Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Improving Your Self-Discipline

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

In this episode I discuss: The power of discipline, utilizing concepts from Essentialism, The Power of Habit, and Atomic Habits The idea that discipline is not innate, but rather acquired by implementing systems and processes that help you succeed Habit building hacks: Intention, habit stacking, adjusting your environment, habit coupling The idea that progress is the culmination of little actions that add up to shape your days, weeks, and ultimately your reality  

Welcome to Your World Within Daily. I'm Eddie Panero. And in this episode, we're going to talk about the concept of self-discipline, right? The truth behind it, what it means, and some ways to make it work for you. All right, so I'll start this off with a question. And there's actually no name on Instagram, but the handles lovely little things. And I ask, can you please make a podcast or YouTube video, preferably both, about self-discipline? Thank you.

Appreciate your podcast and YouTube episode, especially the YouTube one, the visuals, I can't speak. The visualization is so cool. Keep doing what you're doing. Okay, so maybe we'll put this episode on both, see how that works. But I appreciate the question, and I'm happy to talk about it. Self-discipline is obviously essential. And I'll talk about the things I've learned and what I implement into my day-to-day. First thing worth noting is that most of the...

Most of these ideas have come from three, two or three books. The first one being Essentialism by Greg McCune that talks about cutting away. And then the other two are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear. Atomic habits, to me, I feel like encompasses all the important parts of the power of habit. atomic habit's clear, it's fun, it's an easy read. I just think if you're going to read one, that's it, atomic habits. And that will start you off and will put you on your way. The most important thing, if someone says, Eddie, how do I become more self-disciplined? I would start with the idea or the notion, because this really changed my perspective,

is that self-discipline's finite. When it comes to willpower, the studies show we literally run out, which means that to be self-disciplined means you are being methodical, you are planning out, you are looking at your environment and your cues around you and literally positioning yourself to succeed. James Clear has a quote.

He says, look, we don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems, the things we put in place. And that puts into context everything I'm going to talk about. You have to set yourself up for self-discipline. There's no such thing as like a self-disciplined person that was just born self-discipline. No, you build systems around you that help you succeed.

And I'll keep this short and sweet. So, first, essentialism by Greg McCune. If you listen to, I may be mispronouncing that last name, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is. If you've been listening to my stuff, you know I talk about this all the time. the idea of really focusing on what's important, right? If you want to be self-disciplined, there's a reason, right? You're trying to obtain some goal. And so it's really important that you position yourself for success by eliminating the stuff that you don't need to do.

Right? That's number one. If you're going to be self-disciplined towards a goal, there needs to be clarity. Things need to be simple. And really positioning yourself for that is big. Now let's move to habits, right? You have clarity. You understand your goal.

You want to be more disciplined in pursuit of that goal. Well, discipline is really habits. It's the little actions that we make repeatedly. You know, they come to define us. Again, when you look at someone that has great willpower, great discipline, they have an outstanding work ethic, you always have to remember that, That it's not one entity. It is the culmination of little decisions that they make repeatedly. Okay.

So there are things you can do to improve your habits. The first is, as James Clear states, be very intentional with what you're saying. It helps you stick to your plans. So take the vague ideas and make them specific. So, for example, I want to work out more. Well, what does that mean? That's not really actionable. But when you make it, I am going to the gym.

Every Monday and every Friday at 5, you now have an actionable step that you can take and you can implement into your life. Can't hit a target that's not there. So we want to throughout our day have clear, tangible, attainable targets. Otherwise, you're essentially making a wish list, not a plan. Right. And self-discipline is about executing a plan. Another hack would be habit stacking, right? And by the way, I'm pulling all these right from a summary of atomic habits. It's all there. It's all accessible if you want to take a look. The idea of habit stacking is taking something you already do and stacking it with something that you want to do more of, that you'd like to create that discipline around. So if you want to meditate more, stack it with something you do every day. We shower every morning, right? So what if, when you get out of the shower, you say, all right, I'm going to meditate after my shower every day. Well, it makes it tangible, it makes it real, makes it easier to achieve. I get up, I shower,

I meditate. Boom. You are road mapping success. Another thing is your environment. You have to strategically alter your environment if you want to succeed. If you are, and I believe this is actually Charles Duhigg, the power of habit. You know, if you have junk food in your kitchen, it's using up a lot of that willpower to not touch it, right? And ultimately, we're going to rationalize. Ultimately, we're going to grab that cookie or that donut. That's just, again, that's human. So what do you do? You sort of, you outsmart the system. You remove the temptation. The best way to not grab a cookie from a cookie jar is to not have cookies, to not see them, to not have them around. And that is how we position ourselves to succeed. So in life, it's taking those things that you don't want to do and removing them.

If you want to read more and watch less TV, you don't remove the TV from your bedroom. You will, I promise you, if it's not there, you will watch it less, right? That's the idea, building an environment for success. And the last one I'll go into is bundling, right? So bundling something that you like to do with something that you know you have to, but you don't really want to. So, you know, working out on the elliptical, maybe you don't really love that, but you get to listen to your favorite book or podcast or, you know, whatever it is. It helps you associate the bad thing with the good thing. It's like tricking your psyche into being excited about something that you normally wouldn't want to do. Right.

But by now, I'm sure you get the picture, right? I touched on a few things here, a few ways to build habits that ultimately become self-discipline, that ultimately, as Jacco willing, says, equals freedom. Discipline equals freedom. But I want you to understand that there is no inherently self-disciplined human being, born out of the womb disciplined, or, you know, a discipline academy, or it's this crazy thing that you need to achieve or unlock. It's just little things, right?

Going chronologically, it's one realizing what's important, right? So you know what you want to build self-discipline around. You know what you want to cut away and get rid of. And then it's putting systems in place. It's positioning yourself to succeed. If there's things you want to do more of, you know, use the little tips and tricks to create ways to do that consistently. If there's things you do that you know aren't valuable, start pulling. them out of your environment, getting rid of them all together. And ultimately, the little things

become the big things, right? You are the culmination of your habits. And that's why when someone says, Eddie, talk about self-discipline, I go right to habits. Because self-discipline is your habits. What you do every day is who you are. So today, let's take one step. Let's take one step towards putting a system in place or systems in place that support you that push you to do the things that matter most. All right. If you enjoy this podcast, if you get value from it, I'd greatly appreciate you to rate and review. It really helps me get this out to the world. So thank you for that. And I will catch you guys tomorrow.