Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink.
Today, we are going to learn about Jordan Peterson’s method for self-discipline
Now, let’s begin.
Imagine, right now, you’re about to work.
You sit down at your desk.
You lay your work out in front of you, and you say to yourself, “I want to get this
done.
I want to stay focused and disciplined.
Today, I am going to be productive and finally accomplish my goal.”
At first, you’re successful.
You’re concentrated and focused.
Your mind is zoned in on the task laid out in front of you.
But, minutes later, your thoughts begin to wander.
You pull your attention back to your work, but it’s no use.
Random trains of thought carry your mind to faraway places.
You begin thinking about your friends.
You dream of going on vacation.
You wonder what you’ll have for lunch or worry about the dishes left sitting in the
sink.
You try, time and time again, to control your wandering thoughts.
Eventually, you give in.
You stop working.
You submit, and you lose control.
Jordan Peterson describes this universal struggle in detail.
Everyone, he says, is fighting a wide array of “unconscious forces.”
These forces push and pull your mind in different directions.
One draws your attention to your stomach, making you feel hunger.
Another pulls your attention to your phone, leading you to waste time on social media.
There’s war going on in your mind, Peterson explains.
A war between your conscious and your unconscious.
In your conscious mind, you have something called “intent.”
Intent is a purpose.
An objective.
A mission you want to accomplish.
In this case, that mission is work.
By doing your work, you’re satisfying the needs of your conscious mind.
But the conscious is only a small part of your brain.
Think about your brain like a room full of barking dogs.
Your conscious mind is one dog asking for your attention.
When you concentrate on your work, you’re giving that dog the attention it wants and
craves.
But there’s a dozen other animals begging to be recognized and satisfied.
They don’t want to sit there quietly while you play with another dog.
They want to play too.
They want just as much of your attention.
And, unfortunately for you, they bark just as loud, if not louder, than the first.
So what do you do?
To make the barking stop, you pay attention to a different dog.
Or multiple different dogs.
In a heartbeat, you get sidetracked and overwhelmed.
The other dogs bark so loudly and demand so much of your attention, you lose sight of
where you started.
If you don’t have self-control, distractions work the same way.
At first, you’re focused on your work, but what happens when you crave a cup of coffee?
That craving gets louder and louder, until you can’t ignore it any longer.
So you give in.
You get a cup of coffee.
Of course, that craving for caffeine isn’t the only dog barking in your brain.
You’re also hungry.
You’re bored.
You’re curious what happens at the end of a TV show.
Without self-control, these unconscious forces take over your mind and manipulate your behavior.
Unless you’re totally absorbed in your work, those loud distractors are going to pull you
away.
Why?
Because your conscious intent, the first dog, isn’t strong enough to fend off the others.
Going back to our example, your craving for coffee is more prominent than your motivation
to work.
So the former overtakes the latter.
And you get distracted.
But the other dogs do more than distract you.
They also change your thinking.
Say you get distracted by a TV show.
Your conscious mind knows that it’s making a bad decision.
So you try to justify your actions.
You think to yourself, “I don’t have to do this work right now,” or “This work
is a waste of my time.
I’d rather do something else.”
The worst part is… these justifications work.
You fall for them, and they further motivate your bad decisions.
Your thinking changes.
Your attitude becomes unproductive.
And your conscious intent falls behind.
If you’re making justifications like these, there’s two things you can learn about yourself.
First, you don’t have enough self-control.
These justifications are produced by that war between your conscious and unconscious.
If your conscious mind is winning, you create reasons why your work is more important than
your distractors.
If your unconscious mind is winning, you do the opposite.
You create reasons why your distractors are more important than your work.
So, if you’re making justifications, your unconscious forces are winning the war in
your brain.
That means you don’t have the self-control to keep your unconscious at bay.
Your conscious intent isn’t strong enough to stand on its own.
That’s one thing you know.
The second, according to Jordan Peterson, relates to your work.
If you’re making justifications... if you’re struggling with self-control... you may be
working on something you don’t care about.
You may not be invested in or passionate about the work in front of you.
Self-discipline and motivation do not work in every situation.
Even if you are a disciplined person, you can only be disciplined about specific things.
Because discipline requires motivation, passion, and energy.
If you’re bored by your work, how can you develop enough passion to succeed?
Take this example.
Imagine your family pushed you to go to medical school.
Medical school is a huge undertaking that requires countless hours of rigorous study.
But you find yourself struggling to focus.
Every assignment is a frustrating slog.
Every textbook is a never-ending bore.
It doesn’t matter how rewarding this profession is.
You may be surrounded by motivated people following a path toward a meaningful career.
But, if you don’t want to be a doctor, none of that matters.
If you are not personally and emotionally invested in medicine, you won’t be able
to focus.
You’ll struggle to stay disciplined.
Your conscious intent will always lose to your unconscious forces.
If this sounds familiar, you may need to reconsider your direction in life.
You may need to reflect on the choices you’ve made and why you made them.
For now, let’s assume you’re on the right path.
Let’s assume you are passionate about your work.
It’s worthwhile.
It’s inspiring.
It’s the reason you get up in the morning.
Yet you still struggle with discipline and self-control.
You still cannot resist the unconscious forces pushing you away from your work.
Where does that self-discipline come from?
What’s the recipe for greater self-control and personal management?
How do you bolster your conscious intent while silencing the other dogs barking for your
attention?
Jordan Peterson gives a simple answer with a complex action plan.
At the root of self-discipline, he explains, is practice.
In fact, every habit, good and bad, is created through practice.
Take your bad habits.
You give into those harmful behaviors, because you’ve practiced them.
You’ve practiced pouring yourself a cup of coffee in the morning.
You’ve practiced checking your social media accounts instead of working.
You’ve practiced ignoring your responsibilities.
Because you’ve practiced these things, you’re very good at them.
And they loom large in your mind.
Your lack of discipline, therefore, displays a longstanding pattern of laziness and neglect.
But how do you turn your bad habits around?
Jordan Peterson likens discipline to learning the piano.
If you want to learn an instrument, you have to practice.
In the beginning, you won’t be able to improvise.
You won’t be able to play a song or write one of your own.
So, instead, you learn the basics.
You’ll gradually understand notes, chords, and scales.
You’ll grasp more complicated rhythms and patterns.
You’ll have to practice those hundreds of times.
Only then will you develop the skill and knowledge to improvise or innovate.
Peterson’s method for self-discipline is a disciplinary structure.
Self-discipline, he explains, is built upon order and consistency.
Our lives are filled with chaos.
And, without discipline, we’re subject to that chaos.
It’s chaos that drives you to slack off, to make poor choices, and to lose faith in
yourself.
In order to control that chaos, you have to impose an orderly structure onto your life.
That structure will control the chaos by giving you a sense of direction and purpose.
But what does a disciplinary system look like?
On a small scale, it’s creating boundaries that block the unconscious forces trying to
tear you away.
Within a disciplinary system, you practice healthier habits over and over again.
Just like your bad habits got stronger after years of practice, your good habits will too.
Eventually, your conscious goals will bark louder than all the other dogs.
Don’t get me wrong, they’ll never stop barking.
No matter how disciplined you, there will always be unconscious forces working against
you.
But order and structure can keep those forces from damaging your life.
Of course, a disciplinary system affects more than just your day to day activities.
It’s also a recipe for long-term success.
Think about the musician we mentioned earlier.
Imagine that he practices scales for an hour every day.
He’s accomplishing a small goal—practicing piano each day—but he’s also gradually
improving at his craft.
He’s growing his skillset.
He’s igniting his passion.
And he’s taking responsibility for his choices.
Responsibility is another large aspect of Peterson’s ideology.
Order and discipline are avenues to take responsibility for your life, your choices, and your success.
And that responsibility gives you a sense of purpose and meaning.
When you take responsibility, you learn to value yourself and your work.
You gain self-worth, and that self-worth drives you toward discipline, control, and productivity.
Let’s go back again to our piano player.
What happened after he mastered all the orderly aspects of music?
He gains the knowledge to create music of his own.
That’s the ultimate goal of any disciplinary system.
Right now, you’re sitting in chaos, unable to push yourself forward.
A disciplinary system does exactly that.
It pushes you forward, but, eventually, you will return to chaos.
You’ll rediscover chaos and freedom from a new perspective, just like our pianist.
With the fruits of a disciplinary system behind you, you’re no longer controlled by your
freedom.
Instead, you’re tactically engaging with your freedoms, using them to your advantage.
But, before you can control the chaos in your life… before you can engage with your freedoms…
you need to find order.
To quote Peterson, “every freedom you have that’s true for you is purchased at the
price of discipline.”
So take ownership of your direction in life.
Empower your conscious mind.
And discover your freedoms through order and control.
Thank you for watching TopThink, and be sure to subscribe, because more incredible content
is on the way.