The Secret to Discipline is Found on a $100 Bill

On the front of a one hundred dollar bill, you will see a somewhat goofy looking man named Benjamin Franklin. Despite not becoming President, this man was like Hamilton in that his influence on American society is profound. The Boston born founding father worked a variety of jobs in his life, starting off in a trade as a printer, writing books like Poor Richard’s Almanack, negotiating political affairs in Europe, and, of course, helping to create the foundation of the United States of America. But behind all the flash of his inventions and his talent for negotiation, Franklin was a deeply disciplined man. He did not just work hard; he developed systems to help him work hard.

There is a common quote repeated when it comes to changing habits by James Clear, which says, “you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” This begs the question, then, of how effective our systems actually are. If our systems are designed to keep us disciplined, we will probably stay disciplined. If they are designed for convenience, relaxation, or entertainment, then we will do those things. The systems and environment we create for ourselves are almost more important than the actual goals we create, because they often decide for us what behaviors we do on a regular basis. Benjamin Franklin is a shining example of this very idea and provides three ways to stay more disciplined

1. Have a vision.

From his extensive writing and journals, we know that Franklin identified 13 key virtues that he believed would lead to a good life. Some of these feel more action-oriented, such as industry: “Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.” Others are practical but have more to do with embodying the virtue in daily life, such as tranquility: “Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.” Either way, the point is that he had something to aim for, he wasn’t just writing down a random goal and doing so with little motivation to achieve it. These were well though out, personal goals that he wanted to aspire to in his personal and professional life. If we are going to be disciplined, part of that starts with the vision of who we see ourselves becoming. What kind of person do we want to become, and what virtues embody that person?

2. Schedule your priorities.

A few years ago I actually read Franklin’s autobiography, which remains one of the most read autobiographies of all time, and besides some old English that was tough to understand, I really enjoyed it. One of the sections that stuck out is a page that many people reference, which is his daily schedule. I’ll link a picture about it if you want to see it, but the key takeaway is not the schedule or even that he followed it his entire life (which I’m sure he didn’t). The key takeaway is that he scheduled his priorities. He used his vision to create a life he needed and wanted to follow, with timestamps to focus on himself, work, and even sleep.

If we want to achieve the vision we set out for ourselves, we can’t sit back and expect it to happen. We have to schedule our priorities, or else other people’s priorities will find their way into our schedule. To repeat a quote I’ve shared from Dr. Michael Brown, “If you don’t prioritize your life, your entire life feels like a priority.” In other words, we need to schedule in the things that are most important to us, or we will go through life feeling like everything is important. We will get caught up in what other people want of us, what work we need to do during 9-5, or get lost in the translation of what is important in the first place.

3. Focus on one improvement at a time.

Those 13 virtues that Franklin sought to embody are wonderful goals, but anyone practical knows that you aren’t going to get very far focusing on 13 things at once. This is why he developed a system for these virtues, where every week he would focus on one virtue at a time, while maintaining the virtue of the week before. For many years, Franklin shuffled between these virtues, one week at a time, to ensure he hit them all and spent considerable time living in them. He made his life a compounding discipline so that every habit stacked on top of another one.

We all have different areas of our lives we want to focus on. Maybe we want to become kinder in our speech, more patient in our actions, or more frugal in our spending. Whatever it is, doing it all at once is more than likely a recipe for failure, while keen observation of one discipline at a time is a recipe for success.

If you look at modern times and through the pages of history, you will find endless examples of people who exercised discipline to achieve a life they wanted to live. Without discipline, our lives have no order – no sense of a rigid direction for the present time. The book of Proverbs says, “He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own folly.” If we want our lives to stay on the path, we need to exercise discipline. Like Benjamin Franklin, an easy way to do that is to have a vision, schedule our priorities, and focus on one improvement at a time. If we do, we will develop a system for success.