Discipline Leads to Freedom

Jocko Willink, a retired US Navy SEAL, likes to say that discipline leads to freedom.”

Discipline leads to efficiency. Efficiency leads to results in less time. Results in less time means more time to do whatever you want.

For example, I’m in an engineering program that is infamous for its workload. I can choose to be undisciplined and miss that lecture tomorrow morning. If I miss that lecture, and don’t spend the time understanding the content, then assignments take me longer to complete. Now that this assignment is taking me longer to complete, I have less time to review for my other courses. Now that I have less time to review for my other courses, I have to sacrifice on sleep and exercise to complete all these deliverables before the deadline. Because I’m sacrificing sleep and exercise I’m not able to focus. Everything takes more time and its a negative feedback loop.

But what if I’m disciplined instead? I do go to lectures and understand the content, I complete my assignments early in less time, I start studying for exams early and I only have to review because I already absorbed the content. Now that I have school under control, I dont have to sacrifice sleep or exercise. I have more energy. I now have more time to go out with friends, read that book, or work on my passion project.

Displine means I’m able to spend my time how I like. In that way, discipline leads to freedom.

June 26, 2020


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