Unlock Your Potential
Your enemy approaches once again. Your most dangerous and worthwhile foe. It has stopped you from accomplishing your goals, from proving everyone wrong, from living your best life. This enemy is you , and you lose because you lack discipline.
This channel is your dojo. This video is your training. All you need to do is commit .
We're going to first touch on what we need to know about our enemy— you . Then we're going to reveal how you gain discipline the right way, once and for all. The general Sun Tzu said: "Know your enemy and know yourself, then out of 100 battles you will win 100."
Here are the five things to know about your inner enemy and why it stops you from achieving, from progressing, and why you need to take discipline seriously. With a bonus tip at the end.
Understanding Your Inner Enemy: The 5 Forces Working Against You
Number One: Coded for Comfort
We are coded in a certain way that keeps us from venturing into the unknown. Whenever we want to change ourselves, grow ourselves, there is inner programming that wants to keep us in our usual routine. This is because we are coded to work for the survival of our species . Keeping us within our comfort zones as long as we are:
- Fed
- Warm
- Safe
- Can reproduce
That's good enough for the species.
Avoiding risks is also part of our coding. We gravitate towards the safe, known route. In our survival coding, taking risks could mean death. It can mean the end of a bloodline. Therefore, our minds will try to keep us from veering off the known path. It will keep us into a known routine.
Your human system does not know of all the good waiting for you out there as long as you work towards it. So it maintains course. And if you try to stretch and reach for something better, it starts to send you:
- Doubts
- Negative thoughts
- Visions of danger
It's trying to protect you. Your enemy thinks that it is your friend. Unfortunately, it's keeping you from a better life. So you have to be selective on what you listen to.
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Number Two: Fear of Success
What if things do change? What if you do grow and your opportunities grow and your life is no longer what you are used to? Your mind is also afraid of what could come when you achieve your goals.
This is tied in with your system defaulting to comfort. However, this point reveals that even if your mind knew that you could accomplish your goal and achieve, it may still try to keep you from progressing because it's afraid of your success .
Weird how the human system works, but it's incredibly powerful to know your own tendencies. To know your enemy within.
Number Three: Low Self-Esteem
You may not believe in yourself, and that's a damn shame. But a lot of us have low self-esteem . Where did this come from? Probably:
- Not having the best support system growing up
- A negative voice during our formative years
- Something happened or is happening to limit your own belief in yourself
Whatever reason there is, your mind may just stop your attempts for growth by leveraging your low self-esteem and sending you doubts:
- "What makes you think you can do that?"
- "It's silly to think you can achieve these things"
- "Stop being a child and grow up and stick to what you know"
Man, that's a bunch of nonsense. So many of us are victims of these self-limiting beliefs. It's going to take work to fix that programming in you. Just commit and we'll get it done. Trust me—you're a fool if you believe everything your mind throws at you.
Number Four: Cheap Fixes
The unconditioned mind will search for cheap rewards over long-term gains . It will weigh decisions based on how much immediate pleasure can be obtained. If anything involves pain in the short term, it'll run away.
Examples of this programming:
- Lifting those weights seems like it's going to hurt? Let's sound the alarm bell so we can run away from the gym
- Figuring out a business seems like a whole lot of late nights and complex problems? Let's keep watching YouTube videos about starting a business—that's much more comfortable
- Eating that salad and chicken breast is pretty bland, but that cinnamon bun and Coke just give my taste buds a kick? Let's worry about health stuff later
You're a prisoner of immediate pleasures if you never grow your long-term muscle. Discipline will solve this.
Number Five: Overwhelm
When you establish ambitious goals, your mind will try to grasp it all at once. When it seems like it's too much, your mind collapses under the weight of what you are trying to achieve and stops you from taking even the first step.
Your mind likes to exaggerate things. It's also a survival mechanism. It will take a tiny problem and blow it out of proportion. Leave it up to your inner enemy to make a mountain out of a molehill .
The right approach to discipline helps to avoid these situations by never letting a goal be too big on its own. More on that next.
A Clarification About Your Inner Enemy
We touched on this—that your inner enemy is just your inner programming that is trying to protect you. So be careful to not take this to the extreme. We are calling it your enemy because it's true that most of the time you are the one holding yourself back . Your inner voices are the most effective at stopping your advance and your growth.
So don't hate yourself. Like yourself so much that you are willing to study yourself and learn how to effectively deal with your own programming.
Share in the comments if this makes sense and share your own story about battling your inner enemy. I think that'll help clarify what this means.
Now That You Know Your Enemy: 7 Steps to Harness Discipline the Right Way
Now that you know your enemy, it's time to harness discipline the right way so you can survive your own limiting thoughts and finally make consistent progress towards getting things done.
Here are the seven most critical and effective steps to obtain true discipline in your life, with the last one being an advanced technique to unlock unstoppable discipline.
Number One: Yes, Goals
We pound the table on this point over and over and over again . I'm not kidding here— do not half-ass this part . This is the foundation of everything you are building. Spend an entire day on clarifying what your goals are.
You need to know where you are going to apply any discipline to get there, right? It's pretty straightforward.
There are several videos in this channel that speak to this, and there will be more. So like this video and subscribe to the channel so you stay a part of the journey.
Bonus tip on goals: It's good to have goals that touch on all critical parts of your life:
- Have a specific goal on health
- Have a specific goal on wealth
- Have one on your purpose in life
- Have one on family and relationships
And always come back to your goals if you have more to add along the way.
Number Two: Break the Goals Down
Now take those goals and break them down into smaller goals . Remember what we talked about? If you leave goals too big and lofty, your mind just doesn't know how to handle itself. So avoid that mess by taking big, big goals and making them smaller and smaller and smaller.
Create milestones that are achievable.
Example: If you want to be in the best shape of your life, that goal by itself is hard to figure out. So break it down:
- You want to have body fat percent below 13%
- You want to have 10 more pounds of muscle mass
- You want to be able to bench press 250 lbs comfortably
- You want to run a marathon
Okay, that's a good breakdown. But you don't have to stop there. You can keep breaking them down until they are measurable , distinct , and feel achievable .
Number Three: Create Routines and Daily Habits
Now this is where you start figuring out how you inch forward. The trick with discipline is to make things very micro. Make the habits that you plant into your day-to-day very doable and as mindless as possible .
The more your mind comes into the picture, the more opportunities you are giving your enemy. Remove the mind from the picture and you disarm your inner thoughts. Automate things as much as possible. Make things as easy as possible.
Here's an example: My health goal is to work out for 1 hour consistently each day and to gain 20 lbs of muscle. I always try to live near a fitness class that helps me build my strength. The reason I hinge my life around this fitness class is because it allows me to be mindless about working out .
All I have to do is go into the class. Then the program and instructors take care of everything. All I have to do is do what they say or what is shown on the screen. I've isolated the challenge to be just being there on time . But once I get into the door, I must obey them for one hour, and I leave there a few inches towards my goal.
You can do this with your financial goals too. Automate your investing:
- Sending a set amount of money to your savings account or stock brokerage each month
- Doing this first , then spending what you have left
- Forcing you to work around your investing, not your investing to work around you
There are always certain habits that will get you to your goals. Planting these habits makes it so you are exercising discipline mindlessly . And this is the best type of discipline because you are minimizing the battle with yourself.
Don't get a bigger weapon—make the opponent smaller.
Number Four: Remove Temptations
Anything that could derail you or serve as fuel for your self-sabotaging thoughts, you need to remove from your environment and your life . If you have existing habits or temptations that usually pull you away from working towards your goals with discipline, just get rid of them.
You need to be ruthless about this. Your mind will try to rationalize the existence of these temptations:
- Alcohol
- Sugars and sweets
- Sodas
- Social media
- Clutter
- Gambling
- Just name a few
Get rid of them. If you're going into battle with your inner demons, why leave these landmines scattered all throughout the battleground? Why set yourself up for failure?
Take this seriously. This is your life, and no one is going to grab your best life for you other than yourself and your habits.
Number Five: Prioritize Self-Care
To be determined and exercise discipline, you do need energy to win these micro-battles with your own self-defeating thoughts. You need to have:
- Enough sleep
- Enough water
- Enough nutrition
- Enough sunlight
The chemical cocktail that is you needs to be in balance with the right things for you to be in battle-ready condition .
Don't think that discipline and chasing your goals is at the sacrifice of your own body and health. That's foolish. You need to take care of yourself even more so if you want to be disciplined in the right way.
Number Six: Embrace the Pain—Reprogram Your Mind
This is the ultimate tip on discipline . Discipline can be hard because you are fighting through the pain and struggle of growth. Your mind is sending you warning thoughts and doubts to keep you from advancing.
But once you follow the above tips and shape the battleground so your discipline is more effective, you can practice an advanced method of discipline . This is to flip your programming on its head . You can train yourself to like the pain of growth, to yearn for the struggle.
This takes some concerted focus and lots of cycles, but for example: exercising each day can be hard because of the pain of working out. But once you train your mind, you can get to a place where you look forward to the sweat and the struggle . Not the end of the workout, but the middle of the workout where your legs are screaming and your arms are screaming, but you smile and say that you wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in this moment of pain .
What comes with this is a form of enlightenment . It's when you realize that peace and happiness in life comes from the journey, not the destination . That the struggle is where the beauty lies.
This requires deeper conversations to fully reveal, which we will have, I promise. But just know that it's doable to embrace the pain. And then your inner enemy is harmless and your discipline is unstoppable .
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long does it take to build real discipline?
Building true discipline isn't a quick fix it typically takes 2-3 months of consistent practice before habits become automatic. The first two weeks are the hardest as you're fighting your programming. After that, momentum builds and it gets progressively easier.
Q: What if I break my discipline streak? Does that mean I failed?
Absolutely not. One slip doesn't erase your progress. The key is getting back on track immediately without guilt or shame. Discipline isn't about perfection it's about consistency over time. Missing one day is normal; missing a week means you need to reassess your approach.
Q: Can discipline work if I have ADHD or other conditions that affect focus?
Yes, but you may need to adapt the strategies. Focus on making habits even more micro and automatic. External accountability and environmental design become even more critical. Consider working with a professional to develop systems that work with your brain's wiring, not against it.
Q: How do I know if a goal is too big or if I'm just making excuses?
If thinking about the goal makes you freeze or feel overwhelmed, it's too big and needs breaking down. If you can identify the next specific action to take but resist doing it, that's your inner enemy talking. The solution: break goals into pieces so small they feel almost laughably easy.
Q: What's the difference between healthy discipline and toxic self-punishment?
Healthy discipline includes self-care, realistic expectations, and celebrates progress. Toxic self-punishment ignores your body's needs, sets impossible standards, and operates from shame. If you feel constantly exhausted and miserable, you're doing it wrong. Discipline should feel challenging but sustainable, not like you're at war with yourself 24/7.