What do you think of when you hear the word discipline? Let’s face it, discipline is not that popular a word these days? It conjures up in us a feeling that there will be work involved and it will be painful. Discipline is not something we see a lot of around us. Discipline can also have a connection to punishment, like when we were children our parents would “discipline” us “for our own good”. So most of us don’t want to think about discipline.
However, discipline is an important part of everyday life. We actually discipline ourselves quite well in many areas. For instance, most of us get to work on time every day, we do our jobs in a reasonable manner, we pick the kids up from school, make meals, make our beds (well most of us do), clean our homes and so on. It seems the disciplines of day-to-day life seem to accepted by most folks. It is only when discipline stretches us that we tend to rebel a little.
For instance, your doctor tells you that you need to change your diet, lose some weight and start walking to bring down your cholesterol numbers. Suddenly discipline looks a lot bigger and you can hardly find time to fit in more activities and the daily discipline of changing your diet seems a ridiculous request. And what for? To prevent a problem that you may or may not have. You make a half effort to do a little of what the doctor says, but never really get serious about disciplining yourself out of a potential problem. Perhaps the stakes are not quite high enough. Maybe you need a heart attack to give you the impetus to make those changes, something more real to make the act of discipline more necessary. For many people, sadly, the only reason they adopt any disciplines is they fear the dire consequences of not doing so.
If we take a different view of discipline, make it more of a friend, it might come a little easier. Think of all the things you could accomplish by making discipline your friend. Better health, better body, more income, more organized, all things that discipline can help you accomplish. Is there something in your life that you have always wanted to do or attain? Is the only thing standing between you and “it” the fact that you can’t discipline yourself to do what it takes?
Discipline in life is much like a muscle. It must be worked in order to get stronger. Start small in areas of your life that you have always wanted to change. Think about the steps you would have to do to get there and then keep track of everything you accomplish as you take the first steps toward your goal. The difference between exceptionally successful people and the rest of us is not usually intellect or money or even connections, it is usually that successful folks have the discipline to get up each day and take the next step toward their goal. They don’t give up, they just keep moving forward, doing what they know they have to do to reach the goal. They are disciplined.
So, ask yourself “are you willing to do what you need to do (discipline) in order to have what you really want?” What stands between you and your goals is usually YOU.
