Discipline as a Creative Tool for Survival

“Discipline isn’t about following a path someone else laid out for you. It’s about carving your own way through the chaos.”

If you had told me when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx that discipline would be the thing that shaped my life, I might’ve laughed. Discipline wasn’t something I inherited. It wasn’t a set of rules passed down to me. It was something I built—piece by piece, through survival, grit, and adaptation.

Discipline didn’t truly hit home for me until much later. I became a cop in the aftermath of 9/11—a time when the entire city felt broken. The dust had barely settled, and we were dealing with the fallout in ways we couldn’t have predicted. As fellow officers and friends, were fighting an invisible enemy—breathing in the toxic air of Ground Zero, seeing the physical toll it took on those who had been there. It wasn’t just the danger they faced on the streets; it was the long-term battle against the consequences of that tragedy.

I remember one summer in Washington Heights during a brutal heatwave. My partner, a senior officer who’d served both with the military and the police department during and after September 11 and I were lucky enough to get an air-conditioned car. It was a small blessing in that kind of heat. But as soon as I turned the AC on, my partner snapped at me: “What the fuck are you doing, kid? Don’t you know this shit causes cancer?” He wasn’t joking. “I woke up to another bloody nose this morning,” he told me. He was suffering the unknown effects of 9/11 and the rumor was that the patrol cars near Ground Zero were not property cleaned in the aftermath. He said, "I saw it with they put those cars through the car wash and sent them out to the street. Who knows whats lurking inside the a/c vents?"

We rode with the windows down after that. It was tough—sweating through bulletproof vests in hundred-degree weather. But discipline isn’t about doing what’s easy. It’s about surviving the hard things. It’s about knowing when to stand firm and when to adapt.

Discipline is Adaptation, Not Rigid Rules

Discipline isn’t about rigid rules or the old-school notion of following someone else’s blueprint for success. In a world that moves as fast as yours, discipline has to be something else—it has to be about adaptation. It has to be the kind of discipline that allows you to move through chaos without losing sight of your core values. It’s about thriving, not just surviving.

For me, discipline wasn’t just something I needed to get through a grueling shift as an officer. It was what got me through college while working full time, pulling both day and night shifts, and barely scraping by with a C+ in some of my classes. It was a different kind of survival, but survival nonetheless.

I went back to school because I wanted more for myself. I wanted to rise above the restlessness, the alcohol-fueled nights, the endless chase for something that seemed out of reach. I wanted to prove something—to myself, to my family, to the legacy that felt unfinished. But it wasn’t easy. I was working full-time as a cop while going to school, missing lectures, staying up late to study, bruises fresh on my knuckles from work. Yet, I pushed through because I had a fire inside me. A fire fueled by the belief that I could discipline myself, survive, and thrive in a different way.

Your Version of Discipline

But here’s the thing: discipline for me doesn’t have to look like discipline for you. Your world is different. The challenges you face are different. And that’s the beauty of it. You get to redefine what discipline means for your generation.

Your discipline doesn’t need to be about sticking to rigid rules or a traditional path. It’s about finding consistency in your passion, in your craft, and in your purpose. It’s about showing up for yourself, day after day, even when the odds seem stacked against you. But it’s also about staying flexible. Because the world will shift. Life will throw you curveballs you never saw coming. And survival will mean knowing when to adapt, when to adjust, and when to find new ways to reach your goals.

Discipline as Freedom

Discipline isn’t about confinement. It’s about freedom. The freedom to carve out your own path in this chaotic world. The freedom to turn survival into thriving. The freedom to mold your life into something that reflects your values, your passions, and your dreams.

Generation Z, this is your time to reshape what discipline means. To take the lessons of the past and build something that fits your world. Use your discipline not as a set of rigid rules, but as a tool that helps you focus your energy, channel your creativity, and thrive in a world that’s constantly shifting.

The world is chaotic, and it’s not going to slow down. But you don’t need it to. Because you have the power to create your own structure, to turn obstacles into opportunities, and to thrive in ways that no generation before you could have imagined.

Discipline isn’t something that confines you—it’s something that sets you free. So take that freedom, embrace the chaos, and build something incredible with it.

Pablo Segarra Elder Millennial