Putting stress on a system will make it more robust.
Discipline is a mental stressor that is a great example of this heuristic. Forcing yourself to apply discipline for that 4:30 AM alarm or run in cold weather will be uncomfortable in the moment, but leaves you feeling on top of the world afterwards.
We, humans, are systems that thrive when undergoing stressors. When used to volatility in stress, you will always be ready to handle a sudden spike. Your body and mind will make sure to stay ‘ready’ for any changes. Stressors make us robust to volatility.
Rather than a beer a day, drink seven one night a week. Rather than hours of workouts, run an intense 10 miles twice a week. Focus intensely on a task for a couple of hours, then do absolutely nothing for a bit. Rather than taking on medium risk, be very conservative in some areas in life and be extremely risky in others.
The world is more random than we think and there will be unexpected events coming our way. You can’t predict them, but you can make yourself robust to them, by getting used to volatility in stressors.
Stressors are good. Discipline is good.