#20: How Discipline and Structure Unlocks Your Fitness Potential

Creating lasting freedom through habit building, and using psychology to unlock your fitness potential.

Mar 09, 2025

Introduction

Discipline and structure can be viewed as limitations by some people, maybe most—restrictions that confine our choices and dampen spontaneity. I do not disagree, but when it comes to fitness and health, I have seen a paradox emerge: the more discipline and structure you introduce to your health journey, the more freedom you ultimately experience—both today and, crucially, a decade and beyond from now.

I’m not about to get philosophical with this counterintuitive paradox—it's actually quite practical. Here’s why.

When I look at why so many fitness journeys fail, two hurdles emerge:

Going. The challenge of consistently showing up.
Knowing. The mental burden of figuring out what to do once you're there.

The "Going" Problem

The first and often most formidable barrier to fitness success is simply showing up. How many times have you set an intention to start going to the gym and exercising regularly, only to find yourself making excuses when the moment arrives?

This is where disciplined habits create freedom. And here's the beautiful thing about this challenge: it's temporary. While the "going" problem feels like an endless battle at first, it's actually a short-term obstacle.

Once your habits solidify, showing up becomes automatic—the mental struggle disappears almost entirely.

In his "Atomic Habits," James Clear explains that successful habit formation isn't about motivation or willpower—it's about creating systems that make the desired behavior inevitable. By establishing cues, routines, and rewards, we can transform the daunting decision of "Should I go to the gym today?" into an automatic behavior that requires little mental effort.

Making the Decision Once

When you pre-commit to specific workout days and times, you're essentially making the decision to exercise just once—rather than fighting the same mental battle every single day. This decision economy frees up tremendous mental bandwidth.

The initial discipline required to establish this habit is front-loaded—it's hardest in the beginning and gets progressively easier with consistency. Research suggests that while the popular "21 days to form a habit" claim is oversimplified, most people do reach habit automaticity within 2-8 weeks of consistent practice. The effort you invest now creates behavioral momentum that carries you forward with increasingly less resistance.

Since re-entering the corporate world and starting a full-time job after graduate school, I have had to reset and re-establish the disciplined routine I had in 2022. Fortunately, my remote job in tech gives me significantly more flexibility than my pre-MBA consulting career, but it still took some time to get into the rhythm of the following routine and make it a habit:

6am: Morning alarm goes off — this also means being in bed by 10pm on weeknights is a non-negotiable
6:30am-8:15am: Log on to address personal work admin, any tasks from West Coast leadership that appeared overnight, or use as quiet focus hours
8:30am-10am: First training session of the day

Identity-Based Habits

Clear emphasizes that the most powerful habits stem from identity changes. When I began to see myself as "someone who doesn’t miss a scheduled workout" rather than "someone trying to exercise more," showing up becomes a matter of personal integrity rather than a chore.

Practical Strategies for Building the "Going" Habit:

Habit stacking: Attach your workout to an existing habit (e.g., "After I have my morning coffee and Go Bar, I'll change into my workout clothes")
Implementation intentions: Create specific plans using the formula "I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]"
Environment design: Reduce friction between you and exercise (packing your gym bag the night before)
The 2-minute rule: Commit to just starting the habit for two minutes to overcome initial resistance

The "Knowing" Problem: Where Structure Creates Freedom

Even after conquering the "going" challenge, many people find themselves wandering aimlessly at the gym, unsure of what exercises to do, how many sets and reps to perform, or how to progress over time. This uncertainty not only wastes time but also diminishes results and increases the likelihood of quitting.

This is where structured programming creates freedom.

The Decision Fatigue Factor

Decision fatigue is a psychological phenomenon where the quality of decisions deteriorates after a long session of decision-making. By the time many people get to the gym, whether it’s before a day of work when they’re thinking of the day they have head, or after a day of work when they've already made hundreds of decisions. The last thing their brains want is to make dozens more about their workout.

A structured program eliminates this mental burden. When your exercises, sets, reps, rest periods, and progression scheme are predetermined, you free up mental energy to focus on execution and intensity.

For a long time (like, years), I didn’t think I needed to follow a program. But I started a hybrid athlete program about 15 months ago, and the impact it has made on my training has been substantial. I used to spend hours brainstorming and writing my own workouts, and as much as I enjoyed learning the science behind different training regimens and workout structures, there came a point when the amount of burden it added to my weekly schedule outweighed the benefits.

The Paradox of Choice

Psychologist Barry Schwartz's "Paradox of Choice" suggests that while we think having more options makes us happier, it often leads to anxiety and dissatisfaction. The nearly infinite exercise options available can paralyze rather than empower.

A well-designed program narrows your focus to the movements that will most efficiently reach your goals. This constraint, rather than limiting your results, actually accelerates them by ensuring consistent progressive overload.

The Benefits of Structured Programming:

Mental clarity: Your only job is execution, not creation
Better progressive overload: Systematic progression leads to better results
Balanced development: Prevents overtraining some areas while neglecting others
Time efficiency: Eliminates aimless wandering and "exercise menu" scrolling

The Short Pain, Long Gain: Investing in Your Future Freedom

This temporary nature of the "going" struggle reveals a powerful truth about discipline: the pain is short-term, but the gain is long-term. The disciplined phase—where willpower is required—is brief compared to the extended period of automatic behavior and compounding benefits that follow.

One of the most profound aspects of fitness discipline is its compound effect over time. Like financial investments that grow through compound interest, the small, consistent choices you make today create exponentially greater freedom in the decades to come.

This long-term perspective transforms how we view the temporary discomfort of discipline. That early morning alarm or challenging workout isn't just about today's health—it's a deposit into your future freedom account. Every workout is buying options for your future self.

Think about the 10-year return on your fitness investment:

The freedom to remain active while others become sedentary
The freedom from preventable medications and medical procedures
The freedom to take spontaneous physical adventures without worrying if your body can handle it
The freedom of independence in your later years

The discipline that might feel constraining today is actually expanding your future possibilities. Each structured workout is not just changing your body—it's changing the trajectory of your life's options.

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