[Discussion] Relationship between willpower, freedom and discipline?

This comic really challenged my idea of discipline and may explain why I haven't been disciplined.

Great comic. I think this helps to challenge the way we normally rationalize our actions and inform us about what needs to change in order to develop discipline.

I've always strived to do what I wished to do at all times yet maintain discipline. Are this two ideas really completely opposite to each other as suggested by the comic? Can one be free in action and be disciplined at the same time?

No to the first question, because not all of your desires are equally capable of being manifested as the will. You can be "free in action" when you choose to relax and have fun, but it's hard to view this as an uncontroversial decision when it's chosen in spite of responsibilities. You can also be "free in action" when you choose to be disciplined instead of having fun. It seems like intuition says that we're more "free" when we choose the latter. Take that to mean what you want.

Have you read The Society of the Mind by Marvin Minsky? That mind better inform the question, where your for instant gratification (a primitive emotional agent) overpowers your capacity for conscious discipline (a sophisticated executive agent). In that case, it's about developing and strengthening certain agents of the mind that enable you to be authentic.

/r/getdisciplined Thread