The simplest ingredient to success is self-discipline. It is your responsibility to make the best decisions, to strive for the greatest outcome, to find the purest form of self. Without your own sense of self-discipline you will struggle to find the path that you seek. You will fail early, and you will fail often. I consider failure a win if it leads to growth, but without self-discipline failure is simply failure.
We often favor comfortable hells over favorable heavens.
We find comfort in the normal. We, as a human race, have decided that the easiest way from point A to point B is a straight line. I’m not speaking in a mathematical or physics based way, I’m speaking in a self-motivation and hard-work way. We would rather be good enough than great. It is easier to dwell in a comfortable hell than to try and find a favorable heaven. We accept the drowning nature of stagnancy rather than striving to swim to the surface and pull ourselves from the sea. This could be anything from accepting the fact we aren’t happy in a relationship due to the fear of being alone, accepting heart disease because exercise is just too intimidating, accepting a failing grade because studying isn’t as fun as the 12 hour Stranger Things binge.
One of my favorite mantras I’ve ever heard is from the Marines, one of the most driven, motivated, and disciplined groups of humans. Let me preface this by saying it is an extreme example, but a fantastic one nonetheless.
“Everyone wants to get into heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
While this may seem extreme to some, its the truth. We all fear the process behind success, behind growth. We find nervousness, anxiety, fear in the simple thought of change. With self-discipline, these thoughts begin to fade. If we can somehow coach ourselves to never stop fighting for what it is that we are fighting for, no one can stop us. The words, actions, and thoughts of others mean nothing to the disciplined.
Deconstructed Echos 