I chalked this quote this morning and all I could think about was discipline.
I went to a Catholic school from kindergarten
through high school. Thirteen years of uniforms, nuns, priests, homework,
deadlines and consequences. Discipline was everywhere. It was part of the air
we breathed.
The funny thing is, when I look back on my
life, I don't think I was a particularly disciplined person.
I was a troublemaker through the first twenty
years. I simply did enough to get by. I studied enough to pass. I worked enough
to stay employed. I planned just enough to make it to tomorrow. I rarely looked
much farther ahead than the next test, the next paycheck or the next weekend.
There is a big difference between living in
a disciplined environment and actually becoming a disciplined person. For me,
that didn't happen until I became a father.
Something changed when three little people
began depending on me. Suddenly, getting up for work isn't optional. Paying
bills isn't optional. Showing up isn't optional. You stop asking yourself what
you feel like doing and start asking what needs to be done. Necessity became my
teacher.
Looking back now, I realize some of the
things weighing me down in my later years weren't caused by one bad decision.
They were caused by thousands of little necessary things that I put off because
someone else wasn't depending on me yet.
It is amazing how much interest
life charges on procrastination. The workout you skipped. The money you didn't
save. The book you meant to read. The phone call you kept putting off. The
apology you never made. Those small decisions don't disappear. They quietly
wait for you decades later.
The good news is that discipline works the
same way in reverse. One walk, one workout, one chapter, one honest
conversation and one dollar saved. It is the one sunrise when you simply decide
to do the necessary thing instead of the easy things.
Those choices compound too. The necessary
thing usually isn't glamorous and doesn't get any applause. Most days nobody
notices, but the necessary things become the foundation of a good life.
Maybe discipline isn't about being tough.
Maybe discipline is simply making peace with the fact that some things have to
be done whether we feel like doing them or not, and if we can learn that lesson
today instead of ten years from now, our future selves just might thank us.
These days are starting to get noticeably shorter.
Sunrises are after five-thirty in Chicagoland and the sunset is creeping closer
to eight o’clock. The turkey bowl and our New Year’s resolutions are closer
than we think..
But it is Tuesday morning and like Freddy
Jones said years ago……. In a daydream!
