Beautiful Discipline

About a month ago I read an interesting short article by author Patrick Lencioni called “The Beauty of Discipline”. In it he explained that discipline was essential to success in life and I agree completely with him.

The truth is, having discipline at times is annoying, difficult, boring, methodical, repetitive, discouraging, hard, etc. At times it seems to limit our freedom and ability to do what we “really” want to do. Having discipline can make us tired, feel overwhelmed, and even can drive us near crazy sometimes. So why have it at all?

Well, Lencioni mentioned that looking back on his life discipline was the critical piece in everything he now did well as well as the missing piece in those things he never became good at. The same is probably true for all of us. To be truly good at something, it requires discipline. And the more we have of it, often the better we are at it.

For many of us, we have discipline now in hopes that one day we can abandon it. We dream that eventually we will be able to do whatever we want, whenever we want. We imagine that one day we can live a life completely void of discipline and structure. We believe this will be a happier, more fulfilling life and would indeed represent success. These thoughts however are misguided.

You see, discipline is what really gives us satisfaction in life. Without it, Lencioni wrote in his article that he felt empty, sluggish, aimless, wasteful, and so would we without it. (Perhaps we’ve even experienced this on a prolonged vacation or an extended activity that seemed to really be no more than a waste of time.) Discipline gives us purpose, allows us to progress, and helps us feel good about the contributions we are making.

So, though we may dread living a structured and disciplined life, it provides a sense of humility and accomplishment that we cannot get in any other way. Discipline is needed for success and satisfaction. Discipline helps us to cherish those precious moments when we do have some free time. In the end, living a disciplined life is a blessing and will help us accomplish our goals and dreams. A disciplined life is one full of sacrifice, progress, and satisfaction—a life worth living. Discipline makes us better people. Discipline will help us reach our full potential. So the next time we feel we could do without it, we need to remember the “beauty of discipline.”