Mr. Achievement - Stanley F. Bronstein - Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

Law #24

Position Yourself To Be Disciplined

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons. (Jim Rohn)

Some Definitions

Discipline - Activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training. Behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control. To bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control.

Suffer - To undergo or feel pain or distress. To sustain injury, disadvantage, or loss.

Pain - Physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, illness, etc.. Mental or emotional suffering or torment. - It can be physical or mental.

Regret - To feel sorrow or remorse for (an act, fault, disappointment, etc.). To think of with a sense of loss. A sense of loss, disappointment, dissatisfaction, etc..

Difference - An instance or point of unlikeness or dissimilarity. A significant change in or effect on a situation. The degree to which one person or thing differs from another.

Weight - The amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs. A system of units for expressing heaviness or mass. A mental or moral burden, as of care, sorrow, or responsibility.

Ounce - A unit of weight equal to 437.5 grains or ¹/₁₆ pound (28.349 grams).

Ton - A unit of weight, equivalent to 2000 pounds.

Source: Dictionary.com

What Is The Quote Suggesting?

To me, it suggests that being disciplined is tough. It pretty much acknowledges that when it starts out by saying discipline is a pain that affects us all. Being disciplined takes a lot of work and we have to give up some things, which are quite often pleasurable.

However, it next goes on to talk about another type of pain that affects us all; the pain of regret. Regret is something that comes to us later in the process than discipline does. Somewhere along the way, we have the option to decide whether or not to be disciplined. When we choose to NOT be disciplined, it is quite possible we will regret that decision somewhere down the line.

It then goes on to compare the amount of pain we can suffer by being disciplined in the beginning, with the pain we are likely to suffer later on down the line if we are NOT disciplined. In other words, discipline and regret are two opposites of a coin.

It concludes by suggesting that the initial pain we might suffer if we choose to be disciplined is small, in comparison to the regret we may feel later in life that results from our earlier lack of discipline.

After all, an ounce is 1/32000th of a ton.

Is It Really That Hard To Be Disciplined?

Yes and no. I have found, in my own personal life, that the fear I had of what I might have to give up, often kept me from getting started down a disciplined path. I also found, that once I finally DID get started, it was almost always not nearly as bad as I might have imagined.

In other words, a large portion of what it takes to be disciplined is in your mind. Some of it is in your body, but most of it is in your mind. For example, I was on an exercise routine of nearly 2 hours per day and I managed to keep it up (mentally). However, once my achilles tendon ruptured, I was physically unable to keep exercising. So, I could be mentally determined to exercise, but if my body said no, I had no choice but to listen.

Regrets

I don’t know about you, but I sure have things that I regret not having done sooner in my life. For example, I regret not having lost weight sooner in my life. I regret having invested too much time trying to make some previous relationships work when I could have been out creating new ones. We all have regrets.

BUT, as we discussed in Law #22 - Position Yourself To Be Decisive, we must not beat ourselves up over out previous mistakes (i.e. - times when we were not disciplined). Instead, we must learn from these mistakes and do our best not to repeat them.

So, Why Does Regret Weigh More Than Discipline?

Regret usually doesn’t come into the picture until something bad happens.

For example, by not having lost weight sooner in my life, I missed out on some opportunities.  While there are new opportunities constantly coming my way, those opportunities are gone; never to be seen again.

Another example.  I ruptured my achilles tendon because I did too much exercise on the treadmill WITHOUT having the proper corrective footwear I needed.  Basically, it overused the tendon and it led to the eventual problem.  Had I been willing (i.e. disciplined) to purchase the appropriate corrective footwear, IN THE BEGINNING, it is quite likely I never would have experienced the injury.

In both cases, had I done the appropriate thing, IN THE BEGINNING, the bad thing might not have ever happened.

Another reason is that we quite often don’t regret things until it is too late.

They say that as we grow older, we will look back on our lives and appreciate the things we’ve done right and quite often feel regret for the things we did wrong; for the things we missed out on.  I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to not have to feel regret toward the end of my life.

So, What Can We Do About All This?

It’s simple!  We can all make a conscious choice to become more disciplined (unless you already are, in which case you can ignore this posting).

What does it take to become disciplined?  It takes the act of us deciding that we are going to do what it takes; that we are going to put up with the short term pain of discipline, so that we don’t have to live with the pain of regret.

Put down that second piece of cake.  Get up a little earlier 4 or 5 days a week and exercise.  There are countless ways you can become more disciplined.  In fact, you don’t really need me to tell you what they are.  You are quite capable of deciding for yourself, just exactly what it is that you need to do.  All it takes is for you to make the decision to get started.

Well?  What are you waiting for, get to it - NOW !!!