Discipline Is Freedom — The Lie That Indulgence Sets You Free

Well, hello there, my friend.

Jonathan Doyle with you once again.

We are going straight to the source.

I wanna tell you this one thing.

Discipline is Freedom.

Discipline is freedom.

I try and make it a rule that I only share with you things that I

have genuinely lived or experienced.

Not a rule, this is a mandate.

It would be so wrong of me to just have ideas on this, on this show and just

expect you're gonna take my word for it.

What I always wanna share with you is things that I genuinely try to live

or have lived and do on a daily basis.

And one of the real revelations I've had in recent months is

that discipline is freedom.

I, I mentioned this in an episode last week, so I, I just felt it's so important

that we need to keep it front of mind.

We are inhabiting a culture that convinces us that indulgence is freedom, that

the ability to indulge our appetites, to give in to any urges that we have

is going to lead us to some form of pleasure, some form of enjoyment.

On the surface level, I guess experientially, you could

say, well, that is true.

We sort of… After you eat that entire pack of Tim Tams, for about 15 seconds you

feel great, and then straight afterwards you're like, "What have I done?" Anybody

who has ever been through or made the mistake of going through a McDonald's

drive-through when you're starving knows exactly what I'm talking about.

By the time you've eaten that fourth cheeseburger or that two-liter McFlurry

with M&M's in it, you're kinda like, like there's this breath you let out.

You're like, "Ahhh." And for a second, the dopamine receptors in your brain

are like giving you a standing ovation.

They're like, "You are the greatest human in history.

Thank you from the United Guild of Dopamine Receptors.

We are so pleased you just did that." And then shortly afterwards there's this

feeling, it's from your gut biome and from your respiratory system and from

your sense of self and your dreams for the future all at once go, "What were

you thinking?" You ever been there?

You ever had that feeling of you indulged, but then very shortly afterwards

you're like, "Why did I do that?" Well, technically the reason you did that is

'cause you didn't have a full scaffolded architecture about who you are, what's

most important to you, and how to build structures and systems into your life

to prevent these things happening.

That's a separate episode.

We can get to that.

But I wanna say that discipline is freedom.

Why?

Because, you know, in recent… Like, I've always been dialed in, right?

Like, I've always been somebody that's fit and, and trained and done things,

but I've really, really accelerated this over recent time and now everything

that I do is very, very calibrated.

My routines are so, so similar and predictable, and what I've discovered

is that the more that these routines get locked in, the more my systems are

calibrated, that I feel this increasing mental, physical, spiritual freedom.

I desperately mean that.

I want you to trust me on this one.

That if I look back at times in my life where I was lazy or, you

know, overindulging in anything, your self-esteem takes a hit.

Because I think our higher self, our deep spirit created by God, is just sitting

there going, "You've been made for greatness. You've been made for energy

and passion and alertness so that you can give the best of yourself and be a

great resource and blessing and support for the people around you." And when we

live under indulgence, we end up with low energy and a very low self-regard.

Can we not agree on that?

Like, if you do things consistently that demean your dignity, then it's

very hard to feel good about yourself.

And if you don't feel confident in who you are and what you have to offer,

you either shrink from the world or you reinforce your low sense of self

by doing dumb things in the world.

You see, if you, if you don't value yourself, if you think you're a

terrible person, you will recreate that.

Like, it's a psychological mechanism.

You actually go out into the world feeling terrible about yourself, so you just

create situations that reinforce it.

We are desperate for congruence as a species.

We want to be congruent.

So if we feel that we're awful and terrible, we're gonna go out there and

say things and do things and reinforce things and keep making it happen But when

we begin to move in discipline, what we discover is something really different.

We suddenly discover that, guess what?

There's actually a captain in the wheelhouse.

There's actually, the grownups are back in charge.

You know, to be able to give of yourself freely, you must have self-possession.

You must be in possession of yourself.

You cannot say a full-throated yes to reality if you cannot say a no.

If you cannot say a no to something, you can't say a full-throated

yes to what really matters, 'cause you have to be in control.

And if you can't control your no, how do you control your yes?

You see, with my training at the moment, my diet is so calibrated, right?

Like I've, I'm… It's awesome.

It's like I'm eating to macro targets and things and kilojoule targets, and

you might think that's crazy and over the top and it's an eating disorder.

It's not that.

Uh, trust me, it's not.

Like, I'm training so hard that I've gotta absolutely calibrate my intake.

And it's interesting that once… So I've got these special digital

scales, everything that I consume is weighed literally and entered into this

program that I use, and it's amazing.

Like, w- the change in me is like, all of a sudden I'm like, "Yeah,

I, I can't have that thing."

Like sometimes, you know, you… I don't know if you're like this.

I, I used to be like I would eat, and then after eating I'd always

have this huge sugar craving and I'd just be like, "Stand back".

And I'd always write it off.

I'd always be like, "Well, I do so much exercise, you know, it doesn't

matter. I can have what I want."

And it's only since I've got super disciplined that I've gone, "Oh

my gosh, all these years I was putting that stuff into my body that

my body genuinely did not need".

And you know the other thing that's really crazy about eating like this, and this

is not a diet fitness podcast, but I just wanna help you understand something, is

that I'm, I'm, I'm eating more than ever.

And, and like even when I have training days off, I, I still eat

to the targets and it's strange.

It's like the discipline allows you to eat better food more often

and to specific targets and yet my energy is off the scale Through

discipline, not through indulgence.

If I was indulgent, I would just be s- I wouldn't be here in the studio right now.

I would be somewhere on a couch watching sport.

So I, I'm just desperate for you to understand that

discipline-- And look, it's hard.

Uh, the early, in its initial phases, discipline is like

getting a rocket off the ground.

You know this about rockets, right?

Space travel.

And, and, and aircraft too.

Like, uh, most of it-- Like I've gotta fly to Florida in, in, in a couple of weeks,

and we're, we're on, probably on the A380, and you know, so much of the fuel on that

aircraft actually gets used in takeoff.

And then once it's, once the aircraft is up, they, they thrust the, you

know, the thrust goes right down, and it's sort of just sort of

gliding in this long, controlled arc, and there's less fuel required.

And what does that mean?

Like the, the energy's in the early phase.

So when you're trying to pursue discipline, you're

gonna find it hard at first.

But as you do it, you move through that tough phase, and it begins to

become part of you, an identity, and then it becomes easier and easier.

Like I'm sure there's the odd exception, but if you think of monks that live

in strict monasteries, it's probably hard when they come in, right?

But five years later, 10 years later, a lifetime later, they're,

they're not struggling so much in the same ways, right?

That they started with because they've been doing it for a long

time, and it becomes who they are.

It's their identity.

So for me now, like in my head, with not a-- I hope you understand

there's no arrogance here.

I, I think of myself as a, as a disciplined person, and I don't

think about it for its own sake.

I think the more disciplined I am, the more I encourage other people,

'cause I've got family members and people are like, "Man, like you are

really on your game at the moment." I'm like, "Yeah, and you can be too.

Just look at some of the things I do." They don't have to copy these

exact things, but just look at the lesson that the more structured and

disciplined you become, the more energy and, and passion you have.

And, and I just wanna tell you that the reason we do this

is not to be Insta-famous, i- is, is not to have a six-pack.

The reason we do it is 'cause once your energy and your self-regard comes

up, your relationships improve a- and you do more, and you think about doing

more, and you try more things, and you reach out to more people, and you make

those calls you never would've made.

And you, and you, you do these things.

Like yesterday, I had a, uh, I had a friend who was

finishing up in their career.

They had a 40-year career, and they'd done amazing work, and I just

happened to run into them, and they mentioned that they were wrapping up.

It was their last day of a 40 years of very meaningful work,

helping a huge number of people.

We had a great conversation.

I was-- and I just said, "Thank you so much for what you've done. It's

incredible." And then during the day, I had this prompting through the morning.

Little… And this is how the Holy Spirit works with me.

I get promptings all the time now.

I get them all the time.

Little, little nudges.

I never get nudges to do something dumb.

I always get nudges to do something that always blesses people.

And so what I did is I, I, as I went out of my way, I went

and got a great bottle of wine.

I got a card, and I wrote this really meaningful, heartfelt card to this person.

I took it and dropped it off at the front office where they work.

Didn't need to see them.

I said, "Hey, just give this to them, huh? It's their last day. I want them

to get this." And that happens because my disciplines mean that I'm alive.

Like I, I'm, I'm awake.

I'm sensitive to doing things in the world and blessing people all through the fact

that I'm not wiped out through lethargy and boredom and, and like hating myself.

Those things aren't there.

So do you, do you see what I'm trying to sell you on?

I'm not trying to sell you on the idea that I'm great or that I've

figured something brilliant out and, and you should just copy me.

I'm trying to tell you that you are being lied to on a

pan-cultural, civilizational level.

Which is what?

Everything about our culture tells us indulgence is freedom.

It is a lie.

It will rob your life.

It will destroy your potential.

Discipline is freedom How do you do it?

You build structure.

We'll do that another episode.

You can reach out to me, I'll help you.

Discipline is freedom.

Structure is how we get to discipline and a clear sense of who

you are and what you really want.

All right, I'm doing this every day.

If you like what you heard today, if something hit you,

hit that subscribe button, share this with family and friends.

You can find me on Instagram, jdoylespeaks.

One word, jdoylespeaks.

YouTube, Jonathan Doyle Speaks, and on the website, jonathandoyle.co.

God bless you, my friend.

You and I are talking again tomorrow