Location Specific Discipline

Have you ever noticed that self-discipline is sometimes related to where you are?  I was thinking about this as I chowed down on an oversized lunch after going to the clinic for bloodwork.

All summer long Peg and I were not only actively dieting, but dieting with good results.  Since we came back to Cudahy our discipline regarding food has taken a nosedive but other disciplines have risen to the fore.  What’s that all about?

I don’t know about anyone else but I have had a lifelong love-hate relationship with discipline. No matter the time of life I have always had strong self-discipline in some areas of my life at the same time I have had virtually none in other areas.  I’ve been heavy for much of my life — which is to say I have a big gut but the rest of me — so says my wife — is pretty well proportioned. I guess that means I haven’t had a lot of will-power when it comes to what I eat.  At the same time I have huge concentration powers and sometimes I think the world could end outside my window and I’d never even know because I was focussed on whatever task lay in front of me.

Among Peg’s first impressions of her future husband (that’s me) was the fact that because I had a production deadline immediately before the conference at which we first met I had worked straight through the night before leaving so that I would be able to participate in the conference.  I dont mind physical stress, or putting myself out physically.  I figure I can always catch up on my sleep in a day or two.  Whether other people my age have noticed that nowadays missing a good night’s sleep is a bit more of an issue than it used to be.  I talk longer to recoup now.  Not a lot, but I just don’t have as much reserve as I used to.

Working hard, working through limits, working around weaknesses and working over obstacles are just part of life.  The idea that you’re done working just because the clock say 5:00 p.m. or because the job description says you do (or don’t do) some task is completely foreign to me. So, why is it then, that in other parts of your life the same person can ignore challenges and not call on self-discipline?  I don’t know, but I realize I do it regularly.

When I was growing up I “learned” discipline as if it was something that comes to you from outside.  I never considered discipline as being something that arose from within.  And in particular the concept that discipline is all about trust — that is something that astounded me when I first heard it. It’s something I’m still thinking about….There’s no issue about discipline’s relationship to self-control, and to instructing obedience. Discipline certainly is a journey — specially those who engage in things like martial arts training and sports and professions requiring great physical ability.  But, the relationship between discipline and trust — I’m still thinking on that one.