Self Discipline: The Cost of Excellence

Introduction

Welcome my friend!

It's another Friday to share together in this weekly newsletter. I hope that at the end of the discussion, we would have found at least one lesson to hold on to; as we continually try to be better, knowing that self development is the only path to self actualisation.

Do you sometimes wonder what would happen if we all behaved how we wanted to?

If for some reason we just immediately met all our desires, acting on every one of our feelings.

Like forcing ourselves on another person to meet a sexual desire or ceasing possession of someone else's property simply because we think it's beautiful.

If this happens, it means that we're now jungle animals and that the weaker ones will be victims of the stronger, suffering from their incapability to fight back and protect themselves.

For this reason, the laws are there to make sure that we don't live this way, criminalizing both acts as rape and stealing respectively with each having their own consequences and punishment.

Therefore, for the fear of being reprimanded, each of us can at least try to control ourselves to act only within the boundaries of legality.

This is how we've adapted to protect one from being the victim of the desires of others. Yet who protects us from being victims of our own wants, or should we then live by;

“Do what makes you happy as long as you're not hurting others"

When in fact we're indeed hurting ourselves.

Discussion

We can say that self discipline is understanding how our actions affect us both immediately and in the long run, and having the willingness to restrain from them as a way of protecting ourselves from these consequences.

For instance, if sleeping makes us happy and we go on to sleep throughout the day, we haven't hurt anyone yet we have done so to ourselves because unproductivity overtime will eventually result in lack.

Such is the folly in "Doing what makes us happy as long as…"

■ Aspects of Self Discipline For Everyday Life

To live excellently and fulfilled, we need to conduct ourselves properly in how we go about our daily activities.

This simply means being able to exhibit discipline in the following forms:

▪︎ Time Discipline

Proper time management is only possible when we're able to rightly place value on every passing minute of our lives. It's understanding that each day comes with only twenty-four (24) hours.

In this, we see it as a fleeting resource given to us to improve ourselves and our reality and a few minutes spent here and there on small talk and idleness takes away from it.

Here we live by the principle of "there's time for everything" intentionally using our time like we would our money, offering it only to activities and people where we can get some value in return.

▪︎ Behavioural Discipline

This is the ability to comport ourselves in our words and actions showing tact and emotional discipline in our interactions with others.

Many times we've seen very talented folks make a mess of their career because they're difficult to work with. Pride, stubbornness and rudeness are all easy traits that can ruin us if we don't intentionally work on ourselves to have them in check.

▪︎ Moral Discipline

This explains our behaviour as it concerns integrity, equity and fairness. It's how our ideologies and values affect us.

It's how the hate in the heart of the racists, bigots and other extremists continuously consumes their minds with anger and bitterness.

Here, we discipline ourselves with tolerance, open-mindedness and above all humanity; showing others even the same love as we would our dogs since the one we would ourselves is proving too much an ask.

▪︎ Sexual Discipline

When partners get married merely because the sex is good or because they've had a baby together they may lack the other qualities it takes to build a healthy home.

For this reason, children born into these unhealthy upbringing can remain damaged for a longtime struggling to give or receive love having been made to feel neglected or even unwanted growing up.

This is a longterm consequence of sexual indiscipline that is often ignored yet is one that affects even the society as bad children become problems where good ones would have become innovative and solution driven.

Having random sexual partners is actually not a flex if we respect and care for our bodies, as we're conscious of the kind of energy we let in.

Also having unconventional and perverted sexual desires and fantasies doesn't mean we should attempt to live them all out, without considering how they warp our view and reasoning on sexual purity and solemnity.

▪︎ Physical and Health Discipline

The same way the quality of food we eat affects our body is how the quality of content that we consume affects our mind and mental health.

When we see food like an energy source that keeps us going, we're able to eat just enough, taking only what's healthy and how it's healthy for us.

Also, for the sake of our mental wellbeing we must steer clear of toxicity and negativity by distancing ourselves from people that have consistently shown that relating with them affects our peace of mind.

▪︎ Financial Discipline

It's one thing making money and another thing to keep it and those who have poor spending habits will end up in lack, debt and unhappiness.

Life has the principle of seasons which means that we must be willing to plant our seed before expecting any form of harvest.

We must therefore treat our capital as our seed by investing in good businesses that yield great returns.

We should also show generosity with our resources, supporting those around us in their time of need. This is a principle of abundance because "givers never lack"

Then the one we love to negotiate our way out of, which is the principle of returning exactly one tenth of all our blessings to God, who had given them all in the first place.

▪︎ Spiritual Discipline

This is self discipline as it concerns our faith and relationship with God. It's availing ourselves to establish an intimate relationship with him through prayer.

This is the ultimate form of discipline because it forms the basis for which we find the self control and wisdom to live out all other ones.

Also, it's realizing the folly in thinking that we don't have "enough time" to avail ourselves for this relationship because we're too busy with work, marriage, parenting and every other excuse we have accepted for ourselves.

Spiritual discipline is found in the humility to accept our limitations, leaning fully on God and trusting him to take care of us. We'll show this with a willing heart striving to obey him.

■ The Cost of Discipline

We wouldn't be honest if we said that discipline is all simple and easy and this is in fact the reason indiscipline is the norm.

The default human nature is to live recklessly because "You Only Live Once"

Discipline is therefore suppressing these desires of lust, gratification and validation for more sustainable benefits of growth, stability, and ultimately the fulfillment of our purpose.

We must also be willing to lose friends and to be alone most of the time as many will be unable to keep up with our "rigidity and boringness" yet those are just labels to shame us for refusing to conform.

Such are the challenges of being disciplined but its benefits will have us rise above them all.

■ Significance of Discipline

All great successes have been achieved by men who were disciplined enough to go the extra mile. To push their body and mind beyond limits by focusing only on the most important things and ignoring everything that stands in the way of their goals.

We can also accept it as the purest form of self love in that we find the courage to drop all self sabotaging habits to adapt new routines and lifestyles that set us on the path of gradual and consistent daily growth.

Discipline levels all before it because it's backed up by the motivation and determination to push only for the best outcome.

This is the relationship between discipline and excellence.

■ Consequences of Indiscipline

The ultimate cost of indiscipline is the waste of our potentials. From health to financial struggles we've proven to be the chief cause of our downfall by the choices we make and the actions we've taken.

Slowly but surely the repercussions of thoughtless behaviour eventually catches up on us, leaving us in deep pain and regret because we've realized that all that fun has come at a price bigger than the pleasures it gave.

Summary:

We all need to have a set of rules that guide our behaviour; a limit outside which we're no longer willing to interact or engage in any business. This is the basis of being a principled person.

In the absence of this, we'll find ourselves swayed by every passing trend behaving just like everyone else whereas, we've been called to be outstanding in every of our conduct such that others can see and testify that we're true servants of God.

Master Apprentice.

www.twitter.com/truekingmaker