Everything is hard….

… Before it’s easy

These are the words of the Germen philosopher, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  I would just add that, in my experience, anything worthwhile is hard before it becomes easy.  How this relates to us today is the form of discipline.

 

We have spent considerable time in the past week talking about discipline in the junior class and every student is now clear on the three different types of discipline.  Now, our next step, for both Junior and Adult students is to apply this discipline in our martial art training and other aspects of our daily life.  We are going to start that this week with the mini home workout / pre-class routine.   

One statement that I truly believe is:

With knowledge, many things are possible

Without discipline, nothing is possible

As I have mentioned before, I do a considerable amount of driving in the average week.  In order to avoid unnecessary down time, I take this opportunity to listen to audio books in the car.  This way I am learning something during my drive.  The books chosen are usually those of an educational nature so that I come away from the ride with new knowledge or different ideas.  I learned this many, many years ago from Sijo as I remember driving with him in a car as he listened to cassettes (which shows how long ago this was). 

Last week’s audio book was on self-discipline.  I thought to myself that as I am teaching discipline in class, I should use my drive to review.  This thinking lead me to analyse my own discipline - while I consider myself disciplined, is there more that I could be accomplishing?

Without a word of exaggeration, the author stated in the introduction that when he was asked to write the book, he suffered the same momentary self-doubt.  As he continued to research the book, he found that all people with above-average discipline feel that they could accomplish more.  It is the people that never self-analysis that need the boost in the self-discipline department. 

When it comes to self-discipline, obviously, there are two people that I look to for motivation.

One thing that Sijo has taught me is to “develop a sense of urgency”. 

I am often amazed in both the business and personal world on how long it takes to get things done.  At first, I thought it was because it is everyone is so busy – now I realize that it is because most employees maintain the same slow work pace, no matter what the schedule and do not believe in working extra.  I have seen this with engineers, lawyers, contractors, trades, etc.  One of the things that sets the entrepreneur apart from the masses is that the entrepreneur gets his/her tasks done right away – no excuses.  A martial artist applies self-discipline to their tasks and “ gets ‘er done”.

I remember sitting in a Fang Shen Do owners meeting many years ago and hearing Sibok saying that he borrowed a mantra from a sports-clothing line “just do it”.

    

As I mentioned in a previous blog, there are many good excuses for not getting a project done, but not one good reason. It is amazing to see the number of people that consider themselves entrepreneurs, yet are more concerned with taking time off or social matters than working hard to set their future.  Time management concepts instructs us to do the thing that we hate the most first thing in the morning – this sets a tone of accomplishment for the rest of the day and allows you to accomplish much, much more.  So, when you look at that to do list and see something that you are dreading – just start repeating “do it… do it… do it” in your head and “get ‘er done”.

To wrap up this longer-than-usual blog with our take-aways:
Incorporate self-discipline into your routine; it will get easier with time
Develop a sense of (self-imposed) urgency for your tasks
Just do it
And …. Of course…. Stay Solid

Sifu Scott

Posted in: Personal Development