Why we need to develop discipline

When you are driving and you see a pedestrian before a stop in a traffic light, what would you do?
When you are crossing the street and you see a signage stating "Bawal tumawid", will you still cross the street or will you use the overpass?
After chewing a gum. where do you throw it? At the street or in a trash bin?

Those are simple scenario but it could make a big difference. In those situations, would you do the right thing or will you do what is comfortable for you even though you know it is bad? Being disciplined is doing the right thing even in the face struggle or temptation. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "Discipline" means

training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character

orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior

People nowadays, want instant results and instant fulfillment, but this is not always possible. When you want to achieve something you must have the patience and discipline. You have to grow through the process, not "go through" but "grow through". The difference between grow through the process and go through the process is when you grow through you are actually learning. You are gaining every knowledge and skills from the process. You are becoming the person that you want to be. Growing through the process takes a good discipline.


Thoughts

One of the most important thing in life is our thoughts. Everything that we do starts in our mind. We need to be very aware of the things that we think and it takes a lot of self-discipline to do that. Thoughts become things. The mind is everything, if you don't believe you can't do something then you can't.  We have to guard our mind thinking of the negative and evil things instead, we should think of the things that are true, noble, just, right, pure, lovely, admirable, or anything that is excellent and praiseworthy. As stated in Philippians 4:8 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Actions

We also need discipline in our action. What are we doing during our free time? Are we slacking off or hustling our way to greatness? To achieve our goals, we all know that we need to choose the latter. Choosing the latter requires extraordinary discipline and focus. When we are disciplined enough to choose the right thing over the pleasure, we are on our way to success. We don't develop muscles when we don't workout on a regular basis, we won't be great in mathematics we don't train our mind every day. 

"Everyone wants to be encouraged. Everyone enjoys being inspired. But here's the truth when it comes to personal growth: Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing."- John Maxwell

Striving for greatness requires extraordinary discipline and work. You will never be the best if you don't wake up early in the morning to get ahead of others. We will never achieve the country that we dream if we will always break the law. We have to consistently work our self-discipline on a daily basis or else we may find ourselves distracted my negative thoughts and negative actions. Those negative things will destroy us, it will destroy our dreams, our lives, our commitment.



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