The Surprising Reason Why Preparation Beats Discipline: Unlocking Success
Retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink has a great book titled Discipline Equals Freedom. It is highly motivating! Need inspiration for the 6:00am run? Read this book before bed. The basic premise is that maintaining a standard of discipline in certain areas creates immense freedom in others. The lessons that Jocko presents are right on target. So are the actionable items that he recommends - commands! - readers put to work.
The challenge is that discipline is a finite resource. While it can be applied to numerous areas of life throughout the day, it cannot be applied infinitely. This leads to a dichotomy in decision making (for more on dichotomies, check out Jocko’s book Dichotomy of Leadership).
What happens when all of the daily discipline has been applied and used up? Sure, there are some great results that come from those disciplined decisions, but what about the choices that need to be made at the end of the day?
As an example, someone finishes up a long day of work, comes home and the kids need help with their homework, the dog needs to be walked, the towels need to be put into the dryer, and everyone is getting hangry for dinner. Open the refrigerator and…nothing is ready to eat. If there is some discipline left in the tank, it is easy to chop and sauté some veggies and chicken and serve over rice. Then rotate the laundry and walk the dog while discussing social studies with the kids.
If the tank is running on fumes, however, this is where the poor decisions start to get made. There might be enough discipline to get through the chores and homework, but cook dinner from scratch? Meh. A frozen pizza sounds good.
This is where preparation comes into play. Dan John and Josh Hillis, in their book Fat Loss Happens on Monday, make the case that preparation beats discipline. In the previous example, what if over the weekend, time was dedicated to chopping vegetables, marinating chicken, and making a pot of chili. Then at the end of those long weekdays, when the discipline is fading, it is easier to make healthy decisions. Forget that frozen fat, salt, and sugar bomb - fire up the grill!
This becomes a virtuous cycle of good decisions leading to more good decisions. All it takes is a little bit of planning and discipline to be properly prepared. This is a concept that Jocko surely supports. Having served in elite units in the U.S. military, he is keenly aware of the importance that preparation has in being disciplined and making decisions that lead to good outcomes.
Commit to being prepared. Do not look at it as a chore. Reframe it as an investment. The hours of time and effort dedicated to setting the week up for success will have a huge return on investment. Do not depend on disciple alone to get through life’s labyrinth of decision making. Be prepared and everything else will be easier as a result.
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