DISCIPLINE
SUCCESS THROUGH DISCIPLINE
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When applied correctly, discipline will change your entire life; your business, career, fitness, health, relationships… all of it! As a matter of fact, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people who failed at anything say, “I should have been more disciplined.”
Personally speaking, discipline was the one quality I developed that helped me change the trajectory of my own life. Coming from poverty, removed from my home because of an alcoholic, violent father, growing up in abusive foster homes, hitting the streets of New York City in the mid-seventies as a fourteen year old, addicted to drugs, getting incarcerated and of course continuously self-sabotaging every opportunity that came my way because I played the victim. I knew in my heart I had to change or I’d continue to live a life of addiction, incarceration and ultimately… early death.
I’ve lived as a monk for years, recorded albums, written multiple books, produced a documentary film, finished twelve Ironman triathlons, toured the planet with my band, engaged in philanthropic endeavors, opened and maintained a yoga studio that gave free yoga classes for ten years, and fed the homeless . I've spoken to packed crowds across the globe as well as prisons, gang high schools and drug rehabilitation programs. None of that success would have been possible had I not worked hard and stayed disciplined.
John crossing the finish line at Kona Ironman World Championship. 2016.
Let me tell you about just one instance. In 1984 I was living in an abandoned building in Alphabet City, East 9th between avenues C&D. At that time it was a very dangerous neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Dangerous drug gangs, murders and robberies, were an everyday occurrence. I had just left the monk life after two years and started singing again with my band “The Cro-Mags”. The apartment I lived in had no windows, no electricity and no running water. I taped garbage bags over the windows, wrote lyrics by candlelight, worked out like a beast, practiced martial arts and took showers in the freezing cold at an open fire hydrant in front of our squat. Then I’d get on my bike and messenger for 10 hours a day, flying up and down NYC’s streets through crazy traffic because I paid for Cro-Mag rehearsals which I attended after work. I also paid for our first demo tape “The Age of Quarrel”. That hard work paid off and we started gigging, developing a huge fan base. Even Metallica came to see us play!
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Now, if I wasn’t so disciplined in my life do you think any of that would have manifested? Of course not. It’s the same with writing, Ironmans or any other endeavor I've taken up. Discipline is at the core.
That’s why I call myself a “Discipline Coach”- not a “Life Coach.” In fact, I hate the term “Life Coach”. Why? Because no one can coach you to change your life, you have to do that, and the first weapon in your arsenal is discipline.
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Not to mention for the most part, the “Life Coach” space has been filled with corny new age people who took some course and were never challenged to the core of their being. Do you think the hardened criminals I spoke to in prisons, or the gang members, drug addicts or high level athletes and military people would have listened to me if I walked in talking about changing their auras and chakras? Hell no! They listened because I’ve walked in their shoes, battled my demons and through discipline and action – cut the head off the serpent of doubt and gone on to have success in many areas of life.
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