Survival is the first endeavor to master in the game of life.

Survival needs forms the basis of human experience.

The foundation for your life depends greatly on the degree to which your basic needs are supported.

The reason people strive to make more money is so they can have more resources to cover their basic need structure.

You must transcend your basic needs to the point where they are no longer addictions that limit your decisions.

Breatharians have evolved their psyches to the point where they no longer depend on food.

Homesteaders have created their own way of living that supports their basic need structures.

Look at the circumstances in your life now and find where you are able to create assets that support your basic needs and destroy addictions that keep you in the loophole of materialistic pursuit.

Transcending Material Needs

Challenge yourself to discover how addicted you are to materialistic desires.

Fast from food, sex, modern comforts, and even water.

Fasting is the ultimate spiritual endeavor.

It teaches you the discipline needed to transcend material desires.

Many of our problems arise from the addictions we have to external stimulus.

We must learn to sit alone with ourselves in boredom, and find peace there.

This is the ultimate skill.

Self-Mastery (An Antidote To Suffering)

Discipline is a skill.

It is a form of self-love.

An endeavor to achieve true freedom.

Once you have mastered your vessel, it becomes impossible to impose suffering onto yourself and others. Because you have control.

Control over primal urges and material desires.

This is what sets the zombies apart from the awakened.

The degree to which you have mastered your self.

How To Cultivate Discipline

Think of discipline as the cornerstone to your habits.

Its a value that forms part of your identity.

I would say that it takes 2 months to make discipline an integral part of your life.

Here are 3 tips you can include into your life to cultivate discipline:

1. Isolate from stimulating environments.

Environments where bad habits are normal, creates temptation.

If discipline is not a fundamental part of your value system, you are sure to fail breaking addictive habits in these sorts of environments.

Give yourself the space to retreat. Look inward.

Fix your home. Start decluttering your personal space.

Build new habits at home. Break the contact from people that indulge in behaviors you want to stay away from.

2. Study the outcomes of your bad habits and replace them with good habits.

Many of you might know about dopamine.

This neurochemical is responsible for driving our behavior.

It is responsible for drive and motivation.

Bad habits like smoking, drinking, drug abuse, all stimulate great amounts of dopamine.

Cocaine is said to stimulate your dopamine up to 2.5 times above baseline and drops by the same amount allowing you to feel depressed and depleted. The addiction starts when you take the drug again to save you from that depression. Leading to an even further reduction in baseline levels of dopamine.

So for someone who struggles with a cocaine addiction, they should look for activities that are good and stimulate a similar amount of dopamine. Cold plunges are the best way to stimulate high amounts of dopamine. It is great for your muscles, immune system, and overall mood.

For a smoker it will be different. Smokers are addicted to not only the dopamine induced by nicotine but also the crispy feeling in their throats and the strong feeling in their lungs after smoking. They might want to replace this behavior with something like breathwork or jogging because these behaviors give off healthy dopamine but also because they induce the same type of expansive strong feeling in the lungs.

So really take the time to study your bad habits and find an appropriate counter in the form of a good habit.

3. Reflect daily

Treat this endeavor as an experiment on yourself.

This experiment is aiming to increase the quality of your life.

Reflect daily on how you feel and what your current thought process is.

It is important that you really stay committed to this. Your documentation of this in the form of writing is a testimonial to how certain behaviors make you feel.

The simple act of writing down how you feel engrains it into your mind so it stays there for remembering when you have the temptation to do it again.

It acts as a testimonial for your bad and good habits. Reminding you of what feels good and what feels bad.

Once you have cultivated a strong sense of discipline, you will be able to navigate live much more freely and transcend the material limitations that keep you from reaching your potential.