Doesn’t it surprise you?  In all my days I never considered using discipline and freedom in the same sentence.  However, life is about learning.  When the pain or lack of freedom becomes so great that it motivates discipline, it inspires change.  Changing negative behavior to positive behavior leads to betterment and a more free lifestyle.  Hence, discipline = freedom!

Consider these examples:

The discipline of rising early allows you to have more time and get more done

The discipline of eating healthy and exercising allows you to be in shape and feel good

The discipline of saving money allows you to give or spend more freely

The discpine of doing what you need to get done like chores, allows you to do what you want to get done like fun experiences, or projects

The discipline of reading allows you to be smarter

The discipline of practice makes perfection… you get the idea now right?

Once this realization is reached it actually feels good to have the discipline to make changes and work towards freedom.  There is even freedom in the discipline because you start to feel confidence in what you’re doing and where you’re going as you build momentum.  Another key thing that goes hand in hand with this is something called delayed gratification.  It’s the best, and ironically, fastest way to smart discipline and freedom.

I first heard of delayed gratification when I was beginning to teach my children and self about money.  It’s funny how trying to raise smart kids can really slap you in the face and wizen you up!  Often my expectations for my children make me take a hard look in the mirror.

As adults sometimes we don’t hold ourselves as accountable as we do our kids and that’s not fair.  We apparently expect them to know right from wrong and toe the line while we get to behave badly.  One day they’ll see my mistakes and I want them to remember me as humbly trying to be my best as I taught them to.  I want them to see me striving for behavior that leads to positivity, goodness, and success.  I don’t want them to see a parent who trained them to do one thing because it was in their best interest but didn’t have the courage, discipline, or self worth to make it happen for myself.

Think about a successful person you know.  In order to become good and especially great at whatever it was they desired… they had to fail first.  An important thing is their determination to push past the shortcomings.  They had a goal that really mattered to them and they really really wanted to reach it.  They had to get over the pain of not having what they wanted and make a decision and plan for how to get there.  Did you catch that word… PLAN.  Planning takes discipline.  It also takes time.  You have to make hard decisions and sacrifices to make time to plan your path.

Once you’re on this path by the way, don’t expect the resistance and delayed gratification to go away… no, no, no… it still hangs around.  The good thing is, you are developing some side effects from discipline.  They are called good attributes like character, perseverance, and drive among many.

Take a look at those who always get what they want.  Have they ever had a chance to build up enough grit to endure inevitable trials that will come?  I’m saying we should actually go as far as to be thankful for discipline because you have the opportunity to become better.  Look at trials and sufferings as good things, and chances to grow and learn.  Humans often need to learn through experience and the reality is that some of our experiences won’t be pleasurable.  They will teach us a tough lesson.  They will leave us with a choice for what type of attitude or behavior we will choose to implicate in our future.  Hopefully we will choose integrity.

I say all these things to share how I’ve seen what it has done in my own life.  There have been many things Jared and I have accomplished personally, and in our partnership with having discipline to gain freedom, but the best thing yet is to be debt free.  We are at the end of the race as I type this.  Our plan has been to never have a debt again besides our mortgage and we hope to also pay for that early.  I know it’s boring to talk about, but it’s so important.  Our society makes it sound so horrible to wait for things and be happy with what you have.  It’s not common to see people do these things because they are hard.   

It seems the world has been against us from day 1.  It’s not right to blame everyone else though.  The reality was we had to get used to saying no.  To standing up for what our goal was.  To staying focused and pushing through.  To taking ownership of our problem and fixing it.  Making excuses and blaming others or giving in just didn’t get us there, we had to face reality and walk the line.  

 I share this to inspire others to take heart and achieve your dreams.  This method can be applied to whatever is crippling you.  We have and will continue to face many challenges and resistance in life, but we hope to encourage and inspire how discipline truly does equal freedom.  It’s something no one can take away from you.  It’s something that can help you as well as those around you.  Fortunately,we live in America which is a big advantage and we pay respects to that each and every day.   

We have the freedom to chase dreams and the choice and opportunity to win in life.  Therefore we believe in not wasting that.  We believe in working towards your goals and living for the most in life.  This of course doesn’t gaurantee us the perfect life but it does gauantee us a rich life in freedom.

Wishing you the all the freedom that your heart desires too!

Live For The Most, 

KC