Rob Dyrdek shared a fascinating look at discipline on his podcast.  He talks about watching Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady and thinking their level of discipline was too extreme but changing perspective once understanding how everything in our existence matters—from what we choose to eat, how we spend our time, understanding the compound effect of our actions.  Those of us with wandering minds can find discipline challenging because we aren’t focused on one goal at a time.  I know my mind spins constantly so finding any consistency requires an intense focus.  What I’ve learned though is that much of what we think we have to do is really just extraneous noise.  If we learn to eliminate the clutter and distraction, discipline gets much easier. 

We talk a lot about creating the lives we want and that means getting clear on ourselves and who we want to be, our goals, and how we want to feel and then it means acting on those things that get us there.  Stepping away from the expected path and creating something that works for us, something sustainable, something authentic requires an extraordinary amount of discipline.  Sometimes those choices aren’t easy because the old ways are just beneath the surface, waiting for us, letting us off the hook.  So, yes, watching the greats, whether it is the great athletes, the great writers, the great minds, the great artists, it’s important to understand they know their path and they stick with it.  It isn’t a chore when it comes to something that needs to be shared and expressed to the world—it is a gift.  The joy of expressing self, of being seen and the value of it is never really pressed upon is.  Being seen by those who understand us is what helps create fulfillment of our purpose. It isn’t egotistical or selfish, it’s purposeful.

In my experience, I felt discipline meant living in a cage.  I wanted freedom to do what I want, I hated hearing people tell me what to do, I even wanted to prove that their rules or the things they focused on didn’t make sense.  I ended up spending a lot of time running around the mountain telling people they were doing it wrong instead of learning how to learn the lesson and move on, to create my own path.  Ironically as soon as I felt lost, I would BEG for the universe to show me the way, to tell me exactly what to do.  Discipline is what keeps us from scattering energy uselessly—in my case from starting a million projects and leaving them unfinished.  Discipline isn’t the act of caging anything, it’s the act of responding to a calling and holding our values accordingly.  It only becomes a cage when we listen to others over ourselves, waiting to hear our own voices. 

Forging our paths isn’t always easy.  It’s dirty, messy, challenging, and even scary at times but it’s worth the effort and the dedication to your authenticity to keep going.  There are no short cuts and the hard truth is that there really isn’t anyone or anything standing between you and your goals except ourself.  Once we learn to get out of our own way, put down the fear, put down the story we’ve told ourselves about who we are and what we need to do, put down the habit of seeking comfort over our dreams—that’s where the magic is.  It isn’t extreme to spend our time taking action toward our goals—it’s a necessary facet to exert the dedication and discipline to see our dreams through.  No one else will do it.  We make it happen and we will only get so far as our dedication to our dreams accompanied with consistent action takes us.  It’s in all of us to make it happen.  Choose our dreams, we only get one life.