Because of the way discipline is typically taught, there’s not a lot of nuance. Yesterday’s message was to expand your understanding of those nuances in discipline. Flexibility was the focus. Now let’s look at the degrees of discipline.
One of the rigid tendencies with the common view of discipline is to see it as a yes or no quality. You have discipline or you don’t. You were disciplined or you weren’t.
I believe this type of thinking does more harm than good because it trends toward catching people doing something wrong and punishment. That turns people off from discipline. No surprise.
Discipline across your life isn’t binary. It’s much more like degrees on a spectrum. See discipline on a scale that ranges from +10 (complete and intense) to -10 (opposing and resistant).
The degree of discipline rises or falls on the scale based on:
- Higher or lower standards
- More or less intention
- More or less purpose
- More or less effort
- More or less control
- More or less skill
Your discipline doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to be complete. Aim to stay on the positive side of this scale. +1 is better than -1. Big journeys are always full of small efforts.
Everything is training for something. Do the work.
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