How To Learn Self-Discipline - (Jan. 2013)

BLOG #05 - How to Learn Self-Discipline

Ahhh….  The year is moving right along, and we have gotten past the brand-newness of 2013.  Still, amidst the occasions of accidentally writing "2012" as the year, dwindling though it may occur, we are still enforcing the new habit.  Patience.  It's part of the process.  What are you, in fact, doing?  

Each time you do it, you are disciplining yourself…  Granted, it's not like you are beating your fingers for writing the wrong year out of habit, but you are catching yourself.  As you catch yourself in the act, you are telling yourself that you will pay better attention, and thus, you do.  Soon, the year "2012" will fade from your digital memories (your hand's habit of putting it down for part of the current date.)  This is, in a manner of speaking, "Self-Discipline."

For the next few blogs, we will discuss certain aspects and benefits of appreciating your "unsung" talent for learning self-discipline.   In martial arts, we learn that our consistent practice and mindfulness about our arts' various elements will build a certain level of restraint, and of internalization of certain VERY key proponents that will make us improve, despite our limited perspectives.  As I have already shown, by my opening example, it is universal and just part of human nature.

Let me give you another example, though:  As a young man (when I was pre-teenager), I attended a small social gathering of young people, whose families were of similar background.  I had always been somewhat a loner, and so during this party, I sat on the couch as the others went about joking and chatting.  On the coffee table, there was a bowl of mixed chips and popcorn, and rather than sit there twiddling my thumbs, I got a napkin full of them.  

As I sat there, I decided to make the time pass in a way that took me out of my awkward environment, and into my own space of comfort, by making a game for myself of eating this snack.  So, I began to eat each piece, separately, never putting another piece in my feeding hand until I had completely finished ingesting the former piece.  This was just the ticket for me.  Of course, after awhile, one of the older teens (whose house we were at) noticed me and came over laughing as he asked me why I was eating that way.  Then he pulled me into the board games that they had begun to play, and my exercise was done.  Still, the concept had merit.

In my forcing myself to not "rush" thru the bowl, I had begun a process of teaching myself about the first of many aspects of self-discipline, namely, "self-denial."   In life, we are all placed in the position of choosing to try to take on the "whole bowl", at once, or building character by taking a step back to see what is actually happening within ourselves as the process continues.  

In martial arts, the instructor helps to build this within you by not letting you get out of a training exercise, so easily as you might, were no one pushing you to persevere.  In other fitness training, the personal trainer takes on the "drill sergeant" role to do the same thing.  In work, it may be the supervisor.  Whatever the circumstance, there are those who help you to move into position, but usually to the end result of you being self-motivated enough to continue on without someone pushing you.  That self-motivation is the birthplace of your self-discipline.  When you start denying yourself the easy way out, no matter if it is only so that you don't have to withstand the chastisement from your instructor, trainer, boss, etc., you start to make it easier to complete the task before you.

It is much too easy to take the easy way, but it usually creates more of a burden as you approach your actual goal, whatever it may be.  Success is a path littered with things that we could have had "now", but with a much higher price tag.  Accepting the shortcut is not likely to be the best path for longterm success.  As I teach my students, "Economy of Motion" has a lot more to do with your mindset, than it does your geometry and physics.  That is to say: if you get to the finish line, but you have not made it past the checkpoints (the lessons learned along the way), it is not likely you are yet qualified to finish the race.  

Next week, we will discuss another aspect of Self-Discipline:  Appreciation.  Think about today's discussion, and be sure to refer others to this blog, and I welcome your comments!