We’re All Disciplined

June 7, 2025

When people talk about discipline, it often sounds like something reserved for elite athletes, early risers, or productivity gurus. The word itself can feel a little cold, a little rigid. Like it's something you're either born with or constantly falling short of.

But the truth is: we’re all disciplined.

Even if you don’t consider yourself structured or motivated, you still have discipline. It just might not look the way you expect. Maybe you check your phone the moment you wake up. Maybe you never miss your nightly Netflix binge. Maybe you’ve mastered the art of avoiding the very thing you said you wanted to do. That’s discipline too—just not the kind that gets talked about on motivational podcasts.

Discipline is really just repeated behavior. Habitual. Automatic, even. It doesn’t care whether it’s helping you or hurting you—it just shows up in whatever direction you’ve been nudging it over time.

Some people are disciplined in ways that move them forward: creating, building, learning, growing. Others are disciplined in patterns of distraction or delay. But both are built the same way: one choice, repeated often.

So the question isn’t whether you have discipline. You do. The question is: what kind of outcomes is your discipline creating for you?

If you’ve got a dream—say, becoming a practicing artist—then at some point, your habits have to start reflecting that dream. Maybe that means making art instead of watching another episode. Maybe it means getting a little uncomfortable, reshuffling your evenings, showing up to the sketchbook even when you’re tired or uninspired. It doesn't have to be drastic. But it does have to be real.

You don't need to "find" discipline. You already have it. You just need to point it toward what matters.

And once you do that—even in small ways—you start building momentum. The nightly TV habit becomes the nightly drawing ritual. The scattered afternoons turn into focused sessions. The vision you had for your future starts becoming something you can touch.

We’re all disciplined. The only thing to figure out is: what are you building with yours?