Discipline Equals Freedom

Discipline equals freedom. The more discipline you have the more freedom you have. To most people, this sounds counterintuitive. Most people think if you are living a disciplined lifestyle that you have no freedom. In reality, having self-discipline gives you more time and freedom because you have the discipline to get up earlier in the morning. You'll have more money because you have financial discipline to save and live below your means. You’ll have more success because you have the discipline to accomplish your tasks and goals.

Does having discipline mean that you’ll be perfect and never slip up? No. We’re human. Making mistakes and slipping up are a part of life. But having self-discipline will help you stay on track more often than not.

So, how do you develop self-discipline? Developing self-discipline starts with how you view yourself. Are you the type of person who sets a goal and achieves it? Are you the type of person who will do whatever it takes to reach your goals? Are you the type of person who will do the uncomfortable activities needed to achieve your goals?

The next step to develop self-discipline is to realize this fact: the actions you take must be congruent and consistent with who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish.

So, when your alarm goes off in the morning, get up. Don’t lie in bed wondering if you should get up. Get up! Making this decision will impact you for the rest of the day and help you flex your decision-making muscle first thing in the morning.

Nobody wants to get up in the morning, but ultra-healthy people do. The ultra-healthy would love to hit the snooze button and crawl back into their warm, cozy bed. But they don't. Why? Because ultra-healthy people get up and live each day on purpose, and they have developed self-discipline that’s congruent with who they are and the goals they’re trying to achieve.

When you have the decision to watch TV or take the time to work on your body, choose to take care of your body and exercise. When you have the decision to hit the drive-thru and grab a quick meal or make yourself a healthy, nutritious meal, choose the healthy meal. When you’re under the weather and you have the decision to focus on your symptoms or clearing your body of subluxations so your body can heal itself, choose optimal function over drugs.

You’ll be faced with these types of decisions every day. How you move forward with each decision will determine your lifestyle and ultimately your health. It’s just like the old axiom, “Actions speak louder than words.” Saying you want something is easy, but achieving what you want takes hard work and discipline. The decisions you make and the actions you take each and every day show you and your loved ones the person you are.

Understanding that life is not going to slow down or stop whether you make the right decision to reach your goals or not is important. Life doesn’t slow down. Time moves forward whether we like it or not. The key is to keep consistent with and stay focused on our short and long-term goals, so you can be the person you know you are and achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.

Make the decision and commitment to take congruent, consistent actions.

Self-discipline will help you follow through with what you need to do to function to the best of your ability. Self-discipline will help you make consistent and better decisions about the food you eat. Self-discipline will help you work out regularly and achieve your fitness and health goals. And most importantly, self-discipline will allow you to live the life that you were designed to live, to help you reach your life vision, and have fun and be healthy while doing it!

However, just because you know self-discipline will help you achieve all of this and more doesn’t mean you’ll start your day tomorrow being more disciplined. That’s why I want to help you set yourself up for success and give you a few strategies to start using discipline to your advantage and stay disciplined from here on out.