Discipline: The Personality

Factor You Love to Hate series #1

 

DISCIPLINE ARE NOT US

 

Some years ago, upon entering the breakfast restaurant of the hotel we were
staying in, I headed first for the coffee machine.  That's where I overheard
some of the participants from our competency based training talking as they
ate breakfast. They were at a table on the other side from the coffee
station which was out of sight.  I could not see them, but I could hear
them.  One was apparently explaining why the discipline of the training was
so rigorous.  "Well, that's because Michael is such a disciplined person
himself, he reads 30 minutes every single day, writes 30 minutes and
exercises 30 minutes."   To that one of the participants said, "Wow!"
"'Wow?' I thought, but that's hardly what I would call discipline."

 

Later when I reflected on that short conversation, I realized something
about myself, namely, I almost never use the word discipline to describe the
activity of doing what needs to be done.  Instead I just call that
life-style.  Yet that's not the first or last time someone said that about
me. More recently, when the subject of taking medicine came up, I mentioned
that I had been taking tamoxifen as an anti-cancer drug.  "For how long?" I
said for four-and-a-half years.  The person, who was a health coach asked,
"How many times have you forgotten to take it?"  I said "None, not a single
time did I missed taking it.  I always take it.  It's just what I do."  She
said, "You're really very disciplined."  Again I thought, "Why would I not
take my medicine?"

 

Now with 2025 just beginning, and many people will begin with some New Year
Resolutions, I thought it would be good to write about discipline, or
perhaps more accurately and appealingly, consistent life-style activities.
After all, if setting new goals in the new year is a way to become more
effective, more goal-oriented, and to live more purposefully-then the key
will be to get yourself to do what you intend to do.  After you design a
Well-Formed Outcome so that your goals are smart, realistic, and actionable,
the next secret ingredient for them to transform your life is for you to
develop the discipline to be consistent and regular in what you do.

 

The Success Factor You Love To Hate -that was the subject of the ISNS
Wisdoms this past November.  About that success factor I wrote that
discipline is something which you desperately need but which you probably do
not want.  How about you?  To you want discipline?  Would you attend a
training on "How to Become a Highly Disciplined Person"?  Many, peryhaps
most people, would not.  Yet most know that they need it, they just do not
want it.  And why not?

 

A lot of people do not want "discipline" because for them it implies all
sorts of unpleasant and negative meanings.  It implies-

           Being controlled, being forced to do what you don't want to do.

           Being treated like a child again and forced to eat your
vegetables, make your bed, and do your homework.

           Losing the freedom to not do what the discipline requires.

           Forfeiting options, alternatives, and losing the right to be
spontaneous.

           Having to do what is hard, painful, and unpleasant.

           Being punished for a mistake or bad behavior: sent to the
Principal's office, loss of privileges, etc.   "Son, I'm going to discipline
you; no internet for two weeks."

 

Wow!  If discipline means that to a person, no wonder it is thought of and
felt as an imposition, a prison, and the last thing in the world that you
would ever want to do!  If you have associated discipline with punishment,
pain, doing what's hard, etc., of course you will not want it.  You will not
strive for it!  You will not set a goal to become a disciplined person.
But, of course, that is a misunderstanding of discipline.  It does not truly
define or describe what discipline is.  What does the word discipline
actually mean and refer to?

           Discipline is simply "a course of action."

           Discipline can refer to "a course of study:" the discipline of
psychology, math, geometry, etc.

           Discipline is a planned way of operating.

           Discipline is a strategic way to achieve something of value.

           Discipline is a regimen for succeeding in a particular area.

 


How about that for five reframes on discipline?  Which one do you like best?
Yet there is another one that I think reframes it even better.  Given that
the word discipline comes from the Latin words, disciplina, disciplulus
(pupil), discipline refers to not only "a course of study," but the person
doing the 'studying'- hence, the disciple.  The disciplined person is a
disciple to the information and activity.  You could be a disciple of
coaching, of Neuro-Semantics, of NLP, of psychology, of self-actualization,
of personal development, etc.  What or who would you like a to be a
'disciple?'

 

For me, since discipline is life-style, I am a disciple of learning, of
modeling excellence, of my own well-being (health) and fitness, of
unleashing human potentials, of the human mystery of 'thinking,' etc.  How
about you?  What are you a disciple of?  Some are disciples of 'the path of
least resistance.'  Some are disciples of goofing off, avoiding
responsibility, the superficiality of 'retail therapy,' of living solely for
immediate pleasure, etc.  Where would you like to direct your discipleship
to in 2025? 

 

 

                                                                       

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA