More responsibility = More discipline

TL:DR: When you add more external responsibility you have in your life, you magically attain more discipline and determination

As a teen, I pursed lofty goals.

Goals that depended on putting in consistent work over a long period of time.

Example:

• Become an internet marketer = spend 40 hours a week on trying to make $1 online. Do this for 3 months.

Or

• Build cool personal projects = spend 10 hours every weekend on development. Do this for 12 months.

Unfortunately - from the ages 15 - 18 I found doing the above impossible.

I simply didn’t have the discipline to stick to these commitments - even though I KNEW the reward would be great.

I read books, I listened to podcasts, I tried cold showers…

But at the end of the day, I just didn’t have the discipline.

-

Since then, I’ve seen the same issue come up in other precocious teens.

They have ambition, but rarely actually do the hard things required.

So what changed for me?

What was the secret sauce that gave me this discipline?

Responsibility.

When I started working real jobs, with REAL consequences, I found I magically had discipline.

If I knew that my boss was going to be disappointed with me,

or that other people were relying on me,

or that my career might be at stake ,

I SUDDENLY found I had wells of discipline to pull from.

I could work long days, I could push through resistance, I could stick to tough things.

And here’s the surprising part:

That discipline started to spread to other areas of my life;

EVEN if there was no boss to be dissapointed with me, and no coworkers relying on me.

By “learning” what being disciplined felt like, I was able to use it more and more on my personal projects.

The more responsibility I took on, the more discipline I gained.