How To Lose Weight With [Almost] ZERO Discipline

Discipline. Without it, losing weight is hard and not as sustainable as it possibly could be.

In the last post you’ve learned how to improve your discipline. But what if I told you that there’s another strategy, to almost ‘hack’ one’s discipline levels?

Your friends and colleagues will think that you’re incredibly disciplined – but in reality – you just have learned and implemented a simple, straightforward hack.

Very few people are aware of that hack. And that is:

1. The Art Of Your Environment

I call this ‘engineering optimal conditions’.

Similar to a biologist in a petri dish, we want to create an environment that is conducive to the habits that we’re looking to build:

designing an optimal petri dish

The biologist engineers a petri dish to build the exact cell culture he wants, by providing the environment that is conducive to that result.

  • The right nutrients
  • The right temperature conditions
  • The right bacteria culture

I’m not a biologist, but I think you get the point.

If we’re looking to have a sustainable lifestyle change, we have to engineer our environment in the same way.

An ideal weight loss environment makes good habits easy. And bad habits hard.

Smart people have followed that rule over and over again in the past:

  • Thomas Edison lived in Menlo Park. An area outside the bustle of New York. He did so to guarantee that he would not be distracted.
  • Steve Jobs lived, for the beginning of his career, in an almost unfurnished house. He did so because he only wanted to surround himself with perfection.

2. The Hack To Discipline

Think about a perfectly engineered environment for weight loss. What comes top of mind?

An ‘optimal petri dish’ for weight loss would entail:

  • No junk food or alcohol at home
  • A smart, pre-planned workout routine that fits to your schedule
  • A smart, pre-planned nutrition routine that fits to your schedule
  • A gym in close vicinity (or some equipment at home)
  • A supportive partner
  • Having a fit social environment

The list could go on and on, but I think the principles should be clear.

Remove friction from good habits. Add friction to bad habits.

3. Small Downside – Long Upside

Engineering one’s environment is what I’d call an asymmetry:

For a very quick upfront cost of discipline, it has a very long upside of facilitating optimal behaviour.

You make a decision ONCE, and then reap habits of it for a lifetime.

Instead of relying on the ever fluctuating levels of self discipline, an optimal environment provides a steady benefit of frictionless behaviour design.

Me personally? My discipline is barely a 7/10. This is enough to run a successful business and be in fantastic shape. Why?

Because my environment is engineered for optimal performance. I’ve made a lot of decisions in the past, that now facilitate my high-performance behaviour.