The Relationship Between Freedom and Discipline
People see freedom without discipline as unruly, chaotic, disastrous, and to be honest it is. The definition of discipline is to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control. Without discipline, how would we learn the skills we have to live life as a society? How would we learn to follow rules and laws? How would we be able to make healthy and reasonable decisions that are going to benefit us and people around us?
The answer is simple: we wouldn’t know how to.
Freedom without discipline is like writing a story with no sentence structure. It doesn’t add up, it doesn’t compute. There would be chaos on the streets, no laws (or laws broken), and no one to enforce the laws. Our society would crumble.
Freedom requires discipline! With discipline, our society thrives. With discipline we learn, and we grow not just as a community but as our individual selves.
A friend once explained to me that there is competition in this world. There are people lower than us on the personal growth scale and people above us, as well. All of this is possible with discipline. You look at someone who has a better job (that enjoys it!), a car, a house. You look at other people in their 40s living at home with their parents lazy and unwilling to move up in life. Where are you on that scale??
If you told me that you are well up on your way to being higher on the scale or that you’re already there, this is because you had discipline to gain those freedoms! Freedom comes with responsibility and with responsibility comes… yes! Discipline! See, you’re understanding this now.
It is time we teach our children (and adults that still act like children willingly) discipline. Otherwise, they will never become an important adult high up on that scale. Everyone needs discipline. Just like everyone needs freedom. You can’t have freedom without discipline.
I have recently started waking up at 4:30 in the morning and I have figured out that has helped me a lot more than sleeping in till 7:30. When I wake up, I have a routine that I have started and one of the things that is included is eating protein for breakfast. Another thing I do is I work out for 10 to 15 minutes when I first wake up and all of that will give you more energy. Now waking up at 4:30 in the morning isn’t for everyone, but it is great to start your day off with a little bit of exercise, nothing enough to wear you out, and a great breakfast. Now one of the freedoms that I have from the discipline of waking up in the morning is being able to get that energy to keep being disciplined in the day. The freedom of being able to get up is knowing that I have control over three hours before I have to go to work. I can decide what I want to do and when I want to do it as long as it’s within that three hours' time. When I sleep and I find it to where I oversleep, and it makes me exhausted and especially having that energy when I wake up super early is what I consider my freedom.
