Discipline is the most overrated, hustle porn inducing buzz word we now see everyday.
We are told success requires sacrifice and suffering.
That we need to be like David Goggins & run 50 miles a week.
We need to be Jocko Willink and wake up at 4AM. Routine is everything.
We need to listen to Andrew Huberman & follow his 50 step morning protocol.
We need to constantly go to war with our short term desires & wants.
We need self control, stoicism.
What they don’t tell you?
Discipline is the path of most resistance.
It’s the absolute recipe for living a bang average life.
Why? Because every single one of you reading this likely has extreme amounts of discipline without even knowing it…
Let me explain…
To be able to work from Monday to Friday for 40+ hours, doing something you don’t even enjoy for 45 years straight until you retire requires relentless discipline.
Anyone arguing against that is delusional.
Clearly discipline is not the separator of men…. discipline is not the thing that turns you from average to the exception.
What is?
Addiction & obsession.
There is no amount of mental fortitude that will allow you to compete with someone who is an addict.
If you have ever seen the lengths someone who has a heroin addict will go to, to get their next hit…. You have not seen the sheer force of will a human is capable of.
This piece is not an open invite to start shooting heroin, but to be addicted to the man you wish to be.
The difference between the homeless guy willing to anything for his next hit & the man with the penthouse office, is their choice of dopamine…
You see addictive types at the top all of the time…
Michael Jordan was not only the best basketballer to grace the planet, he was addicted to winning & to competition. He has built a brand so impenetrable that it fuels his addiction to gamble millions of dollars (he has even once bet on whose team members luggage would come out of the carousel first).
Tiger Woods was addicted to sleeping & pain killers, shagging as many blondes as possible & was able to play some of his best golf simultaneously…
Elon Musk has an ultra obsession with being the wealthiest human on the planet (and Mars), has children with 6 different women & manages to run Tesla, Space X & work with Donald Trump at the same time.
These examples are not to put any of these actions on a pedestal. It’s to show the addicts more often than not end up on top, and you need a level of extreme ‘unbalance’ to excel in any field.
We all have the capacity for healthy addiction…
The only solution I have found for this, is being addicted to your potential & taking relentless action towards it.
This is the common thread among winners.
They know exactly the man they wish to become & will cut anything out of their lives that are not congruent with their life’s mission.
Bodybuilders are willing to start themselves to get shredded.
Special operators are willing to die for their country in the pursuit of combat mastery.
Businessmen would rather sleep under a bridge then give up on their business ambitions.
You have to find a vision you would die for & attack it relentlessly.
You know you’re on the right track when all of the previous distractions, the girls, scrolling social media, netflix, you don’t have time for any of that shit simply because the identity you are forging takes up every waking moment of your time.
I have never seen someone get in shape unless they were disgusted with where they were in life & it was more painful being in the position they were in now, than losing the weight.
We all have the potential to be addicted to the man we know we should be.
The Übermensch version of ourselves.
If you are not happy with who you are right now….
Your entire identity needs to change.
You need to transform & it is not discipline that will do that for you.
I agree. I see people who take their kids to scheduled classes — basketball every Saturday morning, gymnastics every Friday afternoon, violin every Monday evening.
When I was growing up, the kids who became the alphas were the ones who were obsessed — the kid who you never saw not dribbling a ball.
Now, as you get older and you have responsibilities to other people (spouse and kids), the issue is not “is” obsession healthy, but rather “how” can I manage my obsessions without destroying my relationships.
You almost lost me at Huberman because so much of his way too long content is pseudo science . Other than that I think this is very accurate and interesting. Bravo.