Discipline is taking care of your future self over your current self.

I recently heard this quote.

I don’t suppose it’s a literally accurate “definition”, but it’s an interesting thought. And it’s definitely something we should often do more of.

In both my personal and professional life, I find there’s a constant struggle between my current self, and my future self. Or as Jerry Seinfeld says, “Night Guy” and “Morning Guy”.

Current self wants to eat more ice cream. Future self is struggling to loose weight.

Current self wants to splurge on a new phone. Future self can’t save any money.

Current self wants to bang out a quick bash script to get the job done. Future self can’t debug the thing to save his life.

Current self just pulls in a new dependency. Future self has dockerfiles that take 49 minutes to build for every pipeline run.

Current self ignores awkward conversations with the boss. Future self is disappointed by a poor performance review.