As a child I thought of discipline as a behavior. And often when we speak of a child’s behavior, if they misbehave in our presence, we say that they are a bad child. However, have you stopped to consider that a child’s behavior reflects the principles of discipline his or her guardian has or has not taught at home? And I’m not talking about just good manners.
Yes, it’s great to teach a child to speak in a kind way. More so though I’m talking about discipline of self because if you are a disciplined person you have more than kind and polite speech in your day-to-day conversations with others. In that way, discipline is a behavior and a skill set – an interpersonal and intrapersonal skill set that we all must develop. If we don’t develop discipline and continue to live in a state of discipline, we cannot be or become our best selves.
However, much as kids like to have what they want, we as adults also enjoy comfort and having things that make us comfortable. But comfort is not a place where we thrive in discipline. Throughout our lives we have tasks that we must complete and goals that we want to accomplish. Without discipline that won’t happen for us. I know as a child everyone did not have loving parents or a strong support system to guide them and show them the way to go.
Still, as an adult, we do have freedom of choice. And with the freedom to choose the choices we make as an adult are solely ours to make. We get to choose to make positive choices that will get us closer to where we need and desire to be, or choices that will cause our lives to be in shambles and in a worst state today than it was on yesterday. And if your life is not where or what you want it to be have you paused to break down how you spend your days?
Have you paused to look at where you spend your time at? Have you paused to look at what you spend your time doing? Have you paused to evaluate who you spend your time with and the energy and conversations you have with the people you’re closest to? Have you paused to determine why you do the things you do and if they are moving you closer to where you want and need to be? And if you have taken inventory of your life and you see areas that you know you need to improve have you put a plan into place to do so.
If not, what are you waiting for? You cannot improve what you are not willing to work on and you cannot excel in areas that you leave as is. So, it is not enough to know that you need to do something, but then do nothing about what you know needs to improve. That is the equivalent of seeing your trash can overflowing but instead of taking the trash out, continuing to put trash in an overflowing trash can and then wonder why there is an unpleasant odor and gnats, maggots, flies, roaches, and rodents in your house.
No, self-evaluation is not easy, but it is necessary if you are going to be successful in your own lane. Your definition of success is what you say. So, once you define what success is you can use your definition of success to measure if you are meeting the standard of self-discipline you need to have with the level of consistency required to prioritize tasks and goals to ensure that you are getting what you need and want to do complete.
We must get to a place where we tackle the uncomfortable to do the phenomenal so that our lives are evidence of the exceptional. That means that being discipline is up to us to choose to continue to teach ourselves. And I said continue to teach ourselves because while our guardians were responsible for raising us as an adult we evolve. And if you haven’t evolved as you have lived you should ask yourself why.
Because just like an infant outgrows a teething ring, a baby outgrows a bouncy chair, and a toddler outgrows their favorite toys, no human being should still be the same version of themselves year after year and declare that they are living, especially not their best life. You have in you the ability to evolve. You have in you the ability to become. You have in you the ability to conquer. You just need discipline.
And discipline is pressing through challenges, difficulties, barriers, setbacks, and pain with accountability that requires you to live restlessly focused on the improvement and betterment of your life with consistent thoughts, deeds, and action that propel you forward to greater and ultimately leaves a productive imprint on others and positive impact that tells the world that you thrived while you were here.
So, I ask you again, are you disciplined? And if not, what are you going to do about it?
~ I say to you discipline is a requirement of your value system that you must live out daily as non-negotiable because the price is worth the cost~ Coach Sam
~Exalted Royalty~ A C.E. SAM COMPANY
