In my opinion, being brutally honest with yourself allows you to assess yourself/your environment faster, clearer, take the initiative with minimal delay, and ascertain whether your ideals/actions/strategy are effective or ineffective.  

There are few weapons as powerful as simply being honest with yourself.  

If weakness bests me, then it’s shown its hand.  I can use what I’ve learned to scheme and plot, and be smarter and more efficient during the next battle.  I’m doing my best when I’m seeking to arm myself through victory, lessons learned, or the desire for vengeance. 

If nothing else, I can always take advantage of those last two weapons.

Life is unfair, the environment is often against us, and there’s a lot of evidence that—best case scenario—we have limited free will.  However, regardless of the adversity, I don’t see any better option than to apply myself and do the best I can to hit my targets.  

Because it seems that every other strategy will lead to regret and mediocrity.

For me, discipline isn’t some great ideal or noble virtue; it’s a simple choice:  I’d rather hone my capabilities and be more of a producer, rather than cater to my cravings and be more of a consumer.  There’s no guilt or self-congratulation involved; I just view it as being honest with myself—I want to do certain things and be a certain way.  

Strip away all the high-sounding fluff and it honestly just seems like the most sensible approach for me, given how I want to live.

There are two ways for me to be at peace:  when I’m aggressively trying to improve myself, or when I’ve done everything I can think of, and I can leave the rest up to fate.

I love when I examine myself and find a weakness; it gives me something to target.  

When I try my best to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing, why it’s the best available course of action, acknowledging the fact that it may not work but still doing it as best I can…

Then I’ve demonstrated honesty, effort, and bravery.  That’s all I can do, and I can be at peace with myself.

In my opinion, discipline doesn’t stop at enduring discomfort; in order to optimize, one must have the discipline to question their ideals, question their assumptions, and even what resonates in the depths of their heart.  One must have the discipline to entertain a premise with an objective eye, and run experiments to see if it’s valid.  

Discipline doesn’t just apply to hard work, it applies to an open mind.