Systems > Discipline

Systems > Discipline

If you browse the internetosphere of fitness professions there's a trend towards discipline cultures. This wellspring of self-control mentality is pushed by public figures like former Navy Seals Jocko Willink and David Goggins. I imagine this is in some degree the counter culture balancing of scales against the unfulfilling self-indulgence that is rampant due to the ease of access to nearly everything our little hearts desire. On one hand, I get it. I don't think it's good for people to have instant access to gratification. I for one have noticed that when I indulge myself too much, even in "non-harmful" ways it leads to an emptiness that makes me feeling softer than a snails foot. We have hard evidence now that shows that these types of behaviors can and often do yield results that weaken our health.

All of that being said, relying on discipline as a sole source of successful outcomes can be shortsighted. More often than not when you look more closely at purveyors of discipline culture you find that these folks are not driving through with horns down as much as you might think. It turns out avoiding gutter balls is much easier if you put the bumpers on the lane up. When I talk with my peers in the fitness field, those who are successful at managing their diet don't stock their cupboards with cookies and then just stare them down every day. Rather they just don't buy them. With the exception of certain days or occasions. That is a system. Is there some discipline involved, sure. But discipline works on a far more finite fuel source and is therefore an unreliable mechanism for sticking to things over time.

When you pull the curtain back on the groups of people who are assumed to be the most disciplined you often find that discipline is not the singular linchpin to what makes them successful. At least not in the long term. Why is that the case? Because cognitive energy is finite even for the most monastically inclined among us. It's not that discipline plays no role in being successful in an endeavor but it may not be the singular answer for everything and to some degree it's a factor largely influenced by personality, specifically the trait Conscientiousness.

Conscientiousness is one of the Big Five Personality traits often marked by the acronym OCEAN which are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. People who are more conscientious tend to be innately industrious, dutiful, orderly, and you got it - disciplined. This isn't at all to say that a lack of conscientious is an excuse to slack on things we have set out to do. But maybe our successes and failure aren't quite as linked to the force of shear will as we might like to think?

Even as I write this article I have systems in place that keep me at my desk and focused on the objective for the given amount of time. I've had to condition myself to this behavior in order to meet my goal of publishing an article every single week for my readers. It's not shear force of discipline. There's no punishment awaiting me if I don't do it. Just as a measure of good faith I'm going to explicitly expose my own bias here. I am not a disciplined person by nature. At all. My lowest scores in Personality Inventories is always in the realm of Conscientiousness. I'm not a naturally dutiful, organized, orderly person. However, over time I've up-regulated my ability to execute by building systems that get the same outcome as those who are far more Conscientious than I am.

Mise En Place

What does all of this have to do with performance longevity? Lots of people try to white knuckle it through new health behaviors and it rarely, if ever, works (when I say "works" I mean in a way that is sustainable over time). Shear force of will inevitably runs out of steam and so we often fail to make meaningful long term changes even when we know we should. When you take a look at fields where a lack of consistency can cost lives they do not rely on the discipline of the people involved to get things right. The FAA doesn't rely on the discipline of pilots to operate aircraft to standards on the 45,000 daily flights in the United States. They have redundant systems in place that help insure the outcome of safe air travel. For you and me trying to integrate new ideas and protocols that make us perform better and live longer I've found it far more practical to use a similar strategy.

As an example I was recently working with a client who had nearly a decade of back pain after a helicopter crash. Once we got things moving again the next question he had was, "How can I maintain this on my own?" By creating a reliable system that supports these outcomes. Very few people have the 2-3 hours per day every day we were spending for the week to perform self-care on their own body. Instead of telling him, "Well this is what it takes. Just get up earlier and get it done," we found a way to replicate the key behaviors and integrate them into his life. Namely, keeping tools that inspired the execution of the appropriate exercises in his kitchen so he could do them while he drinks his morning coffee. Not only that, the performance of the exercises themselves had a few key ingredients that were repeated over and over and over again (namely breath control). So his system for moving his back in the right direction will be a small handful of key exercises that are a reasonable checklist that he understands and can execute skillfully without immediate supervision.

Ain't No Monk

Discipline and self-control are important attributes, especially if we want to be stronger, feel better, and sustain health and performance for the long haul. But even when you look to the most ultramontane among us they know better than to rely on the fallible restraint of man to succeed in their endeavors. Monastic life is characterized by self-restraint but if you peel the covers off you'll see that they too are embedded in a system that steers them towards those attributes. They live in a monastery where they are mostly sequestered from distractions and temptations from the outside world. They engage in rote schedules that offer predictable regularity to daily living. And they have specific tools whether protocols or routines that keep them focused on their particular flavor of enlightenment. This lifestyle tallied together all adds up to a system that produces a form of discipline.

So what lessons can the rest of us non-pastorals take away that can be helpful in producing systems that help support goals we have? A buddy of mine who is former military recently shared a phrase from his training, "Right tools. Right place. Right time." I think that serve as a nice anchor for some ways we can build systems that sustain efforts.

Right tools. Putting tools in our immediate environment that provide a reminder of what we need to or give us an opportunity to actually execute a habit. I have an actual kettlebell in my kitchen that stares at me every day and talks $h!t. Sometimes I'm just in the kitchen getting a drink of water and I'll throw in some sings or presses or just pick up the thing because, well, because it's sitting there.

Right time. Consist times for habits we want to build are essential. Whether this is something you do at home, (my crazy friend Paul Sharp gets his Zone 2 cardio at 0400 every day) or an outside class or appointment, building a known and regular schedule is an important part of building a personal health system. Find what works for your life and put it on your calendar.

Right place. Our environment has powerful effects on how we think, feel, and behave and consciously including tools in our environment that inspire behavior can be a real asset to our performance longevity system. Cues in our environment signal what behavior takes place in that space. This includes adding things into our space that can be helpful but also includes taking things out that knock us off track too.

Simple As

You can do this with quite literally anything. Where you hang your keys, how you do distribute chores in your household, how you create a budget for your home and stick to it. Right about now you might be saying yeah but you need some discipline to stick to the budget. You have to have the discipline to actually put the keys in the right place instead of tossing them will nilly into the abyss of your couch cushions. Agreed. Self-control is a necessary component. But it's not nearly as robust as having reliable systems in place the keep the train on the track when willpower juices are running low.

When you start to build systems that support your health and wellness for the long haul keep things simple. To start with convoluted changes that are parsecs away from where you're starting is an unreasonable and unsustainable strategy. Sometimes we see what other people are doing or have accomplished and our desire for a similar end state makes us attempt to replicate their system.

What we often don't know is how simple things might be under the surface. A good buddy of mine is a carpenter in the entertainment industry. He builds beautiful and intricate sets for stage and screen that have to be sound, functional, and modular. When we talk about how he organizes his projects the dance of the planning, equipment, materials, and workforce buzzes in my head like a beehive. If I tried to start my own company and attempted to replicate things the way he does them, I'd likely fail. Why? His complex system grew over time out of experience and necessity. Don't start fancy and set yourself up for failure.

Lifestyle Is A System

If we want to become more disciplined in the way we manage our health and performance over time a good place to start is to look at what systems, or lack thereof, you have in place to support that endeavor. Pure grit and will power run out and fast. Rather than relying on the attributes alone, develop a lifestyle system that supports them. For the most fastidious among us this comes easier. But even if you're a bit more on the devil-may-care side of the aisle, building systems will sharpen the knife of Conscientiousness, even if just a little.

Look for opportunities in your lifestyle to create small pockets of behavior that are all mutually supportive towards the outcome you want. This is far more effective in the long haul than simply grinding through and hoping the fuel tank doesn't empty out before you get where you want to go.

Thanks for reading,

Rob