Its officially
summer again and there are tons of stuff to do; weddings to attend, party
invitations, the beach, hiking , travelling the entire works so with more time
on my hands i have more time to research and write something that I’m sure will
help someone and myself as it turns out become more productive.
Watching any
of the talent shows or stories of people who have made some achievement or the
other in a field where we feel have some competence, One refrain that is
popular with people who watch or read about it is “… I’m sure I could have done
it if I could just find the time to sit down and do it…”sounds familiar? Me too.
I've been known to spout that line from time to time especially when I have
done something that I know I could have done waay better because I couldn't be bothered to sit
down and concentrate or one other convenient reason or another. I was inspired
to put something down on this subject following a stirring conversation I had
with some friends over the weekend at the beach, the subject was the things
that hinder people from succeeding. As it turned out we were almost unanimous
in concluding that discipline and application were the single most significant
determining factors that separated people who had potential and those who
became successful.
For the
purpose of this piece I will define discipline as an inner will or force that
enables those people who have it, to stay on course and last the distance in spite
of any weakness or distractions. Discipline is the ability to know first and UNDERSTAND
that you have exactly 24 hours in a day and that each second you spend doing
anything that does not get you where you want to go to essentially takes you away
from it. This means that if you must get to where you need to get to in whatever
sphere of life; academic, career, social and political, there is a need to
clear your field of view of the things that can and potentially will derail
you.
The Olympics
are a very simple yet visceral example of the results of discipline. It comes
around every four years and the athletes, who participate and win, all perform
at the very peak of human capacity, nothing not even the temperature of the water
that they drink is left to chance. They eat precisely measured quantities of
food and exercise to specifications for almost two years or even more just so
they can run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds. Pause for a second and imagine
yourself living under those conditions for a week!
The thought of it just makes you shudder. But we
are all not going to be an Usain Bolt,
nor a Yelena Isinbaeva yet we do need to sit down through some unpleasantness
in order to achieve aims and goals that we have set for ourselves. In order to
be the best we that we can be, we need to be disciplined and consistent. We cannot
however be disciplined if we do not have a focus, an aim or a destination, because
discipline is only a means to an end. One cannot be disciplined without a focus
or destination, but we all have destinations and dreams and the reason why most
people never get there is because the just can’t find it in themselves to be disciplined
and consistent. So if you are tired of being a perennial underachiever you need
to ask yourself how do I become disciplined?
Let me
start by saying that, being disciplined is not a thing, in the sense that it
can be done like getting a haircut or a weave no! it is a gradual painstaking
process that involves unlearning several behavioral patterns that we have accumulated
over time and replacing them with new behavior patterns. The first step in this
process is to recognize and define those things which have been distractions
for you. This is perhaps the most important step to take. It involves asking
yourself the critical questions of why you have not done the things you wanted
to do or finished the things that you set out to do. It involves asking yourself
what are the reoccurring factors in the narrative about your failures or lack
of success because, if you’re honest with yourself there are very few specific
obstacles that we all have and as long as they are not treated and dealt with
they will reoccur in various aspects of our lives.
So take a
book preferably a small one and write on one page all the things you ever tried
to do and the things you wanted to achieve up until now giving each of them
numbers. When you’re done, on a fresh page write the first aim or objective
down and painfully tell yourself the truth about why you couldn't do them. Be honest
with yourself and its very important that you write them down because writing many
times provides a perspective that introspection(i.e looking into yourself)
cannot provide you with, because it enables you to step back and really see the
reasons in a very painful but objective way allowing you to really see yourself
as you really are. Finally, writing the reasons and explanations for not
finishing anything can provide some form of catharsis or healing enabling you
to see the failures and knowing that you have taken the very first step in the
bid to correct them.
If you do
this for all of the things you wrote down earlier, you will begin to see a pattern
emerging, it might be the loss of patience, the loss of interest the presence
of distractions or something else entirely which appears in each and every one
instance when you tried for something and did not finish it. It could be a
hobby, or a friend, a place or a pattern of wrong choices which you have
consistently made time and again.
The above
is an exercise and you will do well to do this as much as you possibly can and
be honest with yourself you could do this alone or with a friend ;A journey is
always shorter with company, and a friend can provide you with an invaluable
support structure.
The next part of this post on this blog will be available by
the weekend there I will talk about what to do with you findings. Remember like
the Chinese say the journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step. Hang in
there the best is yet to come. Till then
Ciao
If you have
questions please put them in the comments section or write to me directly at
lorenzodwin@gmail.com.
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