Discipline is defined as to "train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way" or "the controlled behavior resulting from such training."
I don't want to speak on the "important" disciplines or indicate that any one be mandatory or necessary in particular. But instead, the importance of being intentional in discipline itself. Garry Kasparov, known for being the greatest chess player of all time, said, "Its not enough to be talented. Its not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions." I like this quote because it asks us to analyze our habits and our methods and I think that lines up with how we view our discipline. I think many habits are on some level disciplines. Maybe under developed or even developed and treated as discipline though completely unnecessary, but discipline regardless. I believe the great advantage of an unnecessary discipline is that as it becomes unmanageable or too time consuming, it can be forfeited guilt free to make room for something new or to narrow the focus of a greater discipline. But all the while serves as practice in discipline itself.
A quick list of habits I've on some level kept, abandoned or merely dream't of include:
- working out
- bed time
- communication habits
- diet
- down time
- work rhythm
- writing
- prayer
- reading
- serving
- spending
I think discipline has its proper role to play in all of these. Negligence would be the absence of any form of discipline, but on a spectrum the extreme could maybe be obsession or idolatry. Moderation and deliberation of course are the key to keeping them in their place.
I don't think anyone looks back on their life in regret of being too disciplined. To realize they've squandered time on something they once believed to be important is almost guaranteed, but even then it probably wouldn't have been mistaken for discipline. I think of the workaholic whose devoted his life to weighing the often unbalanced expectations of his family and his job. When goals are set by expectations we lose sight of the disciplines involved in reaching them. We focus on doing whatever it takes to meet them. Negligence and idolatry living together in perfect chaos. Rather, when a goal is driven by a dream we still have that innocent passion to drive us. The mere hope of one day living in that place in which we dream of. I've heard Dave Ramsey say, hundreds of times, "the difference between a dream and a goal is a plan" and a plan requires discipline. I don't know that anyone has ever written out a plan to become successful that included rejecting their family. But a lack of discipline continues to lead people to just that point.
I've recently come to the understanding of the importance of making a plan. A long term plan spanning 6 or more months, or simply a plan for the day. It clarifies your goals and creates actionable steps to meet them. But even without having a plan I've found that asking a simple question will help keep me on track in weeding out bad habits and in developing disciplines. That question, "Would I include this on a plan to help me reach my dreams?" Is this something that's going to, when practiced and maintained, build me to be a stronger, better person and lead me to success? Jim Rohn said, "Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgement repeated every day." Discipline will keep our judgments on track.
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