I don't think my teachers at school did effectively teach me discipline. A lot of them believed in the notion of talent instead of believing in a growth mindset where every student can achieve anything if they just put in enough time.

Teachers protect their own self image that way. If it's all talent, then they aren't to blame that the bad students don't get it.

Because of the importance of discipline I myself started to set SMART goals and every day write down the percentage that of my goals that I achieved the last day (in 4 categories) under the label integrity.

I have never done a single SMART goal in school and it's not something usually done or encouraged by the system.

There are jobs such as cleaning toilets that can be done well by people who just endure they tasks they are given. Most knowledge worker tasks on the other hand are preferably done by a person who likes doing them.

if we would assume it is rotten, then the most important learning would be to learn to defeat ourselves and do things that don't feel good.

Nobody benefits from you being depressed.