ecoPharmacist

Discipline Takes Commitment

What do discipline and commitment mean to you? Some see the word discipline as an evil word, and they associate a lack of freedom to the word. I think the opposite is true. Discipline takes commitment. Stephen R. Covey once wrote, that “the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”.  That’s so true!

I look at those who have been self-disciplined enough to learn to play a musical instrument. They had to look at the long term goal, and fight through the feelings of sore fingers, arms, ears, etc. They remained self-disciplined because they followed what they ‘think’ rather than what they ‘feel.’ Another example is when you have a bag of your favorite snack in front of you and you know you can eat the whole thing. But do you? Are you disciplined to think about whats right or wrong? Can you think about what the consequences would be if you ate the whole bag, or will you ‘feed’ what you ‘feel’ at the moment (sad, mad, stressed)?  I think that means that you have to make sacrifices. To be disciplined you are able to carry out a task long after the ‘mood’ has left you. You are aware that you want to accomplish, and you are committed to the task.

“The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.” — Nido Qubein

You have to be aware of the fact that you are either disciplined or not. Until you are self aware, you cannot make a change or a commitment to change. I think that if a change is needed, it takes courage to admit that, and even more courage to commit to the discipline needed to see the change through. You have to be fully committed to live a disciplined life. You have to be self committed to be self disciplined.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

~ Aristotle

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

~ Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

~ Dale Carnegie

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

– Samuel Johnson