaction.
For example say ‘I don’t need to eat that pizza’ and then if that is not truly how you feel, some part of your body will tighten or contract. Which is your body’s way of saying that statement is not true, which in this case is your body saying ‘I need to eat that pizza’.
In this situation, following the impulse to eat pizza is what naturally befalls you. Discipline is not eating the pizza, despite the urge to do so.
Following the impulse, in this case the urge to eat pizza, will result in temporary relief, because the urge is quenched and the energy in the body pressuring you to take the action is relieved/no longer present because the energy accomplished it’s aim (in this case, it’s aim to get you to eat the pizza).
On the other hand, not eating the pizza, will result in the energy pressuring you to eat pizza to increase. The urge to eat pizza will become stronger. It has to because the impulse is designed to drive you to take a certain action and not taking the action the impulse is directing you to, will make your body and mind to rebel with uncomfortable pressuring sensations (f.ex. energetic tension or contraction in your chest area) and craving thoughts (rationalizing why it is okay for you to eat the pizza, images of good memories of eating pizza before, debating in your mind whether to eat pizza, and so on). The urge is becoming stronger in order to make you take the action it is commanding you to do.
When you are constantly busy relieving your urge to eat pizza, you are not conscious of the full extent of the impulse/urge/craving. However, by abstaining from taking that action, you will get to see the full intensity of the urge.
How does discipline create freedom?
If I deny myself I gain freedom but lose comfort. If I indulge myself I gain comfort but lose freedom. Indulge, deny, what is myself?
- Peter Ralston
Paradoxically, by setting boundaries for oneself, one gains in freedom.
Because without being able to set boundaries for yourself, you end up a slave to your spontaneous desires, cravings and aversions, impulses and whims.
Therefore, without discipline you are not free to pursue anything other your natural inclinations.
And your natural inclination is to follow the path of least resistance, which means doing that which is easy and comfortable for you, and avoiding struggle and pain.
For example, without discipline you will not be able to pursue a healthier, stronger and more attractive body because you will just follow the impulses that naturally befalls you. Natural impulses such as eating unhealthy food because you craves high-fat sugary food and not doing strength training because it takes effort and causes discomfort.