What do you think people like Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Mike Tyson, Nelson Mandela, David Goggins, Takeda Shingen, Juan Pablo Dos Santos have in common?
One single concept, discipline, and what is it about discipline that makes us do things that only super people can accomplish?
To refer to the term we need to go back a bit in time, to the Hellenic period in Greece where Stoicism was born, the ideal of this philosophical system was based on the quest of a virtuous life which required nothing less than a strong building of a particular mindset aligned to the cardinal virtues, wisdom, justice, courage and temperance.
This in return will provide with the necessary clarity to improve life to the point of doing the right thing for the right reason without hesitation, but beyond this huge effort the glue that holds everything together is the concept of discipline.
To understand better its true impact, it is important to break it into two major elements, consistency on the one hand, and on the other hand, persistence.
The combination of both gives a unique opportunity to succeed in the proposed tasks, it does not require us to be super humans, the secret is on the continuous conscious mindset and body training or consistency, gain the strength to overcome even the most difficult challenges despite pain or suffering. Also, it is determining the establishing of a clear purpose, knowing exactly what one wants to achieve and why, next, set specific achievable goals, the path that will take you to your purpose, without these, effort will fade away in the hustle of the moment.
An effective way to develop this kind of mentality is crucial to clear the clouds of doubts, anxiety, stress and fear from the mid, this can only happen if temperance is achieved, this will happen if we learn to manage our emotions effectively and in order to do that two things must be understood, one identify the emotions, obvious? How many of us know the names of our emotions, and how accurate are we? The difference between these and the emotional states. So not so obvious after all. Second, what is it that the emotion causes on me? What sort of physical or behavioral reaction do I get under a specific emotion?
Once this is achieved, once we can rationally understand the scope of the impact of the emotions in us, it is possible to manage them for controlling them is impossible, we can´t decide to stop feeling. This happens if a mental disorder, or an accident to the brain takes place. But never a conscious decision.
Another factor taking a toll in our decisions is our ego, that entity that protects us from the unknown, ego can be helpful but it can also hinder our growth if we are to attached to our beliefs and do not allow doubt to create a learning space from the new things, even in failure learning takes place, of course if we dare to go beyond our ego and allow ourselves to do things differently.
Overcoming ego and learning to manage our emotions will harden our temperance, an absolute and determining element to gain discipline.
As for persistence, I believe one of the best examples can be Colonel Sander’s account to create KFC, he was turned down more than one thousand times before getting a bank loan to build his restaurant, or Juan Pablo Dos Santos who after losing his legs in a car accident made up his mind not only to find his prosthetics but to participate in a marathon which he completed in spite of the suffering and pain this requires. Persistence in doing once and again, persistence in failing and keeping the focus on the lesson it brings rather than the attachment to the disappointment. Discipline is the quintessential element of success, understanding what is behind will help us understand how best to approach and exploit it. Discipline = persistence and consistency.
