Want To Change Your Life? Read This.

Are you currently feeling stuck? Feeling like you’re not going anywhere? Feeling as though life is something happening to you, something you can’t change?

This can be an extremely frustrating and lonely place to be, knowing what you could achieve and just not quite getting the breakthrough you feel you deserve is agonising. 

So I’d like to share something I wrote almost two years ago, on the 20th of March 2024:

“I had the same job, drove the same car, and lived in the same house. But I felt free. Being in control of your life means everything suddenly no longer feels permanent, and you no longer feel helpless.”

“I have never liked my job, and I still don’t, but I no longer hate it, and that’s because discipline allows me to continue taking the incremental steps that will eventually lead me to reach my goals and quit my job.”

These were my exact words in a blog about discipline, published to 10 members!

Today, all of the above has changed. I quit that job and have even moved to another country. 

So, considering I was correct, and continuing to stay disciplined did in fact get me out of a life I hated, I thought it would be a good time to re-hash. 

Motivation Is Killing Your Growth

Motivation is a term that’s used far more often than I believe it deserves. When you see someone who doesn’t seem to quit, they know what they want and seem to stop at nothing to get it. What would you say is the reason for this?

Most people would say this person is motivated, and although they might not be wrong, they’re definitely not right.

Although this person is likely motivated to some degree, they most certainly have a level of discipline that’s unseen in most, allowing them to not miss a single one.

Motivation is doing something because of how much you feel like doing it, discipline is doing it when it’s the last thing you feel like doing.

No matter how much you enjoy something or want something, there will come a time, even just a single morning, when it's the very last thing you feel like doing. Giving in to that feeling could be the beginning of the end of that journey, so it’s more than important that you fight it.

The only reliable way not to give in on these days is with discipline.

Motivation is great, and if you have it, use it. But never rely on it, never use it as an excuse for why you're not on your feet, because that simply comes down to a lack of discipline.

Motivation is setting the alarm the night before, discipline is getting up the morning of. 

So the next time your mind floods with excuses and reasons why you deserve at least one day off when that alarm goes, remember, this is what detrmines your success. 

Discipline Will Set You Free

You might be wondering, how did I know I would one day get out? Well, when I wrote those words, it was in relation to this very idea.

The idea is that discipline leads to freedom, and not the kind that frees up time (which is also true).

The kind of freedom I am talking about is control. When you start becoming more and more disciplined, you regain more and more control over yourself and your life.

If every time you want to achieve something, but get held back by things out of your control, the direction of your life is in the hands of everything except yours.

Every time you want to lose weight, but get halted by the temptations of tasty snacks.

Every time you refuse to run because of the rain.

And every time you snooze your alarm because of how tempting it is to go back to sleep.

These are all compounding into something that can only be described as a prison. 

You’re letting everything except for you dictate your actions, which dictates your life.

Discipline is the key to the cell.

When you finally stop letting your emotions decide what you do and when you do it, you take back full control over the trajectory of your life.

This creates an immense sense of freedom. You’re free from having your life decided for you. Now you're in control.

This is how I became sure that I would one day change my life, because I had finally experienced what it was like to be freed, all because I stopped letting emotions decide my actions and became disciplined in the face of discomfort.

Conclusion

The only way to truly change your life is to become disciplined.

I changed everything I hated about myself and my life by changing this one thing.

Discipline beats motivation every single time. Motivation is doing something because you feel like doing it a lot, discipline is still doing it when it’s the last thing you feel like doing.

Discipline allows you to stop letting emotions and external factors dictate how you act. This gives you full control over your life, giving you an immense sense of freedom.

If you truly want to improve and upgrade your life, become disciplined.