Constrains are a necessity for generating meaningful outputs.

took this thought for myself out of a conversation with a dear friend

“Discipline” gets a bad wrap. It is not passive rigidity and thoughtless habit. 

Real discipline is very active.

Actively constraining yourself, even when you don’t have to, especially when you don’t have to, all for the sake of staying clear-sighted toward your end and efficient in your movements.

building /bracket | hosting /greatbooks + /gray | ex-BCG, ex-PHD | poli + phil + econ

I think your phrase “especially when you don’t have to” contributes to why discipline “gets a bad wrap”
Doing things “when you don’t want to”, makes it hard to build an habit out of it, and makes it unsustainable
You have to build motivation, you have to be genuinely interested, you have to make your brain perceive the action/activity as beneficial, that’s the way to be “disciplined”