Discipline Equals Freedom

Discipline Equals Freedom.

For those of you that listen to podcasts, watch Ted Talks, are all over Twitter and other social media, these 3 words may not be new to you. I have been hearing them often and also, trying to follow them, as closely as I can. The man who made these 3 words famous is Jocko Willink. A guest who was on The Tim Ferriss Show Podcast (The most downloaded Podcaster in history with over 200 Million Downloads), then Joe Rogan and then Jocko started his own Podcast after encouragement from the former men. An ex Navy Seal with serial killer looks (as he describes himself), Jocko has written books and dedicates his podcasts to leadership, becoming better every day and “Getting After It”.

His Podcasts are not for everyone, he talks about war and how it effects human nature, the darkness of war and the light of the good in the world. He offers advice to subscribers who write in with questions and the advice is clear, concise and actionable. Often, he speaks about taking ownership (He Co-Wrote a book called Extreme Ownership) of what is happening in your life, be it health, work, relationships and looking at what you need to admit to in these areas. His advice is often simple, brilliant and to the point. You want to get up earlier? Get up earlier! Want to get stronger? Lift weights and get stronger… By having the discipline to doing things like getting up earlier, not eating the donuts, becoming stronger, faster, smarter, Jocko equates all of this to becoming more free in your life. If you have the discipline to read a book, study a new course, learn a new language, then you will have freedom to do other things in your life, without any guilt of, oh I should be doing my study, because you would have already done it.

Discipline is the root to all good things. Eating the right foods to fuel yourself. Discipline to controlling your ego, so your ego doesn’t control you.

If you want to be able to take your dog to a cafe with you, or to the park, beach or anywhere else where there are people, other animals or high traffic areas, we also need to be teaching, and using discipline. In regards to our dogs, does your dog have the discipline to drop when you tell it to, and actually not move when the waiter brings your dinner over and puts it on the table in front of you. Does your dog have the discipline to not move from a position when kids are kicking a ball, or when a rabbit runs past or, in the case of Fenton, not chasing hundreds of deer through Hyde Park (Very funny youtube clip if you haven’t seen it). If the answer is no, then you must have the discipline to not put your dog in these situations where they can make bad mistakes that endanger them or others. Your dog can not refrain from chasing ducks into a pond,? have it on lead. Your dog feels it “has to” smell every plate of food that a waiter puts on your table? They need to understand the drop position better. Someone is throwing a ball for their dog at the park and your dog decides to chase it and blow you off and not recall? More discipline. In this, we are not saying that discipline equals punishment, we are saying the dog needs to be more disciplined to not do it. How you achieve that is for another day, another blog.

If our dogs have the discipline to do what we ask them to do, first time, every time, look at the life they can lead. We could take them wherever we want. To a friends for a BBQ, local shops, sports events, cafes, beaches, parks, festivals and more. If they have the discipline to be well behaved and socially acceptable, they get freedom! True freedom. That saying of, it’s a dogs life, here they really are, man’s best friend.

Don’t give in to the short term desire of letting your dog run free, when YOU haven’t had the discipline to teach them what you actually want them to do. Don’t give in to the desire, of letting your dog off lead in an on lead area before you get to the dog park. You yourself need to be disciplined to obey the laws around owning your dog. When in an “On Lead Area”, keep your dog on lead. Don’t be weak willed and let them off, be disciplined. Remember, other dogs aren’t always comfortable with having your friendly dog rush up to them to say hello. We have some amazing open areas for off lead activities with our dogs. Use these for your Off Lead times. Also remember, in these Off lead areas, dogs still need to be under effective control. This means they should still have the discipline to recall to you, even if they are running around with their minds focused on other things. Do you want your dog to have freedom?  Discipline Equals Freedom.

So now, it is all up to you. Do you have the discipline to help your dog, to help yourself? These now need to meet, to marry, and to live side by side. How does this look? Like Rome. It isn’t built in one day, or a week, but through having the discipline to train each day, at different times each day, in a new environment, to go back to basics, to push the envelope, to wake up early, to not press snooze, to eat better, to learn something new, to be stronger, faster, smarter. Be disciplined. Train with others, get them to meet you for training sessions. If they can’t make it, be disciplined to train anyway.

Thank you to Jocko Willink for teaching how Discipline Equals Freedom.

Check out Jocko Podcast if you would like to hear more Jocko goodness.

Now, go and get after it…

Much Love,

Brentos