Hey, first of all, thanks for being the first reply on my first post ever!
Congrats on achieving the change! I like your framing of the positive take, as I too definitely believe we accomplish things by taking small steps in the right direction.
I also get where you're coming from with regards to discipline; I hadn't thought of it that way yet, as it being something that "forces" us to do something we actually don't want to be doing. I also think you can approach it from a positive side though, as being a kind of "habit" that you have built through intentional, hard work.