The Pain of Discipline Vs. The Pain of Regret with Brian Mazza

This message comes from Brian Mazza, the founder of High Performance Lifestyle Training.

“The get it done mentality. Last night my childhood buddy shot me a text - ‘Want to get in 10 miles before the kids wake up?’ I knew I needed to make a decision and choose between the pain of discipline and the pain of regret.  4:30 am never looked so great! Once you start earning your self-respect you will start choosing the path of discipline and enjoy it. Nothing changes if nothing changes.”

Brian Mazza positioned this story in an interesting way. Either way, he was going to experience something negative and was choosing between two evils. If he does the workout, he is up early and setting himself up for a long and exhausting day. If he sleeps in, then he spends the rest of his day justifying the decision and trying to rationalize why it was okay.  

He is in the top .01% when it comes to drive and productivity, which isn’t a fair point of comparison, so let’s create a more relatable example. Do you go through the effort to get groceries and eat healthy, or order take out and rationalize your health? Do you avoid getting involved in that chat thread at work, or get distracted and feel rushed to make up for lost time?

Discipline exists in every decision we make, and it’s important that we choose discipline over regret as often as we can. When you take the easy way out, the only person you’re cheating is yourself.