[Neurons] 2025 Neurons #5 THE FREEDOM OF DISCIPLINE

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2025 Neurons #5

February 3, 2025

Discipline: The Personality

Factor You Love to Hate #5

 

THE FREEDOM OF DISCIPLINE

 

At first glance, freedom seems like the very opposite of discipline.  Most
people think that way.  They assume that if they were to enter into a
discipline, it would deprive them of their freedom.  Since discipline
involves procedures, following procedures, and doing so consistently, and
regularly, resiliently, and persistently, that seems to completely eliminate
the freedom to choose other alternatives, other options.  That's how it
seems.

 

But how it seems is not always the way it is.  That's because sometimes what
we posit as opposites when we fall into the over-simplicity of either/or
thinking blinds us to the more complex reality.

           How much freedom do you have when you drive off the road and try
to pioneer your own trail across town or across the country?

           How much freedom would a train have when it gets off the tracks?

           How much freedom does an Olympiad gymnast have when she forgets
the routine and tries out new options whether on the floor exercise or on
the unparallel bars?

           How much freedom would you experience if you decided on a new
way to tie your shoes every day?

 

Actually the strange fact is that the only true freedom is in the art of the
discipline.  Doctors spend years learning every fact they can a bout the
body, its anatomy, the inter-relationships between different parts, and how
different medicines interact with the body's neuro-chemistry.  They learn
all sorts of procedures that have been developed over the years- procedures
that have been practiced thousands of times, refined, streamlined, studied,
etc.  The doctor's freedom and skill and expertise lies precisely in his
ability to do a procedure with precision and accuracy. The discipline itself
enables the doctor the freedom to be successful.

 

The more you know "a course of study" and "a course of action" (discipline),
the more freedom you have to demonstrate expertise and to be productive.
It's that well-trained discipline after years of practice which frees you to
understand, to think, to creates, to evolve, to take the procedure to a next
level.  The order is- first discipline, then freedom.  If you put freedom
before discipline, you are only free to muddle around.  First you learn to
play the scales, then you can make music.  Too many people turn the order
around and condemn themselves to incompetence and being unproductive.

 

What's the difference between a human and a zombie?  The human thinks,
chooses, and learns a discipline and can now live a creative life.  A zombie
robotically moves and reacts, he sees but doesn't see.  The human is free to
think, to create strategies, to figure things out.  The zombie has no true
freedom, he can only grunt and thirst for blood and walk stiffly into his
preordained future.

 

Now ultimately, because you are only as free as you are free in your
mind-free to truly think and to do your own thinking, your ultimate freedom
is a disciplined mind.  Given that, how free are you, really?  The
discipline of freedom requires several things:

 

Awareness   Power  Purpose  Flexibility Opportunity            = Freedom

of what is,                              capacity  Intention   to adapt  in
the context  = in a Discipline

of yourself,  to think, to value   to express in your environment


your thoughts              what's

feelings,                      important

 

 

This is the discipline required to be a fully functioning person.  It arises
from your conscious awareness of things, your developed capacity for
functioning, the purpose you set for a compelling outcome in some area of
life (the discipline you desire), your flexibility to then adapt in your
environment to take advantage of the opportunities around you.  True freedom
is a freedom to something, it is not merely a reaction away from what you
don't want.  We can also call this responsible freedom because you are "able
to respond" from your values and beliefs and invent the life you want.




 

 

 



I think that Thinking Strategically will become one of the most important
books I've ever written. At the core of almost every thought you think, you
are seeking to move from today and now to tomorrow and then.  To do that
well so you're successful, effective, productive, and efficient is to think
strategically.  It's now available!

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

meta at acsol.net 

 

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