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    “If you are willing to discipline yourself, the physical universe won’t need to discipline you.”

    Leonard Orr, via Sunbeams (Page 137)

      “[Real virtue] is its own reward. Virtue is the one good that reveals itself to be more than we expect and something that one cannot have in degrees. We simply have it or we don’t. And that is why virtue—made up as it is of justice, honesty, discipline, and courage—is the only thing worth striving for.”

      Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 224)

        “The purpose of discipline is to promote freedom. But freedom leads to infinity and infinity is terrifying.”

        Henry Miller, via Sunbeams (Page 93)

          “In the miraculous spontaneity of the sun, there is discipline that utterly escapes you, and a knowledge beyond any that we know. And in the spontaneous playing of the bees from flower to flower, there is a discipline beyond any that you know, and laws that follow their own knowledge and joy that is beyond command. For true discipline, you see, is found only in spontaneity.”

          Jane Roberts, Seth Speaks, via Sunbeams (Page 47)

            “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 (Page 3)

            Sadhguru Quote on Priorities and How Discovering Your “Everest” Will Change Your Life

              “You cannot be partying till early morning and attempt to scale Mount Everest tomorrow!”

              Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 223)

              Beyond the Quote (298/365)

              We all have an “Everest” in our lives. A challenge that surpasses all of the other challenges we could face and yet, excites us to our core. A challenge that we know is going to take every ounce of strength and vigor and focus that we have and yet, still entices us to step forward. A challenge that feels right. One which our whole lives have prepared us for and one that matches our drive to our potential; our talents to our interests; our aptitude to our attitude. The type of challenge that you would skip a full night of partying for because your mission is more important to you.

              Read More »Sadhguru Quote on Priorities and How Discovering Your “Everest” Will Change Your Life

                “There was no better decision I could have made than the discipline I put on myself of having responsibility, having another human being—my wife—that I have to answer to.”

                J. Cole, via Stillness is the Key (Page 145)

                Jordan Peterson Quote on Disciplining Children

                  “It is an act of responsibility to discipline a child.  It is not anger at misbehavior.  It is not revenge for a misdeed.  It is instead a careful combination of mercy and long-term judgment.  Proper discipline requires effort—indeed, is virtually synonymous with effort.  It is difficult to pay careful attention to children.  It is difficult to figure out what is wrong and what is right and why.  It is difficult to formulate just and compassionate strategies of discipline, and to negotiate their application with others deeply involved in a child’s care.  Because of this combination of responsibility and difficulty, any suggestion that all constraints placed on children are damaging can be perversely welcome.  Such a notion, once accepted, allows adults who should know better to abandon their duty to serve as agents of enculturation and pretend that doing so is good for children.  It’s a deep and pernicious act of self-deception.  It’s lazy, cruel and inexcusable.”

                  Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life(Page 124)

                  Beyond the Quote (51/365)

                  Once we agree that the proper disciplining of children is necessary, the question that quickly follows is, how do we discipline properly?  What strategies and tactics should we use to ensure that our children will abide by and will continue to abide by the rules we have decided upon?  One idea that you might explore is a martial arts concept that is practiced in self-defense situations that suggests we use the minimum force necessary.  If we have to defend ourselves, we only use the minimum amount of force that would stun or neutralize the opponent so that we can safely escape.  For kids, the idea would be to use the minimum strategy or tactic necessary to get them back into accordance with the rule set.

                  Read More »Jordan Peterson Quote on Disciplining Children

                  Bernard Malamud Quote on Writing—There’s No Secret Practice

                    “There’s no one way [to write] — 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

                    Beyond the Quote (16/365)

                    If Dwayne Johnson AND Jocko Willink both wake up at 4am to get their workouts done, given how wildly busy and in shape they both are, then that must be the best time to wake up and workout, right?  To answer that from personal experience, no.  I have tried to build that idea into my routine several times and have failed awfully each and every time.  I experienced so much misery and resistance that I felt like even if I mustered together ALL of my willpower from a day, it wouldn’t be enough to get me through one 4am workout—let alone a lifetime of them.  So, what gave?

                    Read More »Bernard Malamud Quote on Writing—There’s No Secret Practice

                      “We use discipline to clear the road for the future by deciding what to do and not to do now.  It’s learning what to accept and what to reject.  We’re able to see more and more clearly the difference between virtue and nonvirtue—gewa and migewa.  Our minds are strong through practice, so we’re not seduced into acting on negative emotions, even in our mind.  We know such actions will create more pain for us.” ~ Sakyong Mipham, Turning the Mind Into An Ally (Page 204)

                        “I learned in SEAL training that if I wanted any extra time to study the academic material we were given, prepare our room and my uniforms for an inspection, or just stretch out aching muscles, I had to make that time because it did not exist on the written schedule.  When I check into my first SEAL Team, that practice continued.  If I wanted extra time to work on my gear, clean my weapons, study tactics or new technology, I needed to make that time.  The only way you could make time, was to get up early.  That took discipline.” ~ Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership (Page 271)

                          “Beyond a certain point in a man’s life, if he is to remain truly vital, he needs to be actively engaged in devotion to something other than his own success and happiness.  The word discipline derives from the same root as the word disciple.  Discipline means ‘to place oneself in the service of.’  Discipline is a form of devotion.  A grown man with nothing to devote himself to is a man who is sick at heart.  What a great many men in this culture choose to serve is their own reflected value, which they often believe serves the needs of their family, even while their families may be crying out for something different from them.” ~ Terrence Real, I Don’t Want To Talk About It

                            “Drive is fueled by desire, belief, and expectation that we can achieve something extraordinary through our efforts.  It feeds on discipline in that it becomes stronger as we commit ourselves at deeper levels to our pursuits.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                              “Discipline is the spark that ignites the fire of a habit.  Those fires must be lit daily, and discipline provides the original source energy.  The word discipline literally means to be a disciple to a higher purpose.  Developing the discipline to train hard every day means you become a disciple—not to the training itself, not just to looking good or stroking your ego, but to the higher purpose of developing yourself fully as a human being and as a leader.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                                “Masters manage to blend the two—discipline and a childlike spirit—together into what we shall call the Dimensional Mind.  Such a mind is not constricted by limited experience or habits.  It can branch out into all directions and make deep contact with reality.  It can explore more dimensions of the world.  The Conventional Mind is passive—it consumes information and regurgitates it in familiar forms.  The Dimensional Mind is active, transforming everything it digests into something new and original, creating instead of consuming.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery