Jocko Willinck wakes up at 4 am daily to “beat the enemy”. He’s an ex-combat Navy Seal who now consults Fortune 500 corporations and wrote a book Discipline Equals Freedom. The title sums up a guiding theme I live by—sacrifice what you are for what you become. Do things that are hard today so you can be better tomorrow. Will Smith has an iconic interview, “You will not outwork me. If we get on the treadmill together, there are two options—you’re getting off first or I’m gonna die. The guy willing to hustle the most is going to win. Stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.” These are the sort of thought leaders I look up to, I have a similar standard of living that’s been ingrained in my day to day for as long as I can remember and I choose to surround myself with people who further instill and solidify that.
I’m often asked to what I attribute this obsessively driven mindset. I don’t know the source but I know what it is and I know it’s always been there. Discipline. Pure, intrinsically-derived discipline. Consistent, excuse-less, unfailing discipline. I’m missing the period of consideration between thought and action. I don’t ruminate over whether I should workout when I’m sleep deprived, whether I should get up to the first alarm vs. snoozing it, whether I should choose healthy whole foods over crap, whether I should go directly to the CEO vs. standard channels, whether I should skip normal career steps and go straight for what I know I’m capable of. There’s no decision-making period between option acknowledgement and doing, the decision making is unconscious and it consists of 'is this going to make me better or not'. This is a useful tactic, reducing daily decision-making time. I typically wear the same clothes (chosen by quality + simplicity), eat the same meals, order the same groceries, have consistent morning habits. It saves brain power for the important things, for brainstorming and planning and leading and executing. The more behaviors on autopilot the better, as long as the autopilot is discipline-oriented. Everyone has a portion of behavior on autopilot, these are our habits. The things we do every day, the patterns that we develop and tighten as time and consistency compounds. It’s important to periodically check our autopilot behaviors, it’s easy for them to stray into the mediocrity that would be all of our defaults if we were content with an easy, challenge-less life. If your autopilot behaviors are discipline-oriented, you have the chance to be exponential. It builds a rock-solid foundation that your conscious behaviors can build upon, a higher standard is created from automatic habits that your conscious behavior is then modeled after.
If you want to be better than others, you must do things that others won’t. Typically, things that others don’t do are hard things, hence why they’re avoided. And doing them consistently, when no one’s looking, on hard days and easy days rainy days sunny days, consistently. Discipline. I always had this. In high school: Up at 6, school, sports practice, home, homework before dinner I sat on my floor so I could spread out my papers in order of priority. In college: study before party, hours on a Sunday dedicated to doing until satisfied before fun was allowed. Juggled two jobs and two degrees, dedicated to reaching self-sufficient as soon as possible dedicated to building credibility and experience 'before the enemy’. Productivity is my default, I’m not fulfilled without it. I’ve trained an aversion to anything that won’t make me better. I get antsy watching TV, sitting in a movie theater, listening to gossip, skipping a workout, eating outside of Keto. Exponential is what I strive for. Mediocrity isn’t an option, it never was. Some might think this isn’t a way to live, it’s my only way to live. I choose it and I’m better every day because of it.