What do you want to accomplish?

E+R=O is a great system for driving disciplined action. It’s an even better tool for improving perspective because while it can’t force you into better behavior, it can force you to see a new view.

People tend to think E+R=O begins with choosing good responses rather than reacting to events. Obviously, that is crucial. But E+R=O always begins with how you see situations before how you respond to them.

The quality of your response (E+R=O) does not begin with the response you choose. Nor does it begin with how you think about responding.

Most of our struggles with discipline are mental and emotional rather than practical. We know what to do, or not do, and it is well within our power to act on what we know. Struggles with discipline are battles with feelings, preferences, and priorities.

Discipline services two primary functions:

People get persuaded by emotion, not reason. Logic does not move people. Logic does not change minds. Logic does not drive action. Emotion does.

E+R=O is a great system for driving disciplined action. It’s an even better tool for improving perspective because while it can’t force you into better behavior, it can force you to see a new view.

People tend to think E+R=O begins with choosing good responses rather than reacting to events. Obviously, that is crucial. But E+R=O always begins with how you see situations before how you respond to them.

The quality of your response (E+R=O) does not begin with the response you choose. Nor does it begin with how you think about responding.

Your discipline isn't waiting on better conditions—it's waiting on better stories. So, let's tell a true story.

Every act of discipline—and every resistance to it—begins with a story. Not someone else's story. Yours. Discipline doesn’t fail because of external obstacles. It lives or dies based on the stories you attach to it.

Now that we’ve clarified discipline’s primary function (to drive or restrain action—to do or not do something), it’s time to consider it in relationship to discipline’s secondary duties.