Essay

You Aren't Weak. You Don't Need Discipline. But Don't Be Naïve.

Design your environment. Design your life.

It isn't discipline, it's decision

It feels freeing to have the option to decide how to use the next hour — but pay attention to how those decisions work out for you. It might be easier to decide for the future than in the moment.

Then all you have to decide is whether to move forward with the plan, rather than what to do. And hopefully habit can take over.

This is not about forcing yourself

This is not about discipline. It isn't about not trusting yourself. It isn't about rigidity, or forcing yourself to be something your ego wants while your body is trying to lead you to a more authentic identity.

It's about being aware of the influences over which you have little or no control — and balancing them with influences that support your authenticity. And one of the best ways to do that is by shaping and pruning and adapting your environment.

If you want to call it protecting yourself from the devil, if you want to look at it as avoiding temptation, that's fine — but that kind of language triggers me. I can see how, from some angles, it works. But it's been ruined by christian churches.

You aren't weak. You don't need more discipline. But don't be naïve, either.

Design your environment. Design your life.