Is There a Relationship Between Freedom and Discipline?

Often in the quest for freedom people will shun discipline. They believe that being disciplined somehow restricts their freedom. This couldn't be further from the truth. Having discipline of your mind and time brings freedom to you in so many different ways. It takes discipline to achieve the life you want to lead. It is discipline that gives you the "freedom" to take care of yourself and your family on a level that you desire and of which you can be proud. It allows you to live the life you want to live. Discipline frees you from much frustration as you break the cycle of trying and then quitting and then trying again. There is a difference between trying to decide to do something and deciding to do it. If you try to quit smoking the opportunity to fail is already implied. If you on the other hand say I no longer smoke then the discipline of your mind will free you from the habit.

Studying, Training, Discipline and Freedom

Any area of study is improved by discipline. To study in a particular area is often called a discipline. Whatever you undertake in life if you intend to succeed you will succeed better and faster if you are disciplined in your approach. The more disciplined you are in any area of study the more success and freedom you will have to achieve and enjoy the fruits of this area of study.

Discipline and Freedom in Everyday Life

In everyday life the benefits of living a disciplined life is far reaching and rewarding. One of the greatest rewards being freedom, to live the things you most believe in. To live your beliefs gives your life a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. To constantly fail to accomplish the things you set out to do leaves one drifting, dissatisfied and unfulfilled. You need only to learn to structure your life and discipline your mind around the things that you desire for your life. Accomplishing things in your life doesn't just happen because something inspires you for the moment. No, it takes discipline, but once you learn to discipline your mind and time then achieving things in your life becomes so much more accessible. It may seem that focusing and being disciplined takes away your freedom because you can't just procrastinate. Well it's true you do have to be focused and you can't live a life centered on laziness or procrastination, but it also teaches you to be clear of mind and helps you to accomplish much more in much less time. Discipline frees up your time to be truly leisurely, leisure time free from frustration or guilt because you know you should be doing something you haven't yet done.

Luxury is not the freedom to not have to do anything, but the freedom to enjoy the environment you create from doing something.

Many people are always busy and not lazy at all, but they do not accomplish the things they would like to because they lack focus and discipline. Discipline requires the mind to decide what it is you really want to do and then a plan that will accomplish these goals. It eliminates the flitting from one thing to another that simply wastes time and energy.

The difference between wanting to do something in your life and actually doing it is discipline. If you just talk about or wish you could do something it will never happen. If you waste your energy doing, accomplishing nothing, you will end up in a cycle of frustration of starts and stops and failures. Lack of discipline does not make your life easy and relaxed like you may be tempted to believe, rather it steals your time and your ability to achieve the things you want.

What is Freedom Really?

Freedom is not the same as having no direction, responsibilities or no limitations on your time or energy. Freedom is about choices and decisions you make for your life and the having the discipline to see those choices fulfilled in your life.

Discipline is important in even the little things in our lives. How we live everyday, the choices we make in what we do with our time and energy is directly linked to how we discipline ourselves.

I believe that being disciplined has truly helped me to get through the some of the hardest times in my life and it also enriches my life everyday. Discipline has freed me from fear that threatened to overwhelm me and hold me hostage to a life I wouldn't want or believe in. I know I can make a plan, I can adjust my plan and I can be disciplined to fulfill my life in a meaningful way.

Discipline has set me free to achieve the life I want to live. I am free from holding on to what is safe or easy, but is not what I want; because I know I can have what I want. I have kept to my vision and I live my life everyday in a way to honor the things that I believe. To me this is the true definition for freedom, when your life is a reflection of what you believe. If your life is a mockery of your own believes and you are secretly ashamed of your choices, then there can be no freedom. You are imprisoned by your own lack of discipline.

The things I believe in for my life, I have fulfilled by being disciplined. As a very small yet important example of discipline in my life, I believe in eating healthy and providing good healthy meals at home. The discipline is this, I know how to cook healthy food, I make a trip to the grocery every week to buy groceries and then I am disciplined to cook those groceries into good meals each and everyday. I buy healthy, cook healthy and eat healthy. It is not always easy to do, but as I order my day I dedicate of my time and energy to this endeavor and I reap the benefits of it too. Discipline gives me the freedom to live the healthy lifestyle that I desire.

In so many areas of my life being disciplined makes my life easier and better. This is not to say that being disciplined is always appealing, it is not, and the temptation to be lazy or justify less from myself can always be there. Being disciplined will help you to overcome temptation and to do the better thing and follow through.

Freedom, Discipline and Beliefs

I guess this leads me to another point that having freedom calls for being disciplined to your beliefs, which means you have to believe in something. I know that having a belief system is part of finding freedom in your life and discipline is the vehicle. It doesn't matter what it is you want to do or accomplish, discipline will be a huge part of how you get there.

If you can learn to harness your minds energy and focus to accomplish the things you want to in your life then you will find freedom. You will be free to enjoy the fruits of what you accomplished and free to accomplish without the frustration of procrastination and or failure due to just giving up. You will be free of being enslaved to a sloppy undisciplined mind. Your time will become your own as you learn to make decisions and choices based on what is important to you and being disciplined to carry out those decisions.

How to Apply Discipline in your Life

To learn to apply discipline in your life you must make choices. None of us can do everything; we have to choose what is important to us and how we are going to achieve our goals. Some things of course are not choices as much as responsibilities, but still having discipline will help you to fulfill these as well.

Once you decide something is important to you then you need to decide how important is it to you? Once you have a clear path of your convictions then you can start to put some structure and discipline of mind to your choices everyday. It helps you to make the right choices if you have a plan for the day. It doesn't mean there is never a chance to be spontaneous or room to change your plans. It just means that in general you have some structure in your day and your life so that you end up accomplishing the things you want to.

It also means you need to be disciplined to not take on too much so that you set yourself up for failure. If you want to learn to be disciplined it is much the same as learning anything else. You will not be perfect at it at first or all the time, but the more you practice the better you will be. The freedom that comes from discipline comes from setting about your day in a purposeful way and getting to the end of your day with some time to relax (which should be part of the plan) and with the things you wanted to do, being done.

There are of course things that we do not have control over in our lives, but I believe that being disciplined even helps us here, to accept change and move past disappointments with more flexibility and grace. You will be able to make a plan, adjust the plan to changing circumstances and set new goals as needed.

A Free and Disciplined Life

Freedom and discipline have a synergistic relationship that will enrich your mind and heart and help you to make the best of your life. You will reign in your mind, discipline your time and therefore be free to enjoy your life as you choose and as you believe.

No one can give you freedom, it is yours to have or lose by the discipline of your own mind, the choices you make everyday. Freedom is not won or lost in a battle for time it is determined by your commitment and determination to living the best life you can. This is what being free is all about; the ability to find the discipline that allows for your best life.