Have you ever listened to a podcast or read a book, and something the author said stuck within you and played on repeat in your brain? It is something that Jacko Willink said in a podcast that pulled me into his content, and I find it constantly repeating in my brain.
Discipline equals freedom
Jacko Willink
If you allow them to, three simple words will have a massive impact on your life. What does it mean? According to an interview with Jacko in Forbes Magazine and other sources I have found where he talks about it. Discipline equals freedom means having the discipline to do what you need to do to become free. One of the examples Jacko is known for is getting out of bed very early. Jacko famously gets up at 4:30 to ensure he can get his workout in. Getting out of bed early takes an extraordinary amount of discipline. When my alarm goes off, I want to hit snooze and go back to sleep. Lately, when I try to do that, I hear these words echoing in my mind. Discipline equals freedom. I know to get what I want, I have to put in the work, which at this moment means getting out of bed. So I get up.
Another point Jacko has that I have found that affects my life is that it is better to do projects now than to put them off to tomorrow. The task and projects could be as simple as quickly straightening up the house before going to bed, prepping the coffee maker, and getting everything laid out for the next day. One of my favorite ones Jacko talks about in his book, ” Freedom Equals Freedom: Field Manual,” is making a list the night before of everything you need to accomplish the next day. Creating this list every night has made my life easier and set my day off on the right foot.
Checklists are a great way to ensure that you do not forget anything. There is a reason pilots have a preflight checklist they use before they fly. In Atul Gawande’s book, “The Checklist Manifesto,” he talks about how in today, we have highly trained professionals operating in a complicated environment, and we often overlook small details or make small mistakes. One of the easiest and best ways to combat these mistakes is to make a checklist of every step needed to complete the task. The discipline to follow the checklist every time ensures that we do not overlook anything or make small mistakes.
I encourage you to take some time today to look at your day-to-day life and find two or three areas where you can be more disciplined and get your freedom back.
