Discipline Is For Losers
Don’t be disciplined. It’s bad. Yes, you heard me right. Discipline is negative reinforcement of
something we think we ought to do. You’re not lacking discipline, you are lacking motivation and
purpose.
People wonder why they lack the commitment to fulfilling a task, why they rebel against the very
things they know will do them good. Yet they never question the methodology they use to
achieve the desires results.
Before we begin, let’s look at semantics.
When you’re growing up and do something “bad” or something “authority” doesn’t want you to
do, you get what? Disciplined. As you grow up the environment changes yet the metric remains
the same. You don’t meet a deadline, you get a formal warning. You drive faster than you
“should”, you get a ticket. Everywhere around us, we are being suppressed by negative
reinforcement cloaked with the idea of discipline. Negative reinforcement does not work, yet we
do that do ourselves all the time.
Instead, we must practice positive reinforcement and reward mechanisms. Rewarding ourselves
when we accomplish what we know we must do will result in longevity and consistency.
The same system applies to our #1 employee (your physical body is the employee of your
mind), one must reward this employee in order for it to stay motivated to continue progressing.
You can only discipline someone X amount of times before they rebel and despise that task.
It is proven time and time again that positive reinforcement is the catalyst for consistency and
progress…
It’s not that the task is bad, it’s that the approach we implement towards accomplishing this task
that usually doesn’t work. If we can find how and what motivates us to progress, I believe that is
where the difference is made.
For example, you have a hard time going to the gym? Well, your reward for exercising is having
dinner. Therefore, you begin training yourself to know that you are rewarded dinner conditional
to you exercising. This system is not oppressive, it’s not managed by discipline but by rewarding
positive behavior.
We have been handed everything on a platter that is why we have become mentally weak and
extremely dull. If you turn everything into a reward, even a cup of water can be cherished.
Everything you do must be earned. If you establish a system of self-rewarding outcomes for
positive behaviors, you will find yourself doing those things with more ease because you want to
be rewarded. Now the question is, what things in life will I consider rewards and what will I
consider tasks to get those rewards. That’s a personal dilemma, so I cannot answer that since
people have different goals.
Let me share one with you guys… Unless I make a 10k profit on any given day or more I cannot
watch anime/Netflix at night. I didn’t earn the privilege or the reward for leisure that day, so I will
continue to push until that action of watching anime can be self-administered as a reward for
hitting the mark.
If you master the ability to positively affirm your good work, you will never struggle with getting
your next objective accomplished. We do not practice discipline cuz self-discipline is stupid. We
practice self-regulation and we reward ourselves for positive behavior.
The devil is in the details. We are not slaves to the system. We are not slaves to performance or
money-making. Therefore, we do not impart negative thoughts for not accomplishing X
objective. We just know that we cannot unlock the next level until this level is complete. We are
not disciplined to accomplish this level. We are hungry to accomplish it because we want the
reward.
This technique is robust and I have developed it by understanding how animals are
programmed to follow directions more effectively. Want to read every day? Make using your
cellphone the reward for having read 3 chapters. Want to go to dinner with your girl on
Saturday? Make your goal having listened to at least 4 podcasts that week in order to unlock
dinner. If you miss the mark you’re going to perform until that objective is met.
We do not discipline ourselves, however, we select certain high stimulating behaviors in our
lives as rewards, instead of indulging in everything with no second thought.
Take time today to select those rewards and the tasks one must accomplish in order to unlock
that. If you are true to yourself, you will earn every intensely stimulating activity. This will make
you a machine of accomplishment. From the outside, they will not understand this secret
method.
People will think you are establishing self-disciplined when in reality you are just giving yourself
a reward for accomplishing what you set out to accomplish. We do not have negative
experiences with our goals because as humans we tend to avoid that which we do not like.
Take something you do not like and grant a positive reward for doing it, eventually, you’ll like
doing it because you’ll know what you get for doing that which you initially struggled to do.
Take some time today to figure out your short-term objectives (daily, weekly, and monthly) and
the reward attached to each accomplishment. Now you have the desired motivation to not stop
until that goal is met. I hope this helps, feel free to let me know your thoughts, and remember…
discipline is for losers and weak-minded individuals.