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Self Discipline Quotes

    “Very few go astray who comport themselves with restraint.”

    Confucius, via Stillness is the Key (Page 163)

      “To have an impulse and to resist it, to sit with it and examine it, to let it pass by like a bad smell—this is how we develop spiritual strength. This is how we become who we want to be in this world. Only those of us who take the time to explore, to question, to extrapolate the consequences of our desires have an opportunity to overcome them and to stop regrets before they start.”

      Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 118)

      Anne Lamott Quote on Unplugging and the Reality of Burnout

        “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… Including you.”

        Anne Lamott

        Beyond the Quote (114/365)

        Following through on a commitment is something that you can choose to do or choose not to do. Burning out is something that happens—it’s not something that you can choose against. When there’s no more gas in the car, you can’t choose to magically have more gas with the snap of your fingers—you need a gas station for that. When there’s no more battery juice left in your phone, you can’t choose to boost your battery life with positive thinking—you need a charging cable for that. When there’s no more energy left inside you—mental, physical, or emotional—you can’t demand more energy to appear through even the most disciplined thinking—you need rest, recover, and self-care for that.

        Read More »Anne Lamott Quote on Unplugging and the Reality of Burnout

        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)

                “Visualization will never compensate for work undone.  You cannot visualize lies.  All the strategies I employ to answer the simple questions and win the mind game are only effective because I put in work.  It’s a lot more than mind over matter.  It takes relentless self-discipline to schedule suffering into your day, every day, but if you do, you’ll find that at the other end of that suffering is a whole other life just waiting for you.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                  “The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.  It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you don’t have to use it very often.  So, yes, perseverance, grit, and willpower are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.” ~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

                    “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

                        “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

                          “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

                            “Willpower is like a battery, at least in the short term.  If it is depleted, future challenges will falter.  This is a fundamental insight.  Self-control is not available around the clock.  It needs time to refuel.” ~ Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly

                              “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

                                “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