Discipline -The Watchword for Success
Written by Labade Ayomiposi
Year 11 (2020/2021)
I have often heard people say that they want to be successful. Practically everybody I have come across and had a conversation with say that they desire to attain success. The truth of the matter is that people do not actually know what it takes to be successful.
By definition, success is the fact that you have achieved something that you want or have been trying to do or get. It could also be the fact of becoming rich or famous or getting to an exalted position in the society. To be successful, they say, requires diligence, determination and commitment, but it doesn’t end there, does it?
There is a very vital factor which is of utmost importance when trying to be on the right path to success. That factor is ‘discipline’’. By definition, discipline is the ability to control your behaviour or the way you live and work. It can also be defined as the way you control the way you behave and make yourself do things that you believe you should do. Success can be linked to discipline. Success could be achieved in so many things. We could be successful in our academics as students, we could be successful in our career as entrepreneurs or as employees. If one has a plan and he or she wants that plan to work in his or her life then such a person needs discipline. Discipline will make things easy for you and bring success into your life.
The kind of discipline that I am considering is self discipline, which comes from within. This kind of discipline is usually orientated personally. It requires training and support from the people around you. Relating this in terms of professionalism, employees need to be self disciplined so as to achieve success. As employees, discipline involves ensuring you save after earning your salary. To be successful, an employee should never squander his or her income right after receiving it. Warren Buffett once said, and I quote:
Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what’s left after saving.
You have to be disciplined enough to practice this and remember that practice makes perfect. So do you now see that discipline is important? The most successful people in life exert discipline on a daily basis. It teaches a person to be responsible and respectful. For students, discipline means keeping yourself focused on assignments and lessons, giving the teacher your rapt attention. As I said earlier, discipline is personally oriented and comes from within. In order to improve our discipline level as students, we must put away our phones and other distractions, not allowing things to distract us, take good notes, set up a good study area at home for ourselves, make purposeful friends at school. We must also know when to socialize and when to study and always say no to laziness. Discipline says, ‘I need to”. As disciplined students, our motto should be ‘I need to study”, ‘I need to do my assignments”, or ‘I need to attend classes”. These statements are necessities for us students. By doing all of this, we will begin to hear the knock of success on our doors.
Discipline has a lot of benefits which cannot be over emphasized. Discipline gives us the power to achieve our goals. A goal is something that you set to achieve. No matter the stage anyone is at in life, one tends to set long term goals. Discipline is what helps us to achieve these goals. As a student, one’s goal could be to attain A’s in all subjects. As a business person or an entrepreneur, it could be to make maximum profit. These are all wonderful goals, but they can only be attained if one is disciplined. Discipline also gives you a feeling of being able to control yourself. It gives you a sense of being able to say yes or no. No matter where you find yourself, you should be able to stand your ground. To say ‘no’ when you ought to and ‘yes’ when you ought to as well. You are sure that no matter the circumstance, you wouldn’t hesitate to respond the right way. You should be able to have a mind of your own, which people do not seem to have most of the time. This shows that discipline also leads to the build up of self confidence.
Finally, discipline gives you the ability not to give up. When most people begin a journey, they begin with full determination but halfway they tend to say, I give up or I can’t do this anymore. This is because they lack discipline. Discipline is what gives you the vibes to say, I can do this, I will get there, it’s too late to back down. Discipline motivates you to keep going, and to keep going means reaching the peak, it means attaining success. Even after achieving success, discipline is what helps you maintain that level of success and soar away. You begin to prosper and you go farther than your peers. This is applicable to both scholars and entrepreneurs. Laziness is an enemy of success. It will always want to set in but discipline is what drives you to keep going. Remember also that despondency is the father of failure and procrastination is its mother. To attain success is every one’s desire, but not everyone is able to work towards it. Success is like a door that needs a key to be unlocked. Discipline and diligence – that’s the key to success. The clock is ticking; very little time is left, so open that door now.
Photo Credit: Sarah Kilian, Brett Jordan/Unsplash
