Concept Crackdown: Discipline
Discipline isn't what you think! • Concept Crackdown #1
Last week, my friend asked me how to "be more disciplined." I wanted to throw my coffee at him.
Not because it's a bad question, but because it’s like asking someone how to "be successful" or "get healthy."
It's not one thing. It's a collection of very specific, very boring micro-habits that nobody wants to talk about because they are not sexy enough for Instagram captions.
So let's crack this concept wide open.
What Discipline Actually Is
If I had to explain discipline in one sentence, I would say: “Repetitively doing hard things even when you don’t feel like it.” It’s a form of self-respect, the highest one.
How easy it is for you to wake up early and not skip leg days has to do with brain chemistry.
At the center of it is a balance between two key systems: the prefrontal cortex, which handles planning, self-control, and long-term goals, and parts of the limbic system, which are more reactive and emotion-driven.
The prefrontal cortex helps you make rational decisions, the limbic system pushes for immediate gratification and emotional comfort.
When it feels like you "lack discipline," it’s because your brain’s reward circuits are overriding your long-term thinking.
Willpower feels limited because mental fatigue and decision overload are real. Mental fatigue, stress, poor sleep, and constant decision making wear down your cognitive control.
That's why you are more likely to demolish a bag of chips at 11 PM than 11 AM.
This is an simplified description.
But you can hack this system.
You can set up your environment and behaviors to work with your brain's design instead of against it. You can automate decisions to preserve mental energy for when you really need it. You can build neural pathways that make good choices feel automatic.
That's what discipline actually is: neural pathway optimization.
Does it actually help you, knowing neuroscience stuff? Not really? So, let's crack this concept open now.
Discipline is 6 main components working together:
Long-term, short-term gratitude.
Identity shift.
Good decisions.
Environmental design.
Routine automation.
Recovery systems.
Component 1: Long-term, short-term gratitude
One thing to start with: Learning how to delay gratification is a must to be successful in life.
But, before it gets interesting, pushing through the work is boring as shit.
You crave immediate gratification because… it’s immediate.
So it has to do with your relationship with time. What that really means is that you have no instant reward after doing the hard thing.
When you do the hard thing—hit the gym, write for an hour, study instead of scrolling Instagram—there's no instant reward waiting for you. Just the work itself, which sucks.
But the reward is there. It’s much more satisfying and fulfilling than smoking a cigarette or binging a TV series for 5 hours straight. It’s just not there yet.
Trust me on this: after you build an impressive physique, it will be harder to stop lifting weights than to continue doing it.
If you start and have no consistency to carry with a thing for a few months, the idea of discipline in your head is associated with pain.
If you have never experienced a reward from the discipline, it’s gonna be tough for you.
That’s the trick with delayed gratification. The reward is better, but not instant.
But here's where it gets interesting: you can try to flip the script. You can get so hooked on the delayed rewards that immediate pleasure starts feeling cheap and hollow.
Become addicted to the process itself. A lot of young guys, after feeling the satisfaction of completing a hard workout and seeing the first changes in the shape of their body, become obsessed with the gym.
When you have experienced the satisfaction of building something meaningful over months, when you have tasted what it feels like to be proud of yourself—scrolling Twitter feels like empty calories. Because you have a comparison.
Like upgrading from gas station coffee to single-origin beans. Once you know what the good stuff tastes like, the cheap stuff just doesn't hit the same.
This happens because delayed gratification rewards compound.
Each cigarette is the same hit. But each workout builds on the last one. Each page you write adds to a book that eventually will be published. Keep writing and in a few months, you will show your family and friends a book and tell them that you have written it. Wouldn’t that be cool?
The reward gets stronger over time instead of staying flat.
Action: Pick one small project that will be completed within a month. Commit to doing it every day for exactly 30 days. Track not just that you did it, but how you felt after. Rate your satisfaction from 1-10 each day. Create your first digital product, publish an iceberg YouTube video on the topic that interests you, set up a portfolio website. It has to be measurable and a reminder that you can.
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Component 2: Identity shift
This is about self-respect and ego. Long-term identity change, tangibility and action are the core of this newsletter.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.
This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.” — James Clear
Disciplined people aren't disciplined because they are special. They are disciplined because they consistently act like disciplined people, which reinforces their identity as disciplined people.
Identity shapes action.
No way you will be consistent with something if the current you hates every second of it.
It's like trying to get a smoker to not smoke while they still see themselves as a smoker.
It's like expecting a dog to meow.
You can't willpower your way out of an identity mismatch. The mind follows identity like a heat-seeking missile.
If you see yourself as lazy, undisciplined, or a quitter, your brain will find ways to prove that identity right.
If your core belief is “I can’t do it”, then guess what: you can’t.
Your mind loves being right more than it loves being better.
That’s why, do this:
Reward small wins. (every workout is evidence you are athletic). Don’t reward yourself with a beer if you want to lose weight though.
Use identity-based language ("I'm someone who works out" vs. "I'm trying to work out").
Focus on systems, not outcomes. Writers write, regardless of whether today's pages are good). “I only write when inspiration strikes, fortunately it strikes every morning at 9 o'clock sharp.”
Track behavior, not just results (you lifted weights = you are someone who lifts weights).
Your actions shape your identity, which shapes your future actions. It's a compound loop that either works for you or against you.
Collect enough evidence to tip the scales. You don't need to transform overnight, you just need enough votes to win the internal election.
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