THREE DOMAINS OF DISCIPLINE 

Written by Eric Brooks

 

Discipline is a crucial component that contributes to improved health, fitness and longevity, and is described as doing what needs to be done even when you don’t want to do it. This effective habit is gained through consistent and meticulous action that helps one achieve an efficient level of self-control and commitment to the process. Personal accountability is a major step toward understanding what it means to be disciplined, because it allows you to recognize and correct inefficiencies and flaws in your daily routine. The correlation between passed time and improved discipline will become evident as you begin to take on more productive attributes throughout your journey to becoming disciplined across the three domains related to health, fitness and longevity. 

SELF-DISCIPLINE

The most important domain is the relationship between mental, or self-discipline, and nutrition. I believe this to be the case due to the mental barriers that have to be overcome in order to truly be proficient in this area. We are only given one vessel which is what carries us throughout our lifetime, and it is imperative that we treat it as such. No one is going to force you to make good decisions when it comes to what you’re putting in your mouth, so self-discipline must be practiced. 

Most of us have an understanding that both good and bad foods exist, but we tend to focus on taste rather than nutritional quality. An effective way of working toward self-discipline is to create a plan with measurable goals that can be achieved along the way, and that is easily fixable when mistakes are made. Learning to resist temptation will bring out your innate willpower and in turn provide you the ability to say no to unhealthy junk foods, snacks and beverages. 

The light at the end of the tunnel will be a fine balance of consistent and repeatable nutrition as well as the ability to indulge in guilty pleasures within reason. Once you have reached this point, you will find that your life has changed for the better due to newfound self-discipline, consistent routine, and an overall lifestyle change. 

PUTTING IN THE TIME

A secondary but equally important domain of discipline is the relationship between time, effort and physical progression. It’s extremely easy to use a lack of free time as a reason for not pursuing improved health, fitness and longevity, but the harsh reality of the situation is that these are just excuses for those who haven’t made the decision to put their health at the forefront of importance. Those who are willing to make time in their schedule for exercise are more likely to put forth the effort necessary to make quality, long-lasting physical progress.

Making the decision to set specific days and times to exercise throughout the week will create a focused and organized routine that can potentially benefit other areas of life. The beautiful thing about physical progress is that it requires no skill, talent or money to get started, and the results can be entirely dependent on time and effort. When working toward improving a skill, such as learning to be disciplined, we have complete control over the success or failure of the process, because at the end of the day, we as individuals dictate the importance of consistency, routine and improvement. 

EMOTIONAL BENEFITS

The final domain I want to cover relates to how improved health, fitness and longevity can positively benefit emotional discipline and overall outlooks on all aspects of life. Fitness has a way of making an impact on how we live and go about life on a daily basis. Starting your day off on a productive note will most likely reduce chances of slacking off or simply going through the motions. When we expose ourselves to uncomfortable situations and step out of our comfort zone, it shows us that we are capable of much more than we could’ve imagined. 

The culmination of improving discipline across these domains will contribute to patience, peace of mind, and the ability to maintain a clear thought process in times of discomfort and unease.

The three domains of discipline are aimed to improve our overall health, fitness and longevity while also increasing effort, efficiency and productivity. Being disciplined across all aspects of life helps create achievable goals and a bright vision for the future. It is my hope that those of you reading this who do not already possess these traits will gain the drive and motivation to further explore your core values, strengths and weaknesses, and make a lifelong effort to being the best version of yourself.