He who lives without discipline dies without honor. Discipline is the key to a successful and respectful life. It is the bridge between our goals and accomplishments. Just like blinders on the eyes of a racing horse prevents him from seeing to the rear and sides and make him focus only in front, encourage him to pay attention to the race rather than other distractions, such as crowds; discipline also gives a focus and a self-confidence to get what I want to.
Discipline has different perspective in different situations. Discipline in office, discipline in society, discipline in army, discipline in politics, discipline in business, discipline in schools and colleges, discipline in our own sweet home, and discipline in our personal life, each has a different meaning, objective, and scope. For some situations it is a documented code while in most other situations discipline is non-documented assumptions and expectations. We have written code of conduct to follow in most educational institutions, in our office space, in public places like an airport or hospitals, in army, police, government establishments, etc., but for our self-discipline, and discipline in our home, there is no written constitution.
We learn self-discipline from our parents, from society, from our teachers, and from our ideals. Self-discipline means following the rules set by our own self or rules set by our parents, and society. Willpower has a prominent role to play here. Self-discipline is the product of persisted willpower. Actually, willpower and self-discipline further strengthens each other. Willpower helps following self-discipline while self-discipline helps improving willpower. Self-discipline is perseverance, restraint, endurance, thinking before acting, finishing what you start doing, and as the ability to carry out one’s decisions and plans, in spite of inconvenience, hardships or obstacles. It also means self-control, the ability to avoid unhealthy excess of anything that could lead to negative consequences. The ability to perform self-discipline is closely linked to your self-respect and inner self-talk also. As I managed to raise my self-respect and talk positively to myself, my self-discipline also increased.
Who else can be a better example of self-discipline then the idol of non-violence Mahatma Gandhi himself. His lifestyle is a perfect example of discipline and self-restraint. Discipline is not a mean to limit the freedom but rather it provides the freedom and strength to achieve our aim. It is a self-inspiration. It is our foundation. It is our architecture. It gives us structure. It allows us to steer our energies.
As has been said by Robert Bridges, “That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune”.
Some people regard discipline as a chore but for some it is a kind of order that sets them free to fly.