Discipline Is the Only Freedom You’ll Ever Get — Why the Undisciplined Life Is a Cage

Almost everything you call freedom is quietly turning you into a

slave Welcome aboard, my friend.

You ready for a challenging message?

I don't know what time of day or night this is.

I don't know what sort of day or evening you're having, but it's time to talk

about a really counter-cultural principle.

I've been teaching it for many years.

I'm trying to live it.

One of the most challenging things about, uh, being someone like me who's producing

this kind of content is you actually have to try really hard to live your message.

It's so much easier if I could just like, you know, pretend that I do.

But if you follow me on Instagram at jaydoylespeaks, you will see it

in real time in the stories each day that, uh, I'm out there trying

to actually do these disciplines.

And this message is a beautiful one.

It's such a powerful message because there was a book I read many years

ago called "Libido Dominandi." It was about 900 pages when I was

doing my second master's program in philosophical anthropology, as you do.

And this concept of libido dominandi is that you will be dominated by your

appetites, that you will eventually be dominated by your appetites.

So can we agree that the culture that we all inhabit at the moment sells

freedom as the absence of constraint?

Okay, so the idea is that, you know, y- you go back to the last 40, 50 years of

Hollywood, MTV, music, you know, what's the… It's the old mantra, right?

If it feels good, do it, which actually has roots in Freud, which, um, I--

Can I, can I share this with you?

It's a beautiful… Not a beautiful.

It's beautiful that I remembered it.

It's a devastating quote from, uh, Sigmund Freud, which I studied

in that second master's program.

So, uh, Freud wrote a book called "Civilization" and… Oh, no, he

wrote a book called, was it… Yeah, "Civilization and Its Discontents."

"Civilization and Its Discontents," that was the name of the book.

Chapter eight was called "Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern

Nervous Illness." All right?

So just think about that title of a chapter at the moment.

It's kind of telling you something, isn't it?

Listen to it again, "Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness." So

he's making a link between traditional ideas around, you know, sexual

fidelity and, you know, how you behave sexually and modern nervous illness.

So the, you know, if you know anything about Freud, this was kind of his

metathesis of culture in general, but we're not going down that rabbit hole.

But I wanna share with you, I memorized this years ago, the opening lines

of this chapter, he says this, um, "All who seek to be nobler than their

constitution permits succumb to neurosis.

They would be better in health if they had found it easier to be morally

worse." Listen to it one more time. Uh, "All who seek to be nobler than their

constitution permits succumb to neurosis.

They would be better in health-" if they had found it easier to be morally worse.

Okay, if you don't follow that, he's basically going, he-- but his thesis is

all of us have like 100, like zero to 100 on a spectrum of kind of, uh, sexual or

moral control, and you can't change it.

So if you're born with a zero, you have absolutely no self-control whatsoever.

If you're born at 100, you're like, you've really got, you know,

tons of c-control and discipline.

And he's going that if, if you try to control yourself and you don't, you know,

you're not strong enough, he says it's better that you kind of are less moral.

It's better if you kind of just weren't very disciplined and

just gave into all your impulses because then you'd be happier.

It's a really dumb idea and really has awful implications.

So as you can tell, I'm not a big fan of Freud, but you're listening to this

podcast for inspiration, encouragement, so this is not a psychiatry lesson.

But what I'm getting at is his idea that the way to be happy is

just to indulge your appetites, and if you try and discipline your

appetites, you'll get sick mentally.

And I am here as a messenger from the cosmos to say to you that is the

dumbest idea ever, and I can promise you that discipline equals freedom.

Discipline equals freedom.

Because the undisciplined person is not free.

They are owned by their appetites, their phone, their moods, what

they eat, drink, how they behave.

If you cannot control an appetite, then you are not the master, are you?

And if you're not the master, then you're the slave.

And so the path of discipline and managing our deepest impulses is actually

the invitation to the path of freedom.

It's a very countercultural message because you can think of, like, if

you're my age, like, like I'm Gen X, but pretty much anybody in the last twenty,

thirty years can look back and see that most of the cultural messaging around

sex, food, anything, be yourself, do what you want, seek your own path, and

it's always, like, fractionally true.

Do I think you should seek your own path?

Well, yeah, but in a particular way, in cooperation with those

you love and, and your society.

And it's not just this radical, "I'll do whatever the hell I want and

everyone's gonna deal." It's like, how do I moderate my appetites to

become the absolute best incarnation of myself that I can possibly become?

So how about we change this?

How about we try this?

How about we say that discipline isn't the cage?

Because isn't that the cultural message?

If you're disciplined, if you say no to something, you're all uptight and

there's something wrong with you.

What if discipline isn't the cage?

What if discipline is the key?

What if discipline isn't the cage?

What if discipline is the key?

So a truly disciplined life where you control what you do, what you prioritize,

what you give your life to, is a life that's not dictated by impulse.

"Oh, I just wanna eat this," or, "I just wanna have that." See, at

the moment, as I mentioned a couple episodes ago, I'm on a very, very

disciplined training program, right?

So I am training a lot, so I'm in the gym a great deal, and I'm

either walking, running, cycling, all the other stuff that I do.

And it's, it's full on.

I'm not telling you to do it, but I've always trained hard, and I'm

in this really interesting phase.

And one of the things that I've changed this time is working with

a coach, is I've really calibrated my nutrition very, very tightly.

So for example, at the moment with my macros, I can have 210 grams a

day of protein, 220 grams a day of carbs, and 85 grams a day of fat.

And I have these apps, and I actually weigh everything, literally to the gram.

Everything that goes in my body is weighed and calibrated against the app

and against the macronutrient targets.

Now, you could listen to me go and do, this is insane.

Sure, but I'm doing me, right?

But I can promise you, it is a, it is a game changer.

Why?

Because the discipline changes so many things.

It's like my impulse in the past was, "I see cake. I see cake." Took my daughter

out for breakfast this morning and we're at the cafe and, and all I see is cake.

What did I have?

I had a double espresso 'cause I'd already eaten my, you know, in that window.

I didn't need to eat again.

But the thing about weighing this and doing this particular process

is that the discipline sort of negates the impulse element.

And the discipline is making my energy levels are off the scale, and my mental

clarity is off the scale because of the training, the supplements, the sleep

patterns, all of the things I'm doing.

I have never in my life felt clearer, stronger, more energetic

than I do in this season.

So I am giving you the example, and I'm not telling you to do what I do.

I'm just giving you the, the principle that the discipline leads to energy,

freedom, engagement, serving people.

It's a different life that I am experiencing.

So all I want you to understand Is, uh, you know, is that

discipline will free you.

And the other thing about it, k- it is hard.

So this is no sugarcoating message, like just, "Well, just

be disciplined and everything will be great." No, it's really hard.

You know, yesterday I trained, I was in, I had a heavy lifting

session, and I had to do it at about 9:00 in the morning, which I hate.

I always train much earlier than that, but couple things I had to do and, and

yeah, I've, I've said this, if you watch me on Instagram, I say it every day.

It's like I don't feel like it a lot of the time.

Like, my impulse is, like, eat cake, have hot shower for four

hours, sit on couch, watch movie.

That's my impulse

Like, I'd love that.

I get tired sometimes.

And yes, I will have cake.

If, if I'm ever out and you say to me, "Jonathan, I made you a

cake," well, I'll eat the cake.

I will.

I'll just, I'll just weigh it first, right?

So it's hard, but it's leading to freedom, beautiful freedom.

This is what you're made for.

You're made to be the master of your own ship.

Why?

Because discipline is not the cage, it's the key.

Discipline is not the cage, it's the key.

What does it look like for you?

Well, I don't know, but it's, it's gonna be something that you need to start saying

no to, something you need to tighten up, something you need to start doing.

And you know, I, I help people, you know, s- senior leaders, executives, and

people that I coach in terms of framing that and how we build systems around it.

But I just want you to hear that it's just, there is a life waiting for you

if you will just start to begin to gravitate towards some discipline.

Could be as simple as setting an alarm, getting up 15 minutes earlier.

Could be as simple as you're gonna make that call to the gym.

And yes, you don't feel like it, and yes, you're gonna feel embarrassed

and awkward and, you know, I've been a gym rat my whole life.

I don't understand that.

Like, people like, "I don't wanna, I feel stupid when I go there." Just

if, if you're that person, can I just say to you, no one's looking at you.

No one.

No one is looking at you.

Yeah, I know you feel that everyone's looking at you.

They're not.

Everyone's just, like, pretty much on their phone these days.

Like, you would have to set firecrackers off and like, you know, dance around

naked on a unicycle to get people to pay attention to you in a gym

'cause everybody's just on Instagram.

So don't stress, all right?

Just go do the thing that leads to discipline.

Let's wrap up.

Housekeeping.

Come and follow me, Instagram, JDoyleSpeaks, one word.

Website, jonathandoyle.co.

And if you're listening here on the, uh, podcast, please subscribe

and send it to some people.

Just grab the link and go, "Hey, listen to this." Uh, let's finish.

You ready?

What are we gonna finish with?

I would like you to understand as we close this one idea, you, my friend,

you are going to be ruled by something.

You can be ruled by your appetites, or you can be ruled by your disciplines.

And I would like you today to choose your master