The Part to Success

I have pondered over the years on what the most important ingredient of success is. I have searched into the lives of great men and women alike who were successful and have gone before us. I have also observed the lives of some great men and women that are still alive and are succeeding day by day. What I found can be summed up in the words of Theodore Roosevelt – ‘With self discipline most anything is possible’. This statement is quite straightforward and accurate. Self discipline must be developed in order to succeed. It is the ability to force yourself to do what you have to do, whether you like it or not. One thing struck me when I was watching the film ‘The great debaters’. Forest Whittaker was talking to his son and he asked him to repeat a slogan he frequently said to him and it goes thus “We have to do what we have to do, so that we can get to do the things we want to do”. This sums up discipline.

The root cause of many ills in our society is indiscipline. Indiscipline is when a truck drivers decides to leave the container on his truck unlatch, it is when leaders squander money allotted for development, it is evident in the behaviour of the trader who after being sent off the road from street hawking returns with his/her goods, it is glaring in the passers-by who litter the environment with wraps of already consumed goods. There are many examples of the gross indiscipline in our nation. However, we can choose to act right. We can choose to be better citizens, pay our bills and taxes on time, we can choose not to accept the evils being done by corrupt leaders, we can choose to be masters of our lives.

Every action of self discipline you practice will strengthen your level of self discipline. Over time, it will strengthen your character, your confidence and your self esteem. You get to be what you want to be and the world will be a better place.

Note this, if you don’t discipline your self, the world will discipline you.