Discipline Is Not as Strict as You Think It Is

Discipline is active conscious awareness in practice.

Man drawing on a wall. Discipline is not as strict as you think it is — *Photo by Gianandrea Villa on Unsplash*

The word “discipline” gets tossed around a lot. Often, it’s attached to a concept of doing something with full attention, within rigid parameters, and with no room for mistakes. Visions of Marine Corps drill sergeants making soldiers march in strict order often come to mind for me.

Many things people do partway – but not fully – get attributed to insufficient discipline. Diets fail because you break them with ice cream, exercise programs go off the rails when you skip a day at the gym, writing habits don’t get established when you don’t set a time every day to practice, and so on. Too little discipline and shit doesn’t get done. Your art isn’t made, your practice isn’t improved, and you leave a bad impression of yourself.

What if I told you that’s not the truth of discipline? What if discipline is less rigid and more about mindful, consciously aware practice?

A different approach to discipline

For many years now, I’ve been studying various forms of mindfulness, conscious reality creation, self-awareness, and numerous related psychological and spiritual notions. I’ve read and listened to some amazing people and their ideas, but also slogged through some fairly trite crap. The more I study, the more I learn that very, very little in the world is written in stone or absolute.

Discipline, it turns out, falls into this category. It’s not the strict, winner-takes-all ideal you might recognize the same as I have. Discipline is not extreme willpower to get the job done. Instead, it’s an idea of active, conscious awareness to move yourself and your goals forward.

Life is in a constant state of motion. As part of that, change is the only constant. For the most part, there are three ways to live life.

Let life live you. Mostly you live by rote, routine, and habit, letting whatever happens, happen.
Curl up in a ball and await death. Life sucks, there’s little to no point in anything, the world is coming apart at the seams, so why bother?
Take the wheel and drive your life. You do things to live your life, to make choices and decisions, and to seek growth, change, and so on.

These are not absolutes, other ways fall between these. They are, in my experience, the main options people choose from or fall into. What’s more, everyone shifts between these depending on circumstances, happenstance, and things planned and unplanned.

Taking the wheel to drive your life requires discipline. However, it’s not as strict and rigid as you might think. There’s room for trial and error. That’s because discipline is part of active conscious awareness.

An organized art space. Discipline is not as strict as you think it is — *Photo by Katya Ross on Unsplash*

Making art is a mindfulness practice

When you paint a painting, write a book, compose an opera, perform a dance, or whatever other art you do, it’s a matter of mindfulness.

This starts with an idea. For example, my Forgotten Fodder sci-fi series was inspired by this thought after I watched Clone Wars: What becomes of the clones when the war they were made for ends? What do they become when they aren’t fighting anymore?

I started to think about this and began world-building. Before long, I had the backdrop to give my characters and a story. That led to planning, then writing, editing, and publishing.

Everything that goes into the creative process is a matter of active conscious awareness. In other words, mindfulness. It involves being present, in the moment, to think about the idea, feel it out, approach it, know the intent, then act and create it.

When all is said and done, that’s the core of discipline. You open yourself to the creative process, active conscious awareness, and take the wheel to drive your life and strive for that goal.

Creating art cannot be subconscious. There is mindfulness to do the act, whatever form that takes. During the process, you might slip into the zone, the void, or whatever you care to call that place (the space where it’s effortless, you lose track of time, and just create in utter peace). Guess what? That’s discipline in action.

Mindfulness is the core of discipline

There are two lies about how art is made that often derail a burgeoning artist. The first is that you must be uniquely skilled and talented, gifted, born to this world entirely to make your art and be a wild success as a bestseller, storied painter, world-renowned chef, and the like. Only those so endowed are worthy.

The second is that only by rigid, strict, ongoing, never-ending practice and extreme willpower can you succeed or be worthy of calling yourself an artist. Only those who give hours of their life, their time, and sacrifice to it are worthy.

If you’re a mother of two, work full time to pay your bills, but have a novel in your heart, discipline for you is finding time when you can to get the words out. It might be an hour here, a thousand words there, or just 15 minutes a day. You could still produce an end product and make your art happen.

If you’re able to choose to pursue your art full-time, you are mindfully disciplining yourself to paint, sculpt, write, practice an instrument, or whatever your creative endeavor is. Maybe you need to close yourself off from the rest of the world for a time to do this, and maybe not. Discipline begins with mindfulness and choosing to do your work.

Discipline is active conscious awareness in practice. Recognizing and acknowledging this shows you that it’s easier to act on your goals and create what your heart seeks to share with the world. Practice is important, but perfect practice through strict discipline is not real. Your work – and the choices and decisions that go into it that lead to doing it- is discipline.

Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: