[00:01] Freedom, the ultimate guide to discipline by the one and only Jooko Willink, who is a former Navy Seal. And we are going to be talking about it in this episode of Book Club, the ongoing series, where for the last 5 years, I've
[00:13] books. And so in this video, I'm going to share the five or six quotes from the and share my own thoughts of them in the hope that you will find them helpful as well. So firstly, we're going to talk about the way of discipline. And here is
[00:25] what Joo writes in the book. There must be discipline. Discipline, the root of all good qualities, the driver of daily execution, the core principle that overcomes laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite
[00:37] excuses that say, "Not today, not now. I need a rest. I will do it tomorrow." What's the hack? How do you become stronger, smarter, faster, healthier? achieve true freedom? There is only one way. The way of discipline,
[00:52] talks a little bit about more stuff on page number seven. Where does discipline come from? Where does answer. Discipline comes from within. Discipline is an internal force.
[01:05] make a mark on the world. If you don't think you are disciplined, it is because yet. It is because you haven't created it yet. You haven't become it yet. So you. So make the decision. Make the commitment. Become the discipline.
[01:20] Embrace its cold and relentless power. And it will make you better and stronger than anything else. And most important, it will make you free. People ask me, "How do I get tougher?" Be tougher. How can I wake up early in
[01:34] work out consistently every day? Work out consistently every day. How can I stop eating sugar? Just stop eating sugar. You can even control your girl or guy or whoever broke up with me? Stop missing them. You have control over
[01:47] your mind. You just have to assert it. You have to decide that you are going to what you want to do. Now, I think this is quite a helpful way of viewing stuff. prescriptions and like a more detailed how-to guide. For example, how can I
[02:02] he's saying here is, well, just choose to wake up early, right? Like, it's not that hard. At the same time, there are like helpful tactics that you could sure you don't take your phone to bed with you and making sure you have an
[02:14] morning, but you have like an analog alarm clock. And for example, when you decide to wake up rather than snooze the alarm. You find an alarm clock that there's a bunch of different tactics that you can do to increase the odds
[02:28] 6:00 in the morning or whenever you want to wake up early, those environmental things that you put in place, those are sort of nudging you in the direction of not needing the discipline of just sort of doing the thing kind of by default.
[02:41] think Joo has a point like how do you wake up early in the morning? You wake up early, right? Like there's something that's just quite nice and simple about that approach to things. We have a bunch of students in my lifestyle business
[02:54] people build businesses and you know over the fear of posting on LinkedIn? How do I get over the fear of selling? can give them. We can say that like hey look you just got to recognize that you
[03:07] years ago they won't actually care. Like maybe they'll talk about you behind your the one going for the freedom. like they're still going to be stuck in jobs fundamentally, what it comes down to, how do you get over the fear of posting
[03:21] on LinkedIn? You just post on LinkedIn, and then eventually the fear goes away. self-help, in the world of like intellectualization, people who are very you probably have a tendency to overintellectualize the strategy and the
[03:36] plan and the tactics for every little thing that you find difficult. And while approach life, discipline equals freedom. I think it just is really helpful to get this almost like counternarrative to stop like thinking
[03:49] elaborate plan. Just like freaking do the thing. It's not that hard. And I few months ago, I found that to be a very, you know, a helpful guiding light when I find myself overintellectualizing the how of something where really it's
[04:05] just a case of how do I get to the gym more consistently? Well, I go to the gym Now, once you start taking action and maybe even making some extra income as a invest all of that money. And that is where the sponsor of this video comes
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[05:24] consistently, what if you're just not feeling it? And that takes us to page 49 where I highlighted a lot of stuff. So, let's go. How do I handle those days when I'm tired or worn out or just sick of the grind. What do I do on those
[05:37] days? I go anyway. I get it done. Even if I'm just going through the motions, I go through the motions. Don't really want to work out, I work out. Don't hammer on the project. Don't really want to get up and get out of bed, I get up
[05:51] signals that you need some time off, and those signals might be right. But don't take today off. Wait until tomorrow. Don't give in to the immediate gratification that is whispering in your ear. Shut that down. Do not listen.
[06:04] Instead, go through the motions. Lift the weights. Sprint the hill. Work on like procrastination, but if you feel like you need a break, that is one thing you should procrastinate. Taking a break is the one thing I put off until
[06:16] you still feel like you need a rest or you need a break, then go ahead, take need that rest. Chances are you will realize that the desire to rest was just path of least resistance, the downhill path, the downward path. And by going
[06:30] weakness. And you stayed on the righteous path, the disciplined path. you know you belong. I think this is that I personally really take away from this. The first one is the idea of just
[06:42] plenty of days where I don't feel like sitting down and working on my business, started. I like get my desk in order. I get my cup of coffee. I do the thing. I and I start working on it. And usually in the process of going through the
[06:56] motions, I start to feel like doing the thing. It's very hard to feel like it process. This is something I talk about a lot about in my own book, Feel Good Productivity, which is that like mostly we can enjoy the process of doing our
[07:08] gotten started, but before getting started, there is this hump. The hump of like the thing is difficult and you don't want to do it. And even if you line, like there's just that hump. And so what I like about this is the the
[07:22] are plenty of days where I don't feel like filming a YouTube video. But I go record. I like whatever the thing might be. I hit record. I start talking. And usually about 10 15 minutes into the recording, I've now started to feel like
[07:37] making that video. But if I waited until I felt like it every single time, I'd have made maybe four videos on this channel rather than like 400 videos on videos on the channel that we've done over the last 8 years. and staying
[07:49] been one of the best things I've ever done in my life and has literally time freedom, and creative freedom where I can literally do whatever I want. And that would not have happened if I hadn't been consistent with the thing, even on
[08:02] the thing. So, I love this idea of just go through the motions. The other thing are times where you need a break, but you can probably wait until tomorrow. I really good because this thing around, hey, I might be burned out. I might need
[08:16] hey, I might be burned out. I might need a break is a very easy narrative to go People talk about the power of rest and the importance of like, you know, not burning out. But the problem with the hey, I need a rest cuz I might burn out.
[08:29] just become an easy button to press every time you don't feel like doing the need a little push to get over that hump of procrastination, but you tell because I'm burned out." What I love about this is that he's saying that's
[08:42] okay. He's not saying don't ever take a rest. He's saying wait until tomorrow. tomorrow. You're not going to become crippled with burnout by working on doing the thing for just one more day. So do it for just one more day. Now in
[08:55] particular advice, maybe half of the time I the second day I've also felt going to take a rest on the second day because like you know feeling like you
[09:07] to me is like an kind of an honest signal that I probably do need a rest. But the other half of the time I have felt like really tired and really burned out on like a particular day. And then if I go through the motions of doing the
[09:20] going on the run, filming the video, doing working on the business, having have, but like whatever. If I go through the motions of that, the other half of night's sleep, the next day I feel totally fine. I'm like, "Oh, this is
[09:32] needed a rest for that one day. It was just that it was my mind being like, right now, so probably we need a rest because burnout." And you can't argue like it's it's just a it's too easy to go down the I need a rest. I might be
[09:44] burned out kind of route. I love the idea of procrastinating the rest until tomorrow. All right, now we come to a beautiful part. Ah, this is a chapter titled good. And so here goes. How do I deal with setbacks, failures, delays,
[09:58] have a fairly simple way of dealing with good. This is something that one of my direct subordinates, one of the guys who my best friends, pointed out. He would pull me aside with some major problem or
[10:11] say, "Boss, we've got this thing, the situation, and it's going terribly "Good." So, I explained to him that when things are going bad, there is going to Oh, the mission got cancelceled. Good. We can focus on another one. Didn't get
[10:25] We can keep it simple. Didn't get promoted. Good. More time to get better. the company. Didn't get the job you wanted. Good. Go out, gain more Got injured? Good. Needed a break from training. got tapped out. Good. It's
[10:40] tap out on the street. Unexpected problems. Good. We have the opportunity to figure out a solution. That's it. When things are going bad, don't get all get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say, "Good." Now, I don't mean
[10:53] to say something tright. I'm not trying to sound like Mr. Smiley Positive Guy. guy thinks a positive attitude will solve problems. It won't. But neither will dwelling on the problem. No. Accept reality, but focus on the solution. Take
[11:05] that issue. Take that setback. Take that problem and turn it into something good. Go forward. And if you're part of a team, that attitude will spread word good, then guess what? It means you're still alive. It means you're
[11:17] breathing, that means you've still got some fight left in you. So get up, dust off, reload, recalibrate, re-engage, and go out on the attack. This is something that my father-in-law actually does. My wife's dad. Um anytime like my wife goes
[11:32] response will be good. and he's been doing this for like years. Um, since scene, even like when when my wife Izzy was a kid, she would go to her dad with like, I don't know, a bruised elbow or whatever. And she tells me that his
[11:45] would be annoyed about this initially, but over time she realized that, okay, you know, this is like it's it's almost like a reframe. It's like there is always good to be found in literally any situation that you come up against. Now,
[11:58] relevant here and that, you know, it's it's something you might have come Chinese farmer. And I actually made an Instagram real about this. So, we're quite a fancy animation. So, let's go. Once upon a time, there was a Chinese
[12:11] evening, all of the local villagers came to console him. They said, "We're so away. That is terrible." But the farmer just said, "Maybe." Then on the second more wild horses with it. And in the evening, all of the local villagers came
[12:26] fortune. Aren't you lucky? Now you have eight horses." But the farmer again just said maybe. Then on the third day, his son tried to train one of the new horses and while riding it, he fell off and broke his leg. The local villagers came
[12:39] Your son has broken his leg." And again, the farmer just said, "Maybe." But on to conscript people into the army. And they didn't take the farmer's son the local people came around and they said, "Isn't that amazing?" And again,
[12:53] Chinese farmer reminds us that it's impossible to tell the true meaning of instead we should just try to embrace uncertainty, not get too attached to our best to enjoy the journey. Essentially, if you can train yourself
[13:07] every time you experience any kind of failure or any kind of setback, if you immediately see the good in the situation, that particular neural solidified over time. This is the idea of Heb's law. It's like a neuroscience
[13:22] neurons in the brain fire together, uh they also end up wiring together. So together. It's sort of like you probably know someone who's just like really they can find the negative in every situation. Now, a big part of that is
[13:35] because the more negative your thoughts are, the easier it becomes to have negative thoughts. It's sort of like you've got a field of grass, right? And grass and then you take that same path again and then over time that path
[13:48] it turns into a path which become which taking that path and then the path continues to be formed and you so you get this virtuous or vicious cycle where the thoughts that you keep on having are
[14:00] on having. So if you're the sort of person where when you deal with a setback, when something goes wrong, you it ends up like throwing you off your know the fear, the anxiety, the emotion, the depression, the sadness, whatever
[14:12] pattern that repeated over time will just make it easier and easier for you happening. Whereas if you do the Jo thing of like something bad happens and your immediate response is good and you're then scrambling to find the good
[14:26] has a silver lining and all that crap, that's actually not crap. That's is very helpful because if you can find the silver lining, if you can find the becomes attuned to finding the good in negative situations, which means you're
[14:39] bad things happen in life, which they often do. And then finally, and I think this is my favorite part of the book, it's just a really, really cool story um reading this. The chapter is titled I Feel Fine. During SEAL training, there
[14:54] has inherent dangers. Scuba diving at night with equipment over long distances in and around harbors, ships, and other man-made obstacles only increases those dangers. In the event of an emergency, we are trained to follow procedures to
[15:07] proceed to the surface of the water in a certain way, to inflate our life jackets a certain way. And when you come to the surface after having some kind of diving related emergency, a medic or diving medical officer will ask you how you are
[15:20] feeling. Only one response is acceptable. I feel fine. The roots of diver on the surface may have suffered from a diving emergency, which means neurological damage. A quick way to check for immediate signs of this are
[15:33] proper response and seeing if they have the physiological agility and fine motor control to properly inunciate the Fs, which take more effort than many other you actually felt. You could be freezing cold, exhausted, dehydrated, confused,
[15:47] and mentally broken. But there was still only one answer to the question, "How do you feel?" And that response was, "I feel fine." I don't know when this I do know it was in place long before I arrived. I also know this, the answer,
[16:00] "I feel fine," eventually morphed into a response for any time you got asked how you were feeling, regardless of how you actually felt. Tired, worn down, starving, blisters, chaffed, hungry, none of that matters. The response would
[16:13] still be, "I feel fine." And you know what? When you said those words, you people, people in the same state as you would hear you speak those words, they been through, but he still has a good attitude. I guess I can, too." So, don't
[16:27] yourself. Don't admit it to your friends. Instead, tell them and yourself. The only proper response, I feel fine. Obviously, there's a little feeling down in the dumps and depressed
[16:40] to just be like, I feel fine and like, you know, battle through and all that your feelings with your friends, etc., etc. And also at the same time, I it's really really cool. There are so many situations, I don't know about you,
[16:52] situations where getting to the point of like I don't feel like doing the thing like going to the gym. I don't feel like working on the business. I don't feel stretching. And in those situations, if my wife asks me, you know, how are you
[17:05] feeling or whatever, you know, it's it's almost too easy to just lean into the oh bit like tired today. Yeah. I don't really want to go for a run. Yeah, I I
[17:17] don't really feel like going to the gym. And you know, sometimes she'll see that "Hey, you know, I know you're tired, but like I know you're going to feel better This is where there's like a little bit of nuance here, right? Because I think
[17:30] about 50% of the time if I were to respond with, "I feel fine." It would actually change my own internal state because now I'm saying to this person who I love that I feel fine. And so then to Joo's P point, when you say those
[17:44] words, you start to believe them, right? So cuz the feelings are so fickle, things I've taken away from this book and also from doing a bunch of research Like feelings are so fickle. Feelings are just like waves on the
[17:57] on the surface of the lake or like the clouds going by. Sometimes the feelings doing the thing. Sometimes the feel of feelings are like I do feel like doing the thing. And there is a danger when we overread into the feelings. There is a
[18:12] danger when we say, "Hey, it's raining today. Therefore, I must be tired and I verge of depression and I should probably just play video games for 10 hours." There's a danger to that because sometimes the clouds are rainy just
[18:26] randomly. Like the feelings can be random. And this is where I don't know like I really like this book. I find it very inspiring and very motivational. And also at the same time, it's a tool that is useful in certain situations. If
[18:39] your response to every single feeling is, I feel fine, you end up in a place feelings. But if your response to every single feeling is to overread into the feelings and to use those as a sign as to why you're burned out or why you need
[18:52] thing that you want to do because it should feel it shouldn't feel like a up in a dodgy place where you're never doing anything hard. Cuz when you're will feel bad. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, right? So like this is
[19:07] why I mean with anything when I read these books, when I listen to the podcasts and stuff, my guiding philosophy for this stuff is always what that I have and given that my ultimate goal is to live like a peaceful, happy,
[19:19] fulfilled life. And I think this idea of I feel fine for me at least and for a helpful. Now, if you are someone who is already too like in the the your
[19:32] direction of like you don't know your own feelings, you don't know your own touch with your body, you're like constantly just like denying to yourself how you really feel, then for you this advice of like in any situation just say
[19:45] I feel fine is probably not helpful because you're already too far in that direction. But for me, I think I'm kind of a little bit I I don't think I'm certainly if I think of most of the students that we have in our like
[19:57] lifestyle business academy who are you know have like professionals with jobs feel the pain they feel the discomfort they feel the struggle of trying to put their business. And most of them could benefit from this story of like I feel
[20:11] their feelings a little bit more and just following the plan and doing the feelings and following the plan. That's where kind of the nuance lies. And this point in the video, you've got sufficient intelligence to know if
[20:25] not like the freaking Bible or the Quran or like the word of God or anything. like sharing his own perspective on life. And you want to use that perspective in so far as it is useful for you. So I really like this thing of
[20:38] my feelings more often and just following the plan will take me more in life, but not fully, not like 100%, right? So like yeah, there's a little very inspirational. is very motivational, ironically. Um, and I
[20:53] for some evidence-based tips on how to improve your discipline, there is a ago, uh, which is all about like, you know, if you look at the psy like the scientific literature around what are the tactics that improve your discipline
[21:05] even when you don't feel like it, there's like a handful of things that watching and I'll see you hopefully in the next video. Bye.