Discipline is freedom

By Kumar Vikrant

What does freedom mean to you? It's a frequently asked question, and the answer usually depends upon the current predicament an individual is facing.

When this same question was asked to a group of students in an English reading and writing class, in which I was serving as a teaching assistant at the time, the answers varied along the lines of: being able to sleep, happiness, no work, no assignments, having money, having food and having a pet.

In my opinion, true freedom and liberation can only be attained through discipline; all else is secondary scaffolding to add meaning to our lives.

At first glance, freedom and discipline may not appear to go hand-in-hand. In fact the two may seem a strange dichotomy. In most people, the word discipline invokes unpleasant images of captivity or being trapped in a cage being forced to do things we don't want to do. Nevertheless, if one stops and thinks clearly, we realize that discipline actually breeds freedom.

Most of us were indeed taught in our childhood to maintain discipline and order. Nevertheless, most of us might never have understood the essential nature of discipline in achieving success, and eventually, freedom.

Establishing a functional value structure in life is crucial for focusing on our goals and succeeding at them. Discipline keeps us on track, vigilant and makes us assertive to say no to the things that may not align with our objectives. The law of incremental progress dictates that if one keeps making even infinitesimally small strides towards a goal, one will eventually reach it.

Let's be honest; given our wretchedness and proclivity towards wasting time with meaningless pursuits, we may only work diligently with low efficiency. But that sure beats the heck out of zero. What is the fuel that drives incremental progress? It is consistency, in other words, discipline.

Emotional stability, happiness derived through meaningful pursuits and success, mastering new skills, finding meaning in purpose, mentoring youngsters, making people smile through compassion, physical wellbeing, and loving our dear ones are all various forms of freedom, the combination of which forms the pinnacle of liberation and life satisfaction.

Discipline is like a sturdy boat, which keeps you safe even in the stormy sea of life. Chaos will always knock on our door. But a disciplined individual creates meaning out of suffering to lead a good life.

No wonder we would like to be able to sleep, rest, and be free from work, similar to what my students proclaimed in that English class. However, with some experience, one would soon realize that the dragon of life does not hand out freebies. We have to earn them. Most successful people are often ultra-disciplined.

Discipline is also a sure-shot way to create meaningful schedules to boost our productivity and efficiency. One can only marvel at how efficient ultra-productive people can genuinely get. Working our ways out through discipline also relieves stress, since one can plan most possibilities ahead of time in combination with visualization techniques.

Last but not least, discipline commands respect. Often our role models and people we admire are highly disciplined individuals. Most people like sports. We adore athletes. Why? A part of our being respects the enormous discipline such high-performance athletes adhere to in order to deliver their quasi-superhuman performances. As the ancient Stoics taught, self-discipline opens the world to us. Learn to see what is in your direct control, take action and attain liberation through discipline.

Kumar Vikrant (

kvikrant071@gmail.com

) is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.