The Disciple of Discipline
This weekend I watched my daughter become a college student. She’s near the end of her second semester as a freshman, but the student bug just hit.
She had a huge project in her 3D design class, so she invited another student over to work on it. They worked from around 4 in the afternoon until 3 in the morning. The next day, she fell into my arms like a little kid. “I’m so tired mommy.” She said to me. I smiled and said, “Welcome to college.”
Fatima is smart and funny and has a vocabulary that would bring Cornell West, PhD. to tears. With the exception of math, school work has always come easy to her.
“You need to get some discipline kid, or you will suffer in the future.” I’ve told her. She would whine and tell me that she is disciplined and she does study hard.
You can always tell the smart kids in a freshman class. Their professor will give an assignment and the smart kid will smile as if to say “I got this,” but by the second year, they’re not so sure. The hard working students, the ones who don’t feel so secure, are the ones who win in the end because they know that they have to work hard.
This weekend, Fatima finally understood what I meant about applying herself and working hard. She’s beginning to see the difference between slapping something together at the last minute and working on it from the time you get the assignment. She is beginning to see what it means to be a disciple of discipline.
The Disciplined Disciple is always working. They do a little here and a little there. They play as hard as they work but they know when and how to do it. For a Disciple of Discipline the play looks like work and the work can look like play. There is always enough time, because the disciple uses time effectively.
When I started writing these posts, I knew that they would require the kind of work I did when I was a kid in college. I had to get up each and every day to study and apply myself to my desired goal.
Wellness is an everyday study session. Like college, you get to enjoy yourself along the way. You will hang out with friends, dance, sing and laugh but in the back of your mind, you know you have an assignment and a purpose; the real reason you are here.
Today, pick one aspect of your desired goal and design a method for achieving your outcome. Then apply yourself to the study, application and achievement of that goal every day this week.
At the end of the week, look at your results.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was not a great speaker because he liked to talk, he was a great speaker because he was an amazing thinker and he studied hard his entire life. Each line of a speech required hours of work. People came from miles around to hear him and they were moved. But long before they got there, he was doing the work for that one 15 minute presentation.
Are you willing to do the work?
Will you be disciplined enough to apply yourself daily for your desired goals?
The outcome is always better than what you go through.
Be you, be well, be disciplined.
Bertice Berry, PhD.
Welcome New Members. We are so glad you've joined us.
Hi Bertice,
ReplyDeleteYou are always right on time. My youngest daughter (I have 2) just texted me that she got a raise. She works hard and does a good job for the state. Right now a raise is unheard of with th state of Georgia. It really makes you feel good when you realize your children are really listening to us as we try to make their road smoother. I forward your daily word to both of my daughters. They have read the book. Thanks for sharing.