Most of us have heard stories of how serving in the army makes for an amazing discipline in a person. It seems to be true for most of the world's armies, even the ones that reportedly don't do much active training: a rebel goes in - a confident and purposeful young person goes out.
It's easy to understand the direct reason: the army pushes a recruit through a series of very hard challenges, which apparently break the recruit's spirit, breaking them off of their old mindless habits and allowing spirit to reform under a new paradigm, which includes, among others and in layman's terms, a concept of "whole-assing the thing you deem worthy doing". This is achieved through severe pressure from officers, who take it as their job to punish the soldiers enough to allow for paradigm shift.
Is it possible to achieve the same level of discipline alone, without such a hard pressure from outside? If so, how does one achieve that? Good discipline is without a doubt a desirable trait to achieve.
As someone who has been through basic training, I don't think of it as something that is done to someone. The recruit is still an active participant in it. I've seen many people wash out because they didn't realize that the military doesn't create that "whole-assing" spirit in you, but gives you the environment to create it in yourself. This bodes well for the idea that one can "do it alone". However, I don't think you actually can. It's natural to reach periods where one can't find the motivation to go on and the temptation will be to give up. Unless you already have the dedication you're trying to create, it's very likely that you won't make it through those periods. This is where I don't think anyone can do this alone. People need someone to drag them through these periods. That's the function that basic training serves: it makes it very hard to give up. In the end, I think it is possible to create that drive without joining the military. I don't think it's possible to do it alone. Hopefully, you can find someone to help, someone who will help push you through the low motivation periods and keep you going.
You make a very good point about environments. Being in an environment where you perceive tasks as absolutely crucial can lead to higher discipline in order to accomplish them in my opinion. I’m not sure if it still counts as achieving discipline on one’s own, but making yourself perceive difficult tasks as absolutely necessary or putting yourself in an environment where those tasks are your responsibility might be a pragmatic way to go about that goal.
So, the point is to have an environment within which achievement and discipline are common practices. Once a person enters such environment, this whole process should come easily. It seems natural now that I think of it, for I heard quite a bit about surrounding yourself with people who smile sincerely and get things done if you want to do the same. Thank you. Could you describe how basic training goes? How is the atmosphere of spirit-crafting created?
Basic training is a shock at first. Then one either acclimates to it or drops out, but eventually it becomes routine. The shock period is where most of the spirit-crafting happens. I spent quite a lot of time in my head pondering questions like "Why the fuck did I sign up for this?" I had to earnestly come up with an answer to it every day. Eventually, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for motivation. I realized that having doubts about motivation and the end-goal is not, in itself, a reason to stop or try less hard. This had the effect of making me more focused on the task at hand instead of my own uncertainties. The atmosphere is created by making very simple things seem very unpleasant and making quitting seem very easy. Basic training only covers very simple things: mainly marching, shooting, and keeping things neat and clean. Learning these things is made to be far more stressful than it has to be. All the while quitting seems like a totally achievable option. (It's not.) This forces one to evaluate their motivations.
A nice "cheat": You need to find your own motivation, the reason why you are pulling through shouldn't be the drill sergeant yelling at you, but your passion automagically pushing you onward. Of course not everyone can make a career out of their field(s) of passion - but if you want to archive high self-discipline, that's probably an easy way out. Moreover, surround yourself with like-minded people - they won't actively motivate you, but you will get dragged along to a certain degree. Best of luck!
I don't think that it is possible to do anything alone on this planet. It is perceptions misgiving reality. Our collectivity, be it on purpose or left to circumstance, is real and unavoidable. I find solace and strength in our captivity. commune naufragium omnibus est consolatio a shipwreck that is common to all is consolation. We need discipline just as you need it. We need it together for insulation not isolation.
Possible? Yes, I think so. It would just take an incredible inner strength to keep at something when the results aren't necessarily tangible or immediately recognizable to you. I'm sure that if you went off into the mountains or something and taught yourself how to be disciplined, then people would notice. You may have a hard time, because you underwent the transformation and therefore the effects of the change were gradual for you.
The Army works because you have a team that is all about accomplishing the same task. Run over here, go pick up these rocks, everyone dig a hole, etc. You get instant positive or negative reinforcement based on your performance. Sometimes, they use negative reinforcement anyway because they want a soldier that is going to obey an order, even if it sucks. The recruits also have the drill instructors there to keep them on task, to push them and motivate them when things are rough. As a person who would be going for it alone, you have to be completely self-motivated to accomplish your goal.
I don't have a definite solution for you, but perhaps writing down your goal and any progress you made towards it would serve as a reminder of your accomplishments and possibly motivate you when things seem to be overwhelming.
My sister joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school and is very disciplined. I once commented to her that I'd considered joining up as well to help myself become more disciplined. Her response was that the training had nothing to do with it. There were plenty of her fellow Marines that would still be total slobs, left to their own devices and that she knew plenty of people with no military background who were just as disciplined as she is. Partly, you get out what you put into it, it takes some amount of desire and will. But partly too, it depends on who you are and the environment you were shaped in at a much younger age.
I think that doing it on one's own is the only way to achieve discipline. What is the point of self-discipline and self-improvement if you are doing it for anyone else but yourself? The idea of being able to go into a program where someone turns you into a better person is very attractive, but that is not realistic. It is not easy, and no one else could ever do it for you. Think about high school. Did you put in all of your effort and become a highly disciplined person just because you were expected to get passing grades? I don't think that anyone will ever make true, lasting changes to their life unless they are doing it for themselves, and not because of outside pressure. And what if you had a significant amount of outside help in achieving these goals? What would you do if that source of help were to leave you? It needs to come from within in order for it to be a true life change. That being said, achieving discipline on your own does not have to be a solitary activity, shut off from the rest of the world. Outside support from people you trust is not only helpful, but will provide you with an outside observer who can help you mark your progress. But no, I don't think that these outside forces will or should be the motivating factor in your self-improvement goals.
"On one's own" and "for oneself" are different fields, and I'm not touching upon the latter. Yours and BumpinGumps' views seem to collide. Shall we extract Higgs bosons from it?