If you look at the dates of my published articles, you may have noticed something:
I post every day.
Almost.
Why?
Momentum.
There’s something powerful about showing up every day and doing the work whether you feel like it or not.
Steven Pressfield talks about this in his classic book The War of Art. If I had to summarize the entire book in one sentence, it would be:
Win the battle of writing every day—even when you don’t want to—and eventually the art will follow.
Makes sense to me.
But my attention goes directly to one word:
Want.
Desire is powerful. It gets us moving and gives us something to pursue. But taken too far, it can become poison. You become so obsessed with what you’re supposed to accomplish that you stop listening to yourself.
And sometimes your gut is trying to tell you something.
That’s why I publish almost every day.
It isn’t a discipline problem. I have plenty of that. Check out my physique in my OMAD article if you need proof.
But I’ve realized something:
Discipline can sometimes get in the way of beauty.
Discipline is structure. Routine. Black and white.
Gut instinct is different. It’s fluid. Spontaneous. Full color.
You need both.
Too little discipline and you become the guy who spends his entire life waiting to “feel inspired” while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Too much discipline and you become a robot blindly following rules you created for a version of yourself who existed yesterday.
That’s where instinct comes in.
Sometimes the schedule says WORK, but something inside you says REST.
Listen.
Sometimes the schedule says REST, but an idea grabs you by the balls and demands to be created.
Listen to that too.
The goal isn’t perfect discipline.
The goal is harmony.
Structure strong enough to keep you moving, with enough flexibility to recognize when breaking your own rules might produce something better.
Don’t become so obsessed with discipline that you destroy the art. And don’t become so obsessed with art that you destroy your discipline.
Know when to use each.
Funny enough, I wasn’t even supposed to write this article today.
I’d planned to take the day off from writing so I could give some extra attention to my fitness and ________.
But then my gut told me to write.
So here we are.
I broke the rule.
And maybe that’s exactly why this article exists.
— Uncle Blayde
P.S. Now I’m going to the gym and doing ________. The art got its turn. Now discipline gets hers.