If there is one magic word that stands out above all the rest, it is discipline. Discipline is the bridge between thought and accomplishment, between inspiration and achievement, between necessity and productivity. Remember, all good things are located upstream from us. The passing of time takes us adrift, and drifting only brings us the negative, the disappointment, and the failure.
Failure is not a cataclysmic event. It is not generally the result of one major incident, but rather of a long list of accumulated little failings. If your goal requires that you write ten letters today and you write only three, you are down seven letters. If you want to make five calls and only make one, you are down four calls. If your plan calls for saving ten dollars today and you save none, you are down ten dollars.
The danger is looking at an undisciplined day and concluding that no great harm has been done. But add up these days to make a year–and then add up those years to make a lifetime–and it will become apparent how repeating today’s small failures can easily turn your life into a major disaster.
Success, on the other hand, is just the same process in reverse. If you plan to make ten calls and you end the day having made fifteen, you are up five calls. You can see what a massive difference this sort of thing could make in a year… and what wealth and accomplishment await over a lifetime.
Discipline is like a set of magic keys that can unlock all the doors of wealth, happiness, culture, high self-esteem, pride, joy, accomplishment, satisfaction, and success.
The first key to discipline is awareness of the need for and value of discipline, especially the discipline to make the necessary changes. What will it take? What must I do and what must I become to get all I want from life?
The second key is willingness. More than that, it is the eagerness to maintain your new discipline deliberately, wisely, and consistently.
The third key to discipline is the commitment to master the circumstances of your daily life–to see and harness the opportunities to make something of the good as well as that which comes in the guise of misfortune.
Discipline does many things, but most important of all is what it does for your mind-set–it makes you feel better about yourself. Even the smallest discipline can have an incredible effect on your attitude. And the good feeling you get–that surging feeling of self-worth that comes from starting a new discipline–is almost as good as the feeling that comes from the accomplishment the discipline brings.
A new discipline immediately alters your life direction. You don’t change destinations immediately–that is yet to come–but you can change direction immediately, and direction is very important.
Discipline cooperates with nature. Everything strives. It is a common life function. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it can. Everything strives to become all it can possibly be. And that is what discipline is all about… striving to fulfill our natural potential, to become all that we can be.
The human will in action–driven by inspiration, enticed by desire, tempered by reason, guided by intelligence–can bring you to that high and lofty place called the good life. Discipline attracts opportunity, which is always attracted to ambition and skill in action. Discipline taps the unlimited power of commitment.
Discipline: those unique steps of intelligent thought and activity that put a lid on temper and a faucet on courtesy; that develop the positive and control the negative; that encourage success and deter failure; that shape lifestyle and control frustration; that enhance health and curb sickness; that promote happiness and manage sadness.
Discipline: the continuing process that brings all the good things. Remember, anyone can start the process. It’s not, “If I could, I would;” rather, it’s “If I would, I could. If I will, I can.”
So start the process. Begin a new habit, no matter how small it is. Size isn’t important; whether or not you start and whether or not you continue are all that matter.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn