How do I reconcile being a disciplined person with living an interesting life?

Question: “In my teenage years I developed a strong aversion towards being disciplined, and felt that this was boring. I am now 29, and know I need discipline (a certain routine in my life) to progress in my career. But I can’t reconcile this with my desire to be interesting.”
Answer:
It’s really simple (though it might not feel easy at first) :

Change your interpretation of what disciplined means.

Think about some people you admire – perhaps successful musicians, sports or business people.
Do you think they are boring?
Do you think they achieved what they’ve achieved without a fairly high level of discipline?
So you can probably see that your interpretation, discipline = boring, is not always true.
And it definitely doesn’t have to be true when it comes to you.

Take a few moments to think about what you want to achieve that would make you even more interesting than you are now, and then think about what it will take to get there.

You’ll notice there is a gap.
The quickest and most effective way to bridge that gap is with a structured, disciplined approach.
So in this version, discipline = even more interesting.
Have fun and be interesting!

(This my answer to a question asked on Quora)

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