https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=W2Jzkl8J2nM
It also makes you disciplined and once you’re disciplined like you’re like a sharpened sword man, like a well-tempered blade, and then you can go out there and operate in the world. The reason that discipline is necessary is because you’re a mass of competing short-term interests. And so the question is then well which short-term interests should win out? And the answer to that is none of them. They need to be organized into a hierarchy that makes them functional across time and across individuals. So like a two-year-old is very likely to act out his or her proximal impulse. But of course a two-year-old can’t survive in the world. You have to bring your primary instincts, let’s say, under the regulatory structure of a higher order value system that allows them to manifest themselves without undue mutual sacrifice across large spans of time in the presence of large numbers of other people. That requires a very sophisticated ordering. But a metanarrative is necessary to unite subcultures so that they can operate peacefully and within the same space. The same thing applies within you because you’re like an internal coalition of warring single-minded tribes and they have to all be brought under the organizational structure of long-term collective vision. And in order to do that you have to be disciplined. And any discipline, technically speaking, is an attempt to bring all those competing short-term impulses under a larger scale and more inclusive framework. You do that and then, well that’s actually what gives you freedom. If you’re going to mess around with very complicated and dangerous matters, you should really put your life together. We also know that the higher your conscientiousness, the lower your neuroticism. Conscientiousness does seem to keep neuroticism in check. And so I would say, and have said this to many people, clean your room, organize your life, get a routine, get up every day at the same time, go to bed at the same time, establish disciplined habits. That will help a lot. Schedule. Like, and here’s how to use a schedule. Use a calendar but don’t use it as a tyrant. You want to use your calendar as if it’s your confidant and advisor. And what you want to do is use the calendar, sit down, open the calendar and think, okay well here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to design a week of days that I would really like to have. What that would mean is that you would schedule things that you would consider meaningful and productive, you know, on a daily basis so that you feel that your life is justified by having a day like that. And also to schedule enough of your responsibilities so that you make progress day by day instead of falling farther behind. Generally you should approach it as if this is something that will help you get what you want. You have to figure out what you want and then you have to figure out how to decompose what you want into actionable steps. You know that’s a pretty good deal all things considered and you can start stupid and slow. Like I said, just throw some things in that you’re pretty likely to do and fill in the schedule with broad strokes and then as you get familiar with it and comfortable with it and maybe even happy with it, you can fill in the details and start to use it in a more sophisticated way. And what that’ll do is it doesn’t directly affect your neurophysiology but you react to uncertainty and the unexpected with more physiological preparedness and more expenditure of energy than the typical person. And so what you want to do is organize your surroundings because it’s a lot easier to organize your surroundings, at least to begin with, than it is to do radical reconstruction on your fundamental temperament. Generating a view of your life that consists of valued goals that you want to attain and then steps by which those might be attained. Well then you can ally that with a schedule and then you know not only do you know what you’re doing, you know that what you’re doing is moving you towards something you want and that’s rewarding. You need to have a primary discipline. It’s absolutely necessary to succeed in life. Now once you have a primary discipline then you can branch out and become a multiplicity in your disciplined approach and then you’re absolutely bloody unstoppable.