Why discipline doesn't work

To live a sustainable lifestyle - or to make any other change - we often think discipline is key. As the well known gap between knowledge and action shows, and as anyone knows who has tried to be disciplined, it’s short term and doesn’t lead to the desired outcome. The gap remains or resurfaces sooner or later. Moreover getting people motivated to live a lifestyle beyond sustainability by telling them to be disciplined, is not very catchy. Discipline is not associated with the good, fun, happy place. That’s because we have the idea of discipline wrong. Discipline is not about forcing yourself. It really just is about self-remembering. Any forcing or fighting is obsolete. If you take healthy eating as an example. Trying to discipline yourself is usually approached by forcing yourself to eat apples and lettuce only, instead of chocolate cake and french fries. If you weren’t brain washed and instead paid attention to what your body actually wants, you would voluntarily rather eat the apple and lettuce. Instead of trying to force yourself more and more into a certain behavior, the key is to re-discover the underlying self.