7 Steps To Turn Discipline Into Freedom for Entrepreneurs

If you ever feel stuck, if you have an option to do something different, more or less, maybe you need to change the discipline. Just keep it simple. Hey, I'm Joe Fear and welcome to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. This is where we talk all about building businesses so they give you the freedom and fuel for your life. I'm not here to help you build a billion dollar business, but I am here to help you create a business with systems that work for you so you can make more money than you need just by working part time. You know, I was a chronic hustle mode kind of guy and I want to my experiences and mentors I've met along the way to help you reframe things to be the most effective as an entrepreneur. I wish I had this guidance and insight when I was younger. So that's what I'm doing here for you. Please share and enjoy. Yo, yo, yo. I am back and this one is a solo episode. This time I'm going to break down what's been really helping me over the last handful of years and specifically a handful of months as I've realized some parts of my life I want to tune up on and refine and prioritize for myself. And that boils down to creating better habits of discipline in my life. So in this episode, I want to break down how to be and how to create discipline as an entrepreneur and do it in a healthy way. And I want to reference Jocko Willink, you know, retired Navy seal, total badass. And he has a great book called the Same Thing. He says discipline equals freedom. And I think that's a. That I know that's a powerful statement that discipline equals freedom. So discipline, these habits, these routines that we select for ourself, that we commit to that are a very personal activity that creates freedom in our life in whatever way that we can define freedom for ourselves. It could be the freedom of time, the freedom of having enough money, the freedom of however you want to spend time with your family, your friends, yourself, whatever it is that freedom means to you, discipline will get you there. So the reason why I think this is so important is that a lot of us, without discipline, we can burn out. We can go directions that might just be leading us to a place that doesn't really fulfill our lives or take us to where we want to go. But we maybe not have. We maybe we haven't analyzed it enough to know what we need to do to get there. And this all makes sense because I'm going to break down seven ways to Actually create discipline as an entrepreneur or as just a general person. And you can apply it however you wish. And it starts by being selfish. I think that's the biggest thing is we want to commit to ourselves here. We, it's us first. It's like the oxygen mask principle on an airplane. Make sure to put that sucker on yourself first to get that flow of oxygen so you can then show up for others around you. And, and really this allows you to overcome so many different things by, by being selfish. We're now going to look inward and start to analyze what are the forms of laziness that we might have in our being. And it's okay, we're not going to beat ourselves up for it, but let's, let's actually identify what these things are and let's see if some of these things are preventing us from getting to that goal that we really want to get to. You know, if it's laziness for. And it's actually fulfilling, you know, it's helping you rest and feel better, and that's not, you know, taking you away from your goals or whatever it is, then sure, be lazy. That's all good. I love being lazy. I'm not the best at it, but, you know, if there are certain things that are preventing you, like procrastination or ways that, you know, maybe you're, you're eating unhealthily, but you know that you really should be eating this other way. There's, there's certain things could be working out. There's a lot of different things that you can analyze there. But the key thing is to, to really understand what those things are. And another reason why you'd want this discipline in your life is to control your time. You're, you're creating control in, in a way where you're not just letting things flow and kind of happen just to be. Just to happen. You know, you're not taking things for granted. You're actually very, very aware of how you're applying your time and your energy. Because we only have so much. There's only so much time in the day, and there's only so much energy that you possess in your being. Mental energy, physical energy, the combined energy, it's all something that we need to manage ourself. And that goes into expectation. So with these priorities, we can now create expectations for ourselves and know that we're not going to do too much or we're going to, you know, there's, there's time blocks, there's physical expectations of ourselves that we can then show others so they're not expecting us to do different things. These are all different ways that discipline can show up. And another cool thing about disciplines, before we dive into actually how to do this, or at least the ways that I feel like I've got myself to a place that's really in a healthy way of using discipline, is that you can actually leverage your own, your motivations to become more disciplined. So for instance, I love to work out and I love to move my body. But at the same time, I have not always been the most consistent. So what I've done is I've created different ways to do that throughout the day. You know, I'll actually use a method like BJ Fogg describes in his Tiny Habits book, which we've had him on the pod in the past, is that you can pair up something that you always do or you constantly do throughout your day and then pair it up with something else that you really should be doing or a little habit you want to instill. So I'm looking at my dog right now like they probably want to go outside. So what I'll do sometimes is going outside to move my body and to make sure that I'm always kind of staying loose. I'm stretching my back out. Getting my mind healthy is I'll take em outside and I'll start doing some burpees. You know, that's, it's like the push up and jump and jump up kind of thing. I'll do it for a minute. It spikes my heart rate, it makes me feel great. My mind gets a little clear and I kind of celebrate that moment. Because when I'm cooling down or letting that heart rate drop down, I'm sitting out in the sun. Typically I'm playing with the dogs, I'm throwing a ball, whatever it might be. That's like a little 10 minute, 5 minute break that I can do for myself. That's a discipline thing. Cause I'm trying to do that at least multiple times a day. And I know it makes me feel better. So let me get into the seven ways of creating discipline. And I kind of hinted to a few of them. And this is kind of in a process that you can follow. So the seven I would start with, the very first thing is confronting what are the things that you're procrastinating on right now. And these are the things that I was mentioning. The lazinesses or the things that you feel like you're kind of feeling friction in your mind or you're just not able to get the words out if you're trying to write something or get the words out if you're trying to speak something. Confront these things and then put a piece of paper in front of you and write them out. Like just be super honest with yourself. And this is the phase of awareness. Like it's just becoming aware of these things that you're procrastinating on and the things that you feel like there's friction in your life. Like just write them all out because guaranteed you're gonna feel better just by putting those on the paper. So first thing is to confront those things and write em out. So number two is figuring out what is most important on this list, looking at your list, what's most important to you. And. And I would not prioritize on urgency because this is a phase where we want to start looking at these things that might be. We're procrastinating on the things that we feel like we should be doing, but we for some reason can't get momentum. Let's prioritize these things in a way so you can start to manage your expectations. So you can take your list and maybe cross some things out, or you maybe number them however you want to prioritize your list so you know that there is a potential solution here. Let's just figure out what are these things that really matter the most. And again, I wouldn't prioritize on urgency so much because that's kind of a different layer. Obviously take care of what needs to get done, but what's most important, let's prioritize that. So that's number two. Number three is break these things down into small little bits. Like make them small, start small. Don't try to load yourself up in your calendar of all these different things you want to start doing, but just start small. I mentioned BJ Fogg and we've had him on the podcast. He broke down his concept behind his book Tiny Habits. I definitely recommend getting that book. And it's all about prompting yourself. It's how I describe my dogs and doing burpees while I take them out. It's kind of pairing up things together. It's stacking these habits. So another thing is brushing your teeth. You know, a lot of us don't have an issue brushing our teeth every day, but we might not be flossing every day. But if you can say, okay, every time I'm going to brush my teeth, I'm also going to floss, then you're pairing up these things. You're starting with something you're already motivated to do so. You have built in motivation here. It's kind of like taking the dogs out. Well, I'm motivated by them not taking a shit in my office or taking a pee in the corner. So I'm going to take them outside. And then at the same time, I'm also motivated by the desire to feel better, move my body. The bigger motivation is really to take them out. But I'm still gonna do that workout and that thing. So then I celebrate after I do those two things combined. And this is what BJ Fogg says, it kind of locks it in that, that habit you're producing a habit with by celebrating and acknowledging what you just did. So I do that every single time. Whenever I'm doing those little mini workouts, I'm feeling pumped that I just did that. Or whenever I do these, these bar hangs on a pull up bar. I'll celebrate the fact that I can tick the box and, and I'm feeling good, that I'm keeping my momentum high. So number three here is starting small. Now number four is create a schedule. If it's something that you can create a schedule around, like working out in the morning, I put that on the calendar. I don't always do it in the morning, but it gets done that day in some manner. So creating a schedule, at least create space for it. It creates a healthy expectation and I would make sure that you're keeping it simple. I think the big thing is not to get super detailed here because at least for me, that's how I feel. Like I've gotten into a rut if I try to put on these crazy expectations. Gotta be done by this time. It can only go for this long, things like that. That just creates a lot more complexity than I want right now. And that is not as simple as like brush teeth, floss teeth, you know, simple as that. So whatever schedule you need. That would be the fourth thing I would recommend here. The fifth thing is track progress. If you can track this and if it's worthy of tracking some things, you don't have to. But in terms of me doing like the burpees, I would love to do about four sessions of those a day. I think that would do really well for me. I'm pretty sure I could take my dogs out about four times a day at least. So, you know, that's something I can track my progress around A lot of my workout routines. I'll do a tick box on a whiteboard. I'll just keep it super simple. I don't even need to use apps, even though I use some apps for, for tracking things, mainly workouts. I mean, honestly, just a simple visual, you know, a tick box on a whiteboard or whatever it is to just keep the momentum in the visual cue that I did that. And the big thing I keep saying is momentum. Tracking progress and writing it down and then visually seeing it is amazing for creating those habits. So pair that up with celebrating, but at the same time, write it down. Maybe it's a journal and log, you know, that you did these things, it's just going to help you and then solidify that again in your brain. And even if you're writing it with your hand, then it solidifies it in that physical manner too, that you're making progress. Now, the sixth item here is to start reflecting on your progress. Start to actually like, hey, I've done a great job, like, and go look back on what you've done in the progress you've made. You know, maybe if in the case of working out, maybe you're starting to lift more weights, or maybe you're running for a longer period of time, maybe you're doing more reps, maybe on the diet side of things. Cause there's a lot of diet trackers if you wanna apply this to food. Maybe you're starting to eat better things. You know, you're putting more protein into your diet, some more healthy fats, less carbs. If it's tracking your time for work, maybe you're working less. But you could see your money is getting higher, your bank balance is rising. So that's a good, good little comparison there. Anything that you can do to start reflecting on the progress that you've been tracking will then, you know, obviously help you celebrate again. I would celebrate here, but it also is gonna help you reassess the needs of what you're doing. Maybe you're going a little too hard on things and you feel like you're getting a little burnt out. Well, good time to reassess and change things up. Maybe you're stacking too much. Maybe, maybe you are enough already, or maybe you're not enough. Whatever it is, you can now reflect on the things you've been doing and your progress and start to reassess things. You know, maybe take. Do this weekly or, or monthly, whatever frequency is working out for you. And the very last thing, the seventh thing, which I think is really cool, is to, well, just keep going, you know, don't stop. If you can keep that momentum going. It's all about momentum. Us as creators Us as entrepreneurs and people who want to serve not only others, but really ourselves. Because it starts with us is keep the momentum. Because that's how we are going to keep sane. We're going to keep making those sane decisions and able to keep moving without procrastination, without indecision. Because that's not progress. And I want to end this on. There's Rick Rubin, you know, the epic music producer who's been around for a bunch of, bunch of years now is he just released a book, Rick Rubin. He's been on all these interviews and he has this decision making process that's boiled down to. And this is pretty much what he says paraphrase is that every decision point really should just have two options. And if you could boil things down to two options, all your jobs job is to do in that moment is to decide which one makes you feel better in that moment and then commit to it. That one thing, whatever makes you feel better and then move on. And then another set of decisions are going to come up and then you do the same exact thing. Pick the one that feels best to you in that moment. Whatever the circumstances are, doesn't have to be a decision that you absolutely love. But whatever the scenario is, what is that thing you should be doing out of the two things? Because if it's more than a couple of things, and this is what he's, he says gets too complicated, then you have indecision, then you're, you're, you're getting influenced by too many different things. So in this last seventh point of ways to create healthy discipline, I would say boil down these things to just a handful of action items that you need to do to keep moving if you ever feel stuck, if you have an option to, to do something different, more or less, maybe you need to change the discipline. Just keep it simple and think of Rick Rubin and these, these two decisions you can do to keep that momentum high. That's what it's all about here. And that's the point of discipline. So when you're applying discipline, think about how it can help your body, how can it help your mind, how can it help your work and your business and then also the people around you. It applies in so many ways. Fitness, diet, it could be mindfulness and meditation. It could be however you spend your alone time or however you spend the time creating things for your work and for others. How are you showing up for others in your life, your family, your friends, all that stuff. Discipline can be applied. So those are the seven ways to create a healthy discipline as an entrepreneur and I hope you enjoyed Go please share this thing around and I'll chat with you next time. See you. All right. All right, that's what I got for you today. And remember, it's not all about living to work, it's all about working to live if you need to do the work. But you know work can be fun and it should be fueling for your life. So if you enjoyed what you just heard, if you got some nuggets of wisdom that you want to share or you're just noodling on right now, please go tell others. The way that people find this show and how you can help others get their aha moments is through word of mouth. So if it is telling your friend, telling your family, send an email to your list writing a review or whatever it might be. Everything helps. So thank you so much for listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast and I will see you next time.