Human behavior when expected to be discipline fails time and again. The human mind is a wonderful machine capable of processing millions of data per second and coming up with extraordinary solutions for the toughest of the problems. But if it is a matter of discipline the human mind fails more number of times than what it itself thinks it can.

If discipline is the only test to benchmark human beings, I am sure 99% of them would not make the cut even once in their lifetime. As Harsha Bhogle once said, beyond a point, talent is absolutely useless for the grit and discipline takes far wider strides than what talent could ever. The difference between a genius and a talented person is that, talent can only do what it is allowed to but a genius will do what it has to.  

In the investment world, the genius is the one who does close to nothing. From a behavioral perspective, less is more. In terms action needed from the investor and such behavior is rewarded with more and more returns. The rate of return is directly proportional to your patience and as Warren Buffet said the market is a place where the wealth is transferred from the impatient to the patient. Become greedy when the world is fearful and become fearful when the world is greedy. But is this all easy to do? No, never and to a great extent we are sure it will never be. So how do we engineer such behavior and process it into action? The simple solution is automating it.

 If you want to save every month, start a sip. If you want to allocate a percentage of your income into savings, sign up an automated debit instruction into a liquid fund. If you do not want your insurance policy to lapse, automate the renewal with a mandate. If you do not want to pay interest on your credit card, automate the payments once in every month so that you never fall into the interest trap. Standing instructions are clearly a standing proof of what forced discipline can, habits can not. For what can fail us, are many things, right from our memory to our priorities. So if you want to get anything done and want to be sure it is, then the first and the best step is to automate it. This whole business of automating and channeling your savings can extend far beyond your domain and any behavioral pattern that is automated is consistent and result oriented.

If ever the human mind produces a machine that could automate my going to the gym then I would have 60 packs.