Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual

by Jocko Willink

There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. DISCIPLINE.

Discipline: The root of all good qualities. The driver of daily execution. The core principle that overcomes laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite excuses that say: Not today, not now, I need a rest, I will do it tomorrow.

Self-discipline comes when you decide to make a mark on the world.

People are not who you want them to be. Kill your idols.

People, even those people you have put up on a pedestal, are going to be faulted, weak, egomaniacal, condescending. They are going to be lazy, entitled, shortsighted. They will not be perfect. Far from it. That’s fine. Learn from their weaknesses.

The only person you can control is you. So focus on making yourself who you want you to be:

Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.

Discipline your body. Free your mind. Get up early, and go. Get after it and you will become the person you want to be. And you become that person through:...

Some days I win. But some days I don’t. But each and every day: I get back up and I move forward. With my fists clenched. Toward the battle. Toward the struggle. And I fight with everything I’ve got:

Humans can withstand almost inconceivable stress—and you can too. So that is your first step: Gain perspective. And to do that you must do something critical in many situations: Detach. Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them. Stress is generally caused by what you can’t control.

If the stress is something that you can control and you are not, that is a lack of discipline and a lack of ownership. Get control of it. Impose your will to make it happen. Solve the problem. Relieve the stress.

If the stress is something you can’t control: Embrace it.

Where does the switch come from? The overdrive. The berserker mode. The full-on destroyer that will not stop? I think this is something that is learned. And it is a hard lesson and not everyone gets it. And it is an important lesson. A critical one. It is the thing that allows you to go the extra distance.

It takes both emotion and logic to reach your maximum potential, to really give everything you have, to go beyond your limits. Because emotion and logic will both reach their limitations. And when one fails, you need to rely on the other.

When it just doesn’t make any logical sense to go on, that’s when you use your emotion, your anger, your frustration, your fear, to push further, to push you to say one thing: I don’t stop.

Fight weak emotions with the power of logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion.

Something I saw in combat that I later tried to train out of people was the tendency to relax once the primary objective of a mission was complete. I tried to train that out of them because you can’t relax until the entire mission is complete.

It is never finished. You always have more to do. Another mission. Another task. Another goal. And the enemy is always watching. Waiting. Looking for that moment of weakness. Looking for you to exhale, set your weapon down, and close your eyes, even just for a moment. And that’s when they attack. So don’t be finished.

Discipline starts with waking up early. It really does.

Discipline can seem like your worst enemy. But in reality it is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can. And it will put you on the path to strength and health and intelligence and happiness. And most important, discipline will put you on the path to FREEDOM.

Knowledge is the ultimate weapon; it trumps all other weapons. Thought is what wins—the MIND is what wins—knowledge is what wins. And you gain knowledge by asking questions. Which questions should you ask? Simple: Question everything. Don’t accept anything as truth.

QUESTION IT ALL. When you don’t understand a word—get out the dictionary. When you don’t understand a concept—break it down until you do. When you don’t know how something works—dig into it until you do. Ask every question that comes to mind. That is how you learn.

Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got—is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?

Go out in a blaze of glory, fighting with everything you’ve got, every ounce of energy, every bead of sweat, every drop of blood—until your last breath. And then—and only then—can you stand down, put down your sword and your shield, and rest: in peace.

I view aggression as an internal character trait. A fire in your mind that says: I am going to win. I am going to battle and I am going to fight and I am going to use every tool I have to crush my enemy. And that tool might be fists, but it might be guile.

The people who are successful decide they are going to be successful. They make that choice.

HOLD THE LINE.

I don’t like procrastination. But if you feel like you need a break—that is one thing you should procrastinate. Taking a break is the one thing I put off until tomorrow. And if—when tomorrow comes—you still feel like you need rest or you need a break—then go ahead: Take it. Chances are you won’t—you won’t need that rest.

The most important thing to learn is that we have so much to learn.

One life—that’s all we’ve got. And the most important thing to understand about regret is that in and of itself, regret is worthless. It does nothing for you. In fact: The only thing valuable in regret is the lesson you learned. The knowledge you gained. But walking around filled with regret gets you nothing. So. Learn and move on. Don’t let regret beat you down. Don’t be a slave to regret.

Hesitation allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, the enemy to get the upper hand. Hesitation turns into cowardice. It stops us from moving forward, from taking initiative, from executing what we know we must. Hesitation defeats us. So we must defeat it.

Lead. Step up. Be the one who people look to. Absorb the impact—and the negativity. Draw fire—yes: Draw fire.

When bad things are happening—I will be the one good thing—standing tall—that can be relied upon.

And that is the ultimate victory: To hold your head high, and—even in the face of inescapable defeat— To Stand and Fight.

So I explained to him that when things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that will come from it.

It’s better to tap out in training than to tap out on the street.

Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.

It wasn’t in a war. It wasn’t in a battle. It isn’t in a melee of fire and destruction that most of us succumb to weakness. We are taken apart, slowly. Convinced to take an easier path. Enticed by comfort. Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

The Darkness cannot extinguish your light.

As long as you keep fighting—you win. Only surrender is defeat.

Because The Darkness only wins if you let it.

Do not reason with weakness. You cannot. You must only take action.

The military has a term: “Stand To.” It means get up early and be ready for enemy attack. It has been a standard practice for many wars.

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded. 2. Never point your gun at something you are not willing to destroy. 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target. 4. Always be sure of your target and what is behind it.

Learning how to shoot quickly and accurately while under stress is absolutely mandatory if one is going to own a firearm.

No other martial art provides the practitioner a better ability to dictate the position of a fight with one simple idea: The main focus of wrestling is to get an opponent to the ground and keep them there. This means wrestling increases the ability not only to take an adversary to the ground and keep them there, but also the ability to defend yourself from being taken to the ground.

Some basic stretches that I find most useful are: kneeling hip flexor stretch, swimmer stretch, Cossack stretch, hip external rotation stretch, reverse sleeper stretch, couch stretch, downward dog, and the cow face pose.

Like anything else in health and fitness, stretching requires consistency, so figure out what movements are most beneficial for you. Don’t pick too many—stretching can be done in as little as ten to fifteen minutes. But it needs to be done, so make it part of your routine.