By Michael Moore
What is discipline and how can it be used as a tool? Discipline has quite rightly been called the application of responsibility to action in the direction of achievement. Sounds very scholarly but it is also very true. There is a secret to discipline. It has the astounding ability to make one very successful in any endeavour of life.
Discipline has often come to be regarded as a dirty word by some people. Perhaps the connotations of strict drill Sargent and school masters have coloured what is perhaps the most useful and effective tool available to achieving what you want.
Discipline is basically
Do it.
Whatever it is you want to do or want to achieve or want to have in life.
Do it.
Discipline is simply not stopping, but continuing.
When you are tired, or fed up, or hungry, or your feet hurt. Or you still hunger for that cigarette or drink. Or you feel lazy, want a holiday, just feel it's too much, or just feel like a sickie, or want to spend that 100 dollars shopping instead of save it as you promised yourself, discipline is where:
Discipline is not giving up.
Discipline is being responsible for doing something...anyway.
If you adopt the attitude that discipline is a tool and not a chore you will discover how useful discipline can be.
Speak to any winner, any sports personality who has climbed the ladder and he or she will tell you that discipline is the bridge between his or her goal and the accomplishment of that goal.
The top golfers of the world like Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods will hit upwards of 1,000 golf balls a day, practicing day in day out. Even if they do not feel like it or have an 'off' day.
There they are hitting balls one after another. Rain or shine. Heat or hot, wet or dry. Disipline.
How many lengths of the pool do you think an Olympic Gold Medal winner like Michael Phelps swims each day, day in day out? How many slam dunks do you think Michael Jordan did each day in practice to maintain his peak performance? How many hits did Don Bradman take a swing at to become such a legend?
It is discipline and persistance come what may, not luck or good fortune that makes the difference between a winner and a no winner.
Discipline could be called the application of determination to achieve a known goal despite any and all personal obstacles. If you have determined that you must put away 100 dollars per week towards a propety investment for example, discipline is the tool to ensure that you do it and don't use the 100 dollars for a night out or to purchase that 'whoozit' you have been aching to get.
If you don't put that 100 dollars away this week, that's 100 dollars you are delayed in reaching your goal. It is easy to say. "Oh that was just one day, I'll start again tomorrow."
The next week, there is another bill come in. "I'll just pay that bill now. There is a sale on. One more week won't hurt. I'll start this program next week." It does hurt! You goal will recede further and further away into the distance until it disappears. This is procrastination at its worse and procrastination is the covert enemy of discipline.
If you look around, you will see that nature employs discipline. The tree strives and reaches higher and higher towards the sunlight despite the relentless pull of gravity. The tree does not have a sickie or a day off. A weed will push up throug the concrete. The concrete is harder than the weed but the weed has something the concrete does not have. Determination without end. Insects, animals and fish all strive better despite the odds or opposition to achieve better survival for themselves and their offspring. Instinct you might say. Survival perhaps? Well whatever you want to call it, it is still a case of not giving up but persisting until the goal is reached.
It is all very nice practicing affirmations such as, 'I will be wealthy'. It has no value without the goal to aim for, the plan to show you the route, the action of travelling along that route and the discipline to get you there. Besides which, that is just another way of putting it in the future. Tomorrow never arrives as it is always today. It is what you do here and now, today, that decides your future, not what you intend to do tromorrow.
It takes more than just saying 'I'm gonna be rich.' It takes applying oneself to a known plan of action in a known direction towards a specific goal with no deviation from the path.
Discipline is bound up with responsibility and integrity rather like a triangle. Taking responsibility for oneself is the application of discipline. Can you take responsibility for your chosen path even if the way becomes difficult? Thomas Macauley's definition of integrity was, 'The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he would never be found out.' Worth thinking about that. Can you apply discipline when there is no one around to check on you? That is a true measure of discipline.
Tom Hirshfield, the physicist said, "If you hit every time, the target is too near or too long." Discipline is not giving up but persisting anyway. Any failure you experience along the way is simply part of the journey, not the end of the journey. All successes are built on failure.
Failure might be the first step. Success is the last for those with the determination and discipline. Edison tried 1,000 times before he hit success with the incandescent bulb. Ray Bradbury submitted 1,000 stories to publishers before he got one published. J. K Rowling was rejected by no less than 12 publishers before Bloomsbury Publishing took her on with the Harry Potter story.
Philip Knight, CEO of NIKE once said. "The only time you have to succeed is the last time you try." So do not expect to necessarily get it right first time and don't consider yourself a failure when you don't. It can take practice and perseverence. That is where the disipline comes in. Discipline can be made a habit.
The results of applying discipline can be absolutely staggering. When you achieve your goal and have applied discipline along the way, come what may, imagine how strong and capable you will feel. There is enormous satisfaction to be gained by achieving one's goals through discipline properly applied.
Assuming responsibility for youself by being persistence in reaching your goal despite any obstacles that try to impede you. Maintaining your vision and looking at the goal and not the obstacle.
Keeping discipline by doing whatever has to be done even when you don't want to do it and being true to yourself are all part of a winner's attitude and a wealthy one too. Practice using discipline. Treat it like a friend. Become excited asbout it! If you miss from time to time, okay, start again.
Persist. You secretly know you can. Take a smaller step if a bigger one is too much. Take lots of small steps. Practice using discipline, it can make you a fortune!
There are ten little words that demonstrate what it comes down to: If it is to be it is up to me.
Apply those ten little words and discipline and who knows where you can end up?
