By most estimations, people would consider me a disciplined person. I train every week, as I’ve done for 15 years. My diet is healthy. I write every day, in thousands of words. My business is worked on daily. True days-off are extremely rare.
I am disciplined, am I not? Sure I am.
But I don’t call what I do “discipline”. It’s not HARD at all. It’s what I WANT TO DO. I don’t consider it to require real mental effort at all, it’s not a struggle, and there is certainly no battle in doing.
What I practice instead is ANTI-DISCIPLINE.
I already know what I “say yes to” on a daily basis. That is quite clear.
What matters more is what I say NO to . This is what Anti-Discipline is .
Anti-Discipline, is the hard and fast continuous practice of NOT doing things, Of giving them no energy, removing them from your life entirely, and in doing so, this gives you the Freedom to LIVE and Do what Matters to you.
There are in fact 10 “Rules” that I follow, they are the following:
- Do not engage in anything that you cannot take seriously
- Don’t do business/relationships with anyone that you cannot respect
- Do not compromise sleep
- Do not let anything chronically disrupt your schedule
- Do not commute
- Do not allow uncertainty to persist for too long in any relationship you have
- Do not deal with Borderline Personalities, at any cost
- Do not avoid sacrifice ever
- Do not exchange short term comfort for long term prosperity
- Do not do whatever “they” say you should do
It is the “Discipline of Negation” that disciplined people practice, which is done not simply because those things “are not good for them”, but because they detract from the Purpose and Passion of Living and what their vision is for themselves.
People that are highly disciplined are never “vague” people who don’t know what they want, and don’t know who they are.
Know yourself. And say no to what you refuse to become.
