12 Quotes on Discipline for Success, Freedom, and Greatness

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Excerpt: Discipline is the most important character trait to develop in order to take control of your life. Read our quotes on discipline and begin.

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Introduction: Why self-discipline?

Self-Discipline is quite possibly the most important character trait to develop if you want to take full control over your life. Based on almost everything I’ve read and shared on MoveMe Quotes since 2010, self-discipline has been brought up time and time again as one of the fundamental secrets to success and the winning character trait that distinguishes those who unleash their personal best from those who remain leashed by their personal moods, appetites, and feelings.

Are you going to remain leashed by your moods, appetites, and feelings?  …Or are you going to cut yourself free?  When you’re in a bad mood do you usually A) Skip your workout or B) Go to the gym anyway because you know you should. When you come home from a long day at work and are really hungry—do you A) Reward yourself with some sweets for making it through the day or B) Cook / Prepare yourself a healthy meal because you know that you should? When you wake up and feel groggy and tired but know you have stuff that needs to get done—do you A) Make moves and get it done anyway because you know that you need to or B) Sleep in and deal with the consequences of not getting your tasks done later?

…Of course there are going to be days when you don’t feel like going to the gym. Everybody (and I mean everybody) has those days. The question is, have you planned ahead for them?  Because if you haven’t, you’re not really in full control are you?

Self-Discipline is your ability to get stuff done even when you don’t want to get that stuff done. While it may sound restricting—having to take action on things when you’re not in the mood or don’t feel good—it actually will lead to more freedom and better moods in the long run. Jim Rohn says it beautifully in that, “The pain of discipline weighs ounces whereas the pain of regret weighs tons.” Working out for one hour can leave you feeling good for the twenty three hours after—even more so most of the time! And the same is true when eating a healthy meal—the rest of the day is elevated. But miss one of those workouts or eat like crap for even one meal…? You’ll be feeling good for a few minutes and terrible for the next several hours. The pain of regret indeed, weighs tons.

Those small, deliberate actions performed consistently over an extended period of time are the secret to unleashing your personal best in life—and self-discipline is the secret to getting those small, deliberate actions performed consistently over an extended period of time. It’s time to focus on building up your self-discipline.

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The List: 12 Quotes on Discipline and How it Will Lead You to Success, Freedom, and Greatness

Below, you will find supporting thoughts / quotes on discipline and will learn more about how it leads to success, freedom, and greatness. Drink the following words with an open heart and sit with the thoughts that get stirred up.

Can you adopt any of the given ideas to your lifestyle? Can you start building up a new, positive habit? Can you come up with a plan on what you can do if you’re not in the mood or don’t feel like doing stuff? Can you find a friend that might help you stay accountable? Might you reach out to a friend and offer to help them build up their self-discipline so as to help you build up your own?

Let us know what you’re thinking in the comment section below—and before you close out of this tab, take some sort of immediate action TODAY—you never know who you might inspire!  Cheers and good luck!

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Quotes on how discipline leads to success:

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“Self-discipline is an act of cultivation.  It requires you to connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s results.  There’s a season for sowing and a season for reaping.  Self-discipline helps you know which is which.”

Gary Ryan Blair

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“The successful person has formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. Successful people don’t like doing them either, necessarily. But their dislike is subordinated by the strength of their purpose.”

Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit

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“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself …The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment …And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”

Leonardo da Vinci

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Quotes on how discipline leads to freedom:

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“Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.”

Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit

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“Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man is a slave to his own weaknesses.”

Alan Valentine

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“Self-discipline is a form of freedom.  Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from the expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear and doubt.  Self-discipline allows a pitcher to feel his individuality, his inner strength, his talent.  He is the master of, rather than a slave to, his thoughts and emotions.”

Harvey Dorfman

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Quotes on how discipline leads to greatness:

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“No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed.
No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined.
No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled.
No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.”

Henry Emerson Fosdick

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“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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“What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are: and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.”

H. P. Liddon

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Quotes on how to discipline yourself:

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“A modern stoic knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble.”

W. H. Auden, via Daily Rituals

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[Re: Discipline with writing]  “There’s no one way — there’s too much drivel about this subject.  You’re who you are, not Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe.  You write by sitting down and writing.  There’s no particular time or place — you suit yourself, your nature.  How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter.  If he or she is not disciplined, no sympathetic magic will help.  The trick is to make time — not steal it — and produce the fiction.  If the stories come, you get them written, you’re on the right track.  Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way.  The real mystery to crack is you.”

Bernard Malamud, via Daily Rituals

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“When things get tough or uncomfortable, we tell ourselves: it’s OK to quit, it doesn’t matter, we’ll do it next time, we’re not disciplined enough, we suck at this, we can’t do it, it’s too hard, it would be nice to take a break, life is too short to struggle, we deserve a reward, just this once won’t matter, we’re going to fail, it’s better to fail quietly, we just don’t feel like it right now, let’s not think about this, hey a squirrel!  So what can we do if our story is working against us?  Change the damn story. Create a song to sing about yourself at the epic hero of your dreams. Sing this song daily, and be proud of it. Go after the dream, fight the forces of distraction and dullness and self-doubt, rise up to be your best self. You are the writer of your story, the composer of your song, and every moment is a chance to rewrite it, a new draft ready to be crafted into something better.”

Leo Babauta, Blog

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Now repeat after me:

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“My will shall shape my future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.”

Elaine Maxwell

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...Want to advertise your book, product, or service? Send inquiries to matt@movemequotes.com.