![]() Eventually, you’re going to slip up once you’re tired or overwhelmed. You’re playing defense, always reacting to what gets thrown at you. That may sound harsh, but there’s a simple reason why self-discipline fails us: you’re fighting a losing battle. That you need to do a better job at resisting temptation. When you tell yourself that you need more self-discipline, what you’re really saying is that you need to be better at telling yourself no. The problem with self-discipline is that it continually requires effort to maintain. Instead, you should be asking yourself how you can improve your life without needing to rely on self-discipline at all. Saying that you need more self-discipline is focusing on the wrong problem. While I'm still a firm believer that self-discipline is a trait you can develop with proper effort, I also think that relying solely on it to improve your life is a fool’s errand. Life would be so much easier if only we had more self-discipline. If only we had more self-discipline, well, then we would all have six-pack abs, started that business we always talk about, and would’ve checked off every item on our to-do list already. It usually begins with this little phrase: ![]() Even worse, though, is the stories we tell ourselves afterward. When we try to police ourselves from the near-infinite distractions, we quickly get worn out then feel guilty for eventually caving to the pressure. Most of us can’t focus on one thing for more than twenty minutes without getting distracted. While that may sound obvious, Newport argues that this skill is what will ultimately separate the "Haves" and "Have-Nots" in our increasingly accelerated economy. Deep work is defined as our ability to focus, without distraction, on cognitively demanding tasks for long periods. One of my favorite books in recent years is Deep Work by Cal Newport.
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