Discipline is much like being your own parent.
It’s about limiting the freedom to do as you please at any given moment, with the intent to secure better outcomes for the future self.
And despite my father’s attempt to instill discipline in me from a young age, I wasn’t having much of it until my mid to late twenties.
When I was a child, my biggest source of frustration were the restrictions my parents set for me. So, like many adolescents, I was excited to move out at the earliest opportunity.
Finally, I had my freedom.
The freedom to lift parental restrictions, to live the life I’ve always wanted to live. The freedom to be happy.
I could eat what I wanted, sleep when I wanted, bring home who I wanted (without the awkward introductions and nosy questions)!
I ate pizza all day, every day. I played video games until deep in the night, and slept in until early afternoon. I was living the life I’d always dreamt of as a kid… until I found out it wasn’t much of a dream.
Five years worth of bad decisions, favouring short term pleasure over long term outcomes, resulted in restrictions that severely limited me in many ways.
My study debt was sky high and I had achieved little to show for. I wasn’t in great shape. I was insecure. I was busy, but not productive.
I seemed happy and worry-free to the outside world, but I was in a state of panic from the inside.
The freedom I had won by not practicing any discipline turned into a prison that seemed difficult to escape from.
But I did. And it was discipline that got me out of there.
It took me a lot longer than most people, but finally I had found out the restrictions that come with discipline will eventually result in freedom – the freedom to be your best possible self.
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