When you start to talk discipline in our society, people generally like to hit the snooze button in their heads and want to check out for a bit. Discipline was beaten into your head by every teacher you hated in school, or coach that made your run until you almost passed out. Generally the word just evokes bad memories in people. But what if I were to tell you that discipline is the only way out of a life that you don't want to live?
Changing your life, or any form of personal growth requires sacrifice, or giving up an old pattern of some kind. This is the true key behind discipline, SACRIFICE! To have one thing we must first give up something else. This is known as opportunity costs (economics 101). If you are not able to sacrifice the bad things in your life, then how do you expect to ever find the good ones? Time and time again I have clients who come to me out of the blue and are perplexed by why they can't reform their dating, or economic life. Yet these are the same people who can't give up anything related to dating or money for the life of them.
The short term win, usually comes at the cost of a long term gain. Anything worth having takes time to get. Look at the great artists of the world.... They didn't get that skill overnight... One of my favorite stories ever was involving the famous painter Pablo Picasso.... He was sitting at a cafe one day in his later years, when a wealthy patron of the arts came to him and asked him to paint her a self-portrait. Picasso agreed... He commenced painting the woman and at the end he asked her for the equivalent of 20,000 dollars in modern terms. The gal was taken aback... She said "What 20k, this only took you a few hours.." To which he replied "No madam, it took me 30 years."
I find this story very emblematic of success in our modern age, people think it's lurking under some rock if they could only find it. Instead they refuse to take the time to find that success within themselves. It was Picassos discipline and ability to sacrifice that led to his greatness, as the greatest people have generally faced the greatest difficulties.
I don't want people to think that I am some prude who always was a very disciplined and focused person, quite the reverse in fact. I was a get-rich-quick pothead of the first order when I began my quest to find vocational purpose. It was only after years of mentorship and personal trial-and-error that I was able to extricate many of my bad habits and tendencies towards self sabotage. The world is a difficult place, as many times as we are forced to relearn things over and over again.
Again I harken back to my favorite quote of all time by Lao Tzu "When I let go of who I am, I become who I might be." But this type of thinking scares the bejesus out of people, because it requires constant change and personal evolution. People generally have a hard time of letting go of the person that they thought they were. But generally once you let go of that person you thought you were, you find a totally new self who is way more meaningful than the old you ever could have been. Again we come back to the same principles of cultivating personal growth above and beyond that of mere financial gain!
So whatever you do in life, if you can identify the places where you lack discipline and start to address them, this will eventually lead you to more personal freedom. As freedom is also rooted in self restraint (aka the ability to delay gratification). Perhaps you need a coach, helper, or friend to guide you through your metamorphosis, I know that I sure did. Or perhaps you can fly solo, whatever the case I wish you all the best of luck! Please feel free to contact me if you think I can be of service to you! As I offer spiritual counseling, startup consulting and vocational coaching as well!
I also talk about these concepts and much more in my book, "Startup Fever, How Crowdfunding Will Rebuild the American Dream!"
See it here on Amazon....http://tinyurl.com/k9xagbk
Until next time...
Enjoy some coffee and relax, its all a part of life...
Best,
Austin