Discipline
Discipline is the second creation, it’s the executing, the
making it happen, the sacrifice entailed in doing whatever it takes to realize
that vision. Discipline is willpower embodied. The first duty of a manager is
to define reality. Discipline defines reality and accepts it; it is the
willingness to get totally immersed in it, rather than deny it. It acknowledges
the stubborn, brute facts of things as hey are. Leadership is the capacity to
translate vision into reality. Without
vision and a sense of hope, accepting reality may be depressing or
discouraging. Happiness is sometimes defined as the ability to subordinate what
you want now for what you want eventually. This personal sacrifice, the process
of subordinating today’s pleasure for a greater longer-term good, is exactly
what discipline is all about.
Most people equate discipline with an absence of freedom. “Should,
kill spontaneity.” “There’s no freedom in ‘have to.’ “. “I want to do what I
want do. That’s freedom, not duty.” In fact, the opposite is true. Only the disciplined
are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites’ and passions.
Can you plan the piano? I can’t. I don’t
have the freedom to play the piano. In never get disciplined myself. I preferred
playing with my friends to practicing, as my parents and piano teacher wanted
me to do. I don’t think I ever envisioned myself as a piano player. I never had
a sense of what it might mean, a kind of freedom to create magnificent art that
might be valuable to myself and to others throughout my entire life.
What about the freedom to forgive, to ask forgiveness? What
about the freedom to love unconditionally, to be a light, not a judge-a model,
not a critic? Think of the discipline involved in all these. Discipline comes from
being “disciple” to a person or a cause.
The great educator Horace Mann once said,”in vain do they
talk of happiness who never subdues an impulse in obedience to a principle. He,
who never sacrificed a present for future good, or a personal to a general one,
can speak of happiness only as the blind speak of color.”
Although hard work, good luck and astute human relations are
all important to be successful, the successful person has “formed the habit of
doing things that failures don’t like to do.” Successful people don’t like
doing them either, necessarily. But their dislike is subordinated by the strength
of their purpose.
People who lack discipline and are unable to subordinate
and sacrifice simply play at working. In a sense, every workday becomes a long
masked ball. The spend the day creating smoke screens, emails, detailing what
they’re working on, phone messages reporting the status of project, long
meetings to discuss how to do things. Generally people who spend the time
making excuses are those who lack focus and discipline. Setbacks are
inevitable; misery is a choice. There are always reasons, never an excuse
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