Audience Q&A: What are some Zen and/or Stoic tips for improving self-discipline?
In this episode, we discuss some very simple and profound ways to create self-discipline. Without discipline, it becomes increasingly difficult to make progress in any worthwhile endeavor. Discipline creates boundaries and constraints to protect what is most important to you.
1. The time is ALWAYS now. Master your relationship with the present moment.
- Do things right away to prevent being weighed down and cluttered by unfinished tasks. Quick decisions.
2. Do less, but do it better. Eliminate unnecessary actions by eliminating unnecessary assumptions. Recognize the difference between urgent and important. Know your outcome.
- Take as much off your plate as possible, and focus on what is important. Simplify and reduce to essentials.
- “If you seek tranquility, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Do less, better. Because most of what we do or say is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more tranquility. But to eliminate the necessary actions, we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well.” — Marcus Aurelius
3. Meditate on your own mortality. Memento Mori