10 Life-Changing Quotes On Discipline

Success is the result of disciplined actions.

I’ve established a healthy habit of compiling quotes and organizing them based on their message, and I thought that it would be great to share these quotes with you over time.

It’s no secret that success is the result of disciplined and deliberate actions. Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional.

Sure, maybe you can get lucky in some ways, but you won’t be able to sustain that luck over time if you have no control over your actions.

Each of these quotes is related to discipline in one way or another.

Let’s dive in:

1. No self-control

“Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” — Proverbs 25:28

Whether your religious or not, this quote packs quite the punch.

A city without walls to protect itself can easily be influenced or taken over by outside forces.

Without discipline, without self-control, you are the result of what happens to you.

You are a leaf in the wind, just going through the motions. Whatever you build and improve in your city, — or in this case your mind — if you don’t have the discipline or walls to protect it your city is bound to fall.

2. Become Obsessed

“I suggest that you become obsessed about the things you want; otherwise, you are going to spend a lifetime being obsessed with making up excuses as to why you didn’t get the life you wanted.” — Grant Cardone

Maybe this is more of a mindset thing than a discipline thing, but they often work in tandem with one another.

Cardone delivers two very important points with this quote: obsession and regret.

I think oftentimes, especially in our modern society that shuns away from pursuing anything challenging or worthwhile, we look at people who are obsessed with what they do as a problem.

I’m not saying that being obsessed is always good, but I think it may just be more good than not.

Why do we look at people who are so laser-focused with the path they want to pursue in life as weirdos or special or one-of-a-kind?

These types of observations only strengthen scarcity thinking. It only furthers the weak idea that some people are just born that way, and you could never be something.

I think the reason why it seems so hard to work on what we need to do to succeed is that although we want to achieve the goal, we aren’t obsessed enough to a point where we don’t mind doing the work.

The right amount of obsession, the deliberate obsession, requires discipline.

Lastly, Cardone gives us a darker side of obsession: the obsession with making up excuses.

Perhaps the biggest thing I talk about in my articles is regret.

Life is about avoiding regret, not making excuses for why you didn’t avoid it.

We all must do well to remember that this life will end, and we aren’t coming back. I know it’s hard to think about that moment, but it’s pivotal that we know the moment will indeed come and will come whenever it wants to.

3. Practice & Competition

“When you are not practicing, someone else is. When you meet them, they will win.” — Martial arts saying

Every time I read this quote it makes me want to go and practice.

It takes extreme discipline to practice your craft on a consistent basis so that you can make something worthwhile of it.

Whatever your craft is, whatever you are working on, there will be competition. It’s very likely that your competitors have put in more time than you, and they will win.

Take what you want away from that, but there’s no denying that whoever puts in the most work wins.

It may not be a competition, but it doesn’t matter. Plus, that’s what the losers say anyway.

4. Persistence, persistence, persistence…

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” — Calvin Coolidge

The ones who fail are the ones who gave up.

One of the first things you should do on your journey toward your dreams is commit to them.

Become determined. The only way you become determined is to believe the dream is possible and believe you yourself are capable.

The next thing you do is never give up. Persist, persist, persist.

Are there cases when you should give up? Absolutely. But I’m not going to tell you that.

That’s what you want to hear, and that’s what makes you weak.

I don’t want you to think quitting is always an option because then you will believe it: You will fail, you will buckle when it matters most, you won’t give the necessary effort, and you will forget that what you are pursuing is what you want to pursue.

Persist at all costs, and quit only when things are going well.

We often make the decision to quit when things suck, when we suck. Who wouldn’t want to quit?

However, quitting in this way often leads to the regret of having not tried, having not persisted at all costs.

I believe that in the end, even if you accomplished some dreams and gave it your all, you will wish you would’ve done more.

We probably won’t ever fully avoid regret, but we damn sure can diminish it.

We can make our life so wonderful that whatever choices we regret are so minuscule in comparison to what we’ve accomplished.

We can only get to the life we want if we are determined and persist no matter what.

This takes a type of discipline like no other.

This takes a type of discipline that will not allow you to shrink into your weaker self, it will not allow you to fold.

For now, I think it’s best to think that persisting is the only option.

5. Going through the motions…

“Some lack the fickleness to live as they wish and just live as they have begun.” — Seneca

I tell you what, there’s nothing more powerful and profound than a Seneca quote.

This one hits hard. It’s a beautiful reminder that if we aren’t doing anything to ensure that we get the life we want, we are living without intention.

Life is happening to us as opposed to us happening to it.

The universe won’t move mountains to ensure you get what your heart desires. The universe won’t make the path for you.

Through discipline, you must be that individual who is going to pave your own way and pursue the vision you have for yourself.

6. Preparation

“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.” — Richard Marcinko

This is similar to the martial arts saying from above.

The idea is that if you are as prepared as you can be, no one can touch you.

Not only will you feel comfortable in the heat of the moment because you know you’ve trained for such moments, but your opponent will feel your intensity as well.

The most intense and challenging work you do should be in the dark, out of the spotlight. The hardest work you do should be when your training, when your practicing and honing your skills.

The presentation should be easy.

If you ensure that the work you’ve put into the presentation is harder than the actual presentation, you have nothing to worry about.

Your discipline can make or break you.

You will be a force to be reckoned with.

7. Give yourself room to think

“Attend to your technical apparatus so that you are prepared and armed for every possible event; then, when you study a new piece, you can turn all your power to the intellectual content; you will not be held up by the technical problems.” — Ferruccio Busoni

Ferrucio Busoni was a musician, so this is the area his quote is coming from.

Nonetheless, this quote has a lot to teach us. As a musician myself, I can truly say being in a field like music and trying to climb your way to the top of it has a lot to teach us about life and the pursuit of your dreams.

The martial arts saying above teaches us that we must be very prepared because the competition is. The Richard Marcinko quote teaches us that the more prepared we are, no matter how prepared the competition is, we will succeed.

This Busoni quote teaches us that as we prepare, if we work hard at the technical and fundamental aspects of our craft, we can give more time and space to the intellectual aspects of it when we are in the heat of the moment.

We must work on the fundamentals so intensely that doing what we do becomes as easy as drinking water or breathing.

The art of practice and preparation is an art of discipline.

Just because the greats making it look effortless doesn’t mean they are doing it effortlessly.

What you see now is the accumulation of disciplined actions, disciplined preparation, a disciplined mind.

I hope these quotes bring as much value to you as they have to me. I plan to do more of these on different topics.

Take control of your mind and remember that the life you are pursuing is the one you want.