Seven Days to Change Your Mindset: The True Purpose of Discipline

What if everything you thought about discipline was wrong? Reflecting on my upbringing in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, I share how discipline—far from being the punishment we often perceive it as—actually became my pathway to freedom.

Many of us have learned to view discipline through a negative lens. Perhaps you grew up with it being used as a threat, or maybe you've seen it portrayed in media as something restrictive that keeps us from expressing ourselves authentically. I certainly felt that way about the Catholic education my mother chose for me, complete with ruler-wielding nuns ready to crack my knuckles when I stepped out of line. But time has revealed a profound truth: discipline wasn't restricting my freedom—it was protecting it.

Growing up without a father figure and with a mother working multiple jobs while attending school, I had tremendous freedom at a young age. This freedom could have led me down destructive paths, but the discipline I learned helped me channel that freedom productively. The scripture tells us that discipline, though painful in the moment, "produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Olympic champion Michael Phelps didn't swim every single day for six years (yes, even on Christmas) because he enjoyed every moment, but because that discipline built the foundation for his extraordinary achievements. As Jim Rohn wisely noted, "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments." Are you ready to cross that bridge? I challenge you to pick one area you've avoided because it seemed too difficult, commit to it for just seven days, and watch your mindset transform. What could a week of focused discipline change in your life?

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Chapters

• 0:36 Podcast Updates and Introduction
• 1:24 Reframing Discipline as Freedom
• 3:15 My Catholic School Experience
• 5:22 Discipline Protecting Our Freedom
• 7:18 Michael Phelps and Consistent Discipline
• 8:40 Seven-Day Discipline Challenge

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:36

I welcome back to the call me mr you and the inspiration station. Thank you again for listening to the show. In case you guys were not made aware, I wanted to give you a quick update. All of our shows are now individualized on Apple Podcasts and every other podcast listening platform. It probably should have been that way for a minute, but it was not. So my apologies for any confusion, but you can find our show any one of our shows that you want to follow and subscribe to and, of course, leave a five star review for us. We definitely appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:06

But I want to try to encourage you guys today in the realm of discipline. I know that this is usually a hard message that comes from me when it comes to that particular word. I know that doesn't always go over well, but I'm going to try to encourage you on why this is not as bad as you think, and try to do that within 10 minutes, so we'll see if I can pull it off. But for many people, the idea of discipline feels very restrictive. It feels as though it's you not being able to accomplish a specific thing or you being held back from accomplishing something. But honestly, it really shouldn't be that. Now I know where a lot of that comes from. It really shouldn't be that. Now. I know where a lot of that comes from. I know that you look at Specific TV shows. I'm a big fan Of the BBC and PBS, so I watch a lot of those Old mysteries and old dramas that you see From England and Ireland and Scotland and those kind of locations, and whenever there's an issue when discipline is always put out in a negative light like I'm trying to keep you from doing this thing, even though you want to do it, I don't want you to, so if you do it, I'm going to discipline you it has that kind of mindset. Even some of us, as parents, grew up that way. We learned that discipline was a bad thing. Honestly, I tell a story on many times on many accounts and I've done it on at least the first three seasons of our podcast and you can find that, of course, on all of our listening platforms. I'm very partial to those, so I know you're going to get a lot from them, because I was super transparent about myself, so I revealed a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1: 2:39

But one thing as a young kid, especially in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn, new York, my mom thought it best to put me in a Catholic middle school and a Catholic junior high school. She wasn't Catholic, she was Episcopalian, but they're pretty close and they are interrelated. But she put me in a middle school and a junior high school that was Catholic because she thought it would help me learn some disciplines. She thought it would help me with staying away from certain crowds, especially in the public school system. She thought it would be helpful to me. But, as many of us do see discipline, I saw it as restrictive. I felt like I was being held back and kind of choked out and not able to be who I needed to be and express myself without getting a cracker and knuckles from a ruler, which is a real thing. Trust me, those sisters in the Catholic world, they don't play real talk, but in reality I believe that discipline is a gateway to freedom and growth.

Speaker 1: 3:44

I think we have scriptures in the Bible that support this. I'll give you one right now Hebrews 12 and 11. It says no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful Later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Don't focus on the painful part, because life can be painful. Focus on the part where it produces a harvest, because you've learned something through all that pain. The pain had a purpose. You learned something that caused you to have an abundant harvest of righteousness and peace in your life, because you learned from the hard times that you didn't stay down, you didn't stay there, you didn't stay in the negative, but you allowed it to be freedom and growth for yourself. So I'm hoping that we get an opportunity here to unpack what discipline is like and why it gets such a bad rap and hopefully kind of reclaim it as a process of giving life back to ourselves again.

Speaker 1: 4:42

People associate discipline with punishment because normally and this is somewhat connected to religion Men feel as though discipline makes people do what you want them to do. Discipline allows people to initiate certain actions against those that may not follow what the masses are doing or may not be in full agreement with what their belief system is. So discipline has creeped its way into religious circles as well. But I really feel as though discipline allows our freedom to be protected, not really limiting it. I think about this because in my household growing up most of you guys know I didn't have a father in my household.

Speaker 1: 5:36

I didn't even have a role model that was even in a place to even be that. So my mom did all of the heavy lifting and because she was going to school and working at the same time, I was the last kid from probably age 11. I had my own kid super early, at least 12. And I had to understand discipline real quick because I had a lot of freedom. I can do things and perhaps she wouldn't even know that I was doing it. I had the ability to do that. But I think one thing about me was I really wanted to please her. I saw her working hard, I saw her being tired and I was trying to make dinner for her and trying to just help her not fall apart because I saw her in the weak moments. So for me, the discipline of knowing that you know what you cross this line there's consequences. I don't feel like my freedom was being limited. If I had the freedom that I wanted and I walked out all the things that I could have done in life, I'm pretty sure that she probably wouldn't have a son. If she had a son, he'd probably be in jail. So discipline wasn't for my bad, I believe. That's my own personal experience. You can share yours on our social media platforms and, of course, on our listening platforms as well. I'd love to hear your comments, but for me, discipline helped protect my freedoms. Now I know what it means to be free, what it means to have that obligation and how to use it well not to harm others, but to grow and become the best version of myself that I can be.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Olympic swimmer michael phelps. He swam every single day for six years, christmas included, not because he loved every practice, but because discipline built the platform for all the medals that he would win. I know he's an athlete and you think it doesn't apply to you, but surely it does. Take the example of Michael Phelps. In this particular case, it does apply to you every single day. Ask yourself, what are you doing to build upon what you're trying to accomplish? You may not be trying to win a medal, but you're trying to build something that's of value, something that's long lasting, something that may equal legacy for you. What are you trying to build? What is that thing? Ask yourself today. Are you doing the things today to help you get there?

Speaker 1: 7:51

Jim Rohn had a fantastic quote. Noted public speaker, jim Rohn. He was inspirational, to say the least, but his quote was discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. You don't get there without discipline.

Speaker 1: 8:10

I don't care if you're an athlete, I don't care if you're a warrior, I don't care if you are a CEO of a corporation, I don't care if you're a small business owner, I don't care if you're an entrepreneur, solopreneur, I don't care if you're a homeschooling mom and dad, I don't care if you're a minister or a leader in your community. Whatever you are, community, whatever you are Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. It's how you get from goals and having those concepted in your mind only to actually fulfilling those. Michael Phelps is just one example of many that we can lean on to remind us that discipline builds the platform for what we're trying to accomplish. I challenge you today to pick one area. Pick one area you avoided because it's too hard. Commit to doing it for seven days and watch your mindset shift. I challenge you seven days If it's too hard, commit seven days of discipline and watch your mindset shift.