An Ounce of Discipline vs. a Ton of Regret

I heard this quote in a Jim Rohn audiobook this morning and it hit me pretty hard:

“An ounce of discipline weighs less than a ton of regret.”

On one hand, I write a list of tasks to accomplish and I knock them out. I do this seven days a week. But there’s still a part of me that knows I’m leaving things on the table. I’m not a “hustle culture” kind of dude, but I have a lot I want to get done in the short time I have on this planet.

An ounce of discipline can simply mean chipping away at your goals. You don’t have to grind yourself into the ground; in a lot of cases, that’s unproductive. The question is: how do you use discipline to make real progress?

Focus on what you put into the hours rather than how many hours you put in.

What tasks move the needle the most? That’s where the ounce of discipline should go.

— Bus