Eureka at 30k Feet

Comfort can free the brain. 

Nestled in my first-class seat and 20 minutes out from our landing in Denver, I finally put down my Pilot G2 1.0mm.

The pen’s deep blue ink has scrawled yet deeper truth into the 8.5x11 printer paper I carry everywhere in my pack:

Okay, I didn’t actually write QED — I’m not a complete douche. 

But it’s a mic-drop moment. At least for me – and apparently the guy sitting next to me who hasn’t said a word the whole flight. 

Guy: “Whoa. Did you just come up with that?” 
Me: “Uhh, yep. Sure did.” 
Guy: “Man, I need to write that down.” 

So I crumple up the paper and pass it to the flight attendant. 

Ascendance of Habits

(Okay, I jest on the last part.) 

Less than a year after I touched down in Denver and ended up doing vanishingly few things you do there while you’re dead, fellow SEAL Jocko Wilinck published the mega bestseller Discipline Equals Freedom (2017). 

Another year later: James Clear’s Atomic Habits goes viral (2018). 

Far from being jealous or feeling like I’d missed a wave, I was happy that the culture was taking all of this seriously. 

Since then the writing on habits and discipline has exploded. Not to mention grit. 

JFC. You can’t swing a stick on LinkedIn without whacking 5 resilience coaches. 

(When they complain, tell them to build comfort with discomfort and send them an invoice.)

BUT: Despite people knowing they need to build discipline, no one has done much writing on HOW to build discipline. 

Or even what it is. 🤷🏽‍♂️

The Difference Between Discipline and Habits

I need to update my scrawled equations above: Habits are not discipline. The two relate to each other, but they’re not the same thing. 

If one is disciplined, then they are likely to excel at building habits. 

The relationship goes the other way, too. If you build lots of habits, you are building an identity anchored by discipline. 

If there’s anything James Clear has demonstrated, it’s that habit-building is a process. He’s made it into a playbook that is almost scientific in its reliability.

Yet how many people have read Atomic Habits and are no different than they were before? I personally know a TON.  

This is because habits are at the task level. They are not the foundation. Most people’s foundations are WEAK. 

Habits are the hammer. Discipline is the muscle. 

Future newsletter posts will deal with how to strengthen the muscle, but I like the Charlie-Munger approach to start, i.e. inversion. 

Namely, the best way to be successful is to not do things that are inordinately likely to lead to failure.

📌 The Eight Assassins Who Kill Your Discipline

1️⃣ The Whisperer
His weapon of choice: self-doubt. The Whisperer thrives on shame. 

As Hollywood actor Brian Lafontaine of Ozark and Stranger Things said on my podcast, this assassin constantly whispers, “You suck at thissss. You’re not good enoughhhh.” 

🛡️ Protection: Affirmations, maintain a wins log, trust the process

___

2️⃣ The Trickster
This assassin always has an answer for everything you think. He convinces you to go against your best interests by appealing to your weaknesses. The Trickster excels in recruiting other assassins to his aid. 

Examples: 

• “You’re the exception. You’re so smart and efficient, that a 2-hour break this morning won’t hurt.” 

• “You deserve it.” (whatever “it” is) 

🛡️ Protection: Keep it simple, reduce priorities, focus

___

3️⃣ The Siren 

Short-term pleasure usually wins without significant effort. The Siren pulls us off course with lures like laziness, lust, unhealthy eating, retail therapy, and “productive procrastination.” With guilt in hand, the Siren seduces us into people-pleasing. Before long, we’ve forgotten ourselves.

Meanwhile, she sometimes pulls in a deep fog to obscure our long-term objective from view. When all we can see is what is right in front of us, we get bogged down in low-value tasks vs. high-leverage initiatives.

🛡️ Protection: Mindfulness, CBT, mantras, dopamine detox, careful tracking of daily plans vs. follow-through

___

4️⃣ The Daredevil 

The Daredevil craves battle and constant change.This assassin is alluring because he helps you thrive under pressure that crushes other mortals. He gets paid in full, though, when his victims attempt long-term projects where sustained effort is required (and usually becomes boring). 

The best explanation I can give is the quote from Tom Sizemore’s character in the movie Heat: 

For military readers, this is related to so-called “operator syndrome.” 

Note: The Daredevil has an assistant that I call The Banshee. Her keening is so loud, constant, and variable that it’s like a DDOS attack on your brain. The Banshee’s victim can’t function because they have so many thoughts and ideas. It’s what I call “brain on fire” syndrome. 

🛡️ Protection: Counseling, mindfulness, breathwork, support network

___

5️⃣ The Spider

Ever feel stuck in the same patterns for years? Caught? Trapped by inertia? That’s the Spider at work. 

Napoleon Hill refers to this natural tendency as “drift” in his outstanding – yet less popular – book, Outwitting the Devil. 

🛡️ Protection: Physical movement, travel, accountability buddy, help from a coach, journaling based on powerful prompts 

___

6️⃣ The Sandman

The Sandman is at play when you get caught fantasizing about the future and how smooth the path will be to get there. Dreamers are easy prey. Their visions are so vivid and satisfying that they are far preferable to the demands of the disciplined life. 

In a similar way, creative types often generate a vision of the future that is unfeasible in the real world (or at least ROI inefficient). This can create endless roadblocks to doing the work (consistent + methodical) — i.e., with discipline.

🛡️ Protection: Anything that (a) places the reality of your actual situation in your face and/or (b) reinforces the value of slow, imperfect effort (read: learning and the so-called accumulation of marginal gains). 

___

7️⃣ The Viper

Venomous snakes can strike 3x faster than you can blink. Process that. 

The Viper poisons you with comparisons to others. You become jealous, resentful, defeated.

Note: The viper sometimes brings along her friend the Witch Doctor, given the latter’s predilection for voodoo on one’s enemies. 

🛡️ Protection: Gratitude, fulfilling relationships, enjoyment of experiences over things, journaling 

___

8️⃣ The Hypnotist 

High performers often think they can do it alone. The Hypnotist preys on this delusion, isolating you in a trance of self-reliance. You venture on without a coach, without a peer group, without benchmarks, and without accountability. 

This is one of the most dangerous assassins because he uses a mountain of evidence of your abilities against you. After all, if you made it this far, what’s stopping you? 

You. That’s what. 

Egotism is the softest coffin — with the tightest seal. 

🛡️ Protection: Humility, teams, coaches, maintaining curiosity, 360-degree feedback, radical compassion

___

The Eight Assassins are everywhere.

Stay sharp, gang.

❤️ Andrew

Coda

Outro 

This week’s framework reminds me of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, which I may co-opt as solutions against the Eight Assassins in future editions. 

Anyone who was sentient when this song came out will remember the Kurosawa reference. I know LeAnn Rimes does. 

Cheers

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