There is Only One Way to Improve Your Life in 2025

by Rob Jones

Why do we do it to ourselves? Why do we automatically produce more reasons to forego doing the right thing than we do to undertake the right thing?

Because we’re afraid. We’re afraid of the pain. We’re afraid of looking bad in front of our peers. We’re afraid of standing out. We’re afraid of what it’s going to mean if we try and fail. These intangible fears incite us to create tangible reasons to take the easy path where there is no risk of pain, no risk of looking bad, and no risk of momentary failure. We use those reasons to create self-imposed limitations.

Thus, the discipline we utilize to defeat these limitations must also come from within. It must be self-discipline.

Because discipline cannot be imposed upon you. Nobody can force you to practice guitar, just like nobody can force you to be disciplined. Discipline must be self-imposed. It must come from within your own mind.

The fact is, the majority of the time, when you’re faced with the fork in the road between the easy path and the disciplined path, you will be alone. Even if there is someone with you, whether or not you choose to take the easy path doesn’t matter to them. They have their own lives. You are the one that’s stuck with the decisions that you make.

When I was recovering from losing my legs to an IED in Afghanistan, my physical therapists weren’t there in my room to force me to do exercise. But even if they were, they couldn’t make me do the work. They couldn’t make me put in 100% effort. Then, after the session, they would go home to their lives, and I would go back to mine. And mine wouldn’t be getting any better.

What is meant by self-discipline is that you are the one who is choosing to do the right thing. Nobody else can, and nobody else will do it for you.

How to Choose Self-Discipline

While it is certainly not easy, selecting the path of self-discipline is simple. We choose self-discipline by asking ourselves: what is more important? What we want right now in this moment or what we want the most in the world? What hurts more? Failing to achieve a meaningful goal you have set for yourself or the pain of looking bad or failing once in the pursuit of that goal?

After I put my left stump down, having completed my 30th raise in addition to 30 with my right, exhausted and in a pool of sweat, I knew I had made the right choice. The pain of the exercise was significantly less than how I would have felt having not made what progress I could toward regaining my self-reliance. As I basked in the feeling of choosing self-discipline and making progress instead of giving in to my base desires, I noticed my bed handle. Four feet above my bed, running from top to bottom, was a bar. Dangling from that bar on a small chain was a blue, triangular handle. The handle was there so I could use it to pull myself into a seated position. I was feeling so good that I grabbed it with both hands and performed my first pull-up since I was wounded. My body only lifted about six inches off the ground, but the motion took me back to the days when I was able to do dozens of them in a single session. I did more. In the middle of my seventh one, I heard footsteps from my doorway. It was my mom.

“What are you doing?” The concern in her voice was evident.

“Just doing some pull-ups,” I replied as I lowered myself down.

“Is that safe?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. But, I was feeling good, so I figured I’d do some.”

My mom smiled. “Well, you always did like to exercise.”

“And most likely always will.” I smiled back and did another pull-up before finally calling it a day. I raised my eyebrows at my Mom. “Seinfeld?”

What Happens When You Choose Self-Discipline?

Throughout the course of each day, we are all faced with abundant moments in which we have a choice. Our natural human tendency when we’re faced with those two options: the hard but right choice vs the easy but wrong choice.

To get out of bed and work out versus pulling the covers over our heads. To eat broccoli versus eating a donut. To revert back to our old habits of leadership and ignoring a person on our team that we don’t like vs building a relationship with that person. Our natural human tendency urges us to take the easy path. To be undisciplined.

But what happens when you give in to that tendency? Do you get stronger? Do you get more skilled? Do you gain knowledge? Do you improve? Does your life move closer to what you want it to be? No. You get weaker. You get less capable. You get dumber. You get worse. Your life stays the same or gets worse.

When you choose self-discipline, you will take the action that is going to move you that one step forward. If you do it enough, over time, you will see your ideal self begin to take shape. You will see your life begin to change into what you hoped it would become.

The only way to turn yourself into the person you want to be and make your life what you want it to be is to take one small step forward at a time. When you are faced with all of those moments of choice, choose self-discipline. When you choose self-discipline, you will take the action that is going to move you that one step forward. If you do it enough, over time, you will see your ideal self begin to take shape. You will see your life begin to change into what you hoped it would become.

And, it’s not just you whose life it will improve. When you choose self-discipline, you will be helping your team to have the life they want as well. Whether it’s your family, your friends, your community, or your team at work. The closer you are to your ideal self, the better their lives will be. I could tell by the smile on my mom’s face when she saw me doing those pull-ups that I had inadvertently helped her feel better about my situation and, thus, her own. I showed her that I wasn’t going to let this injury destroy my life. And because she saw that, she could put more energy into her own life.

What is Self-Discipline as a Practice?

Self-discipline, like leadership, is a skill, and cultivating self-discipline works just like any other skill. You have to practice it as much as possible. You won’t get it right every time. But, when you don’t, you need to assess why. You need to figure out which fear it was that overcame your self-discipline and prepare for it in the future. And, just like any other skill, the more you practice self-discipline, the better you’ll get at it. Until eventually there will be almost nothing that can penetrate it.

Although self-discipline is inherently something you must do for yourself, you don't have to go at it alone. The teams at JOCKO FUEL and Echelon Front have designed the DEF RESET to help you kickstart better habits, starting January 1st. With the right tools and support, you can improve your life in 2025 and join the movement with thousands of other leaders on the Path

Self-Discipline is knowing that what you want the most in life is more important than what your weaknesses are telling you to want right now. When you are faced with the choice to give in to the easy path and the short-term gratification, it is you and only you who decide to do what you know is right—for your team, for your community, and for yourself. Be self-disciplined. Do what’s right. And win.