The one-step secret to discipline

I need you to be intentionally observant of yourself for a minute.  What thoughts, feelings, or facial expressions come up when you hear the word: DISCIPLINE ?

I’m not talking about getting in trouble or receiving punishment.  I’m talking about training that is expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.

So, with that definition in mind, I need you to be intentionally observant of yourself again.  What thoughts, feelings, or facial expressions come up when you hear the word: DISCIPLINE ?

Did your face wince or grimace?
Did you feel shame?
Did you remember that New Year’s resolution you gave up mid-January?

I’d bet that whatever reaction you had, it was negative.  When it comes to discipline, we immediately think of all the ways we are not cutting it.  We may even flashback to the many times we’ve wanted to do something, tried to do it, and then let it fall by the wayside.  We think of things like:

We know we should eat better – but generally don’t.
We know we should exercise – but don’t feel like it today.
We want to start a business – but have only talked about it.
We want to read the Bible more – but haven’t picked one up in a while.
We want to speak more kind words to our family – but our default is to snap at everyone.
We know we’re supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus – but we haven’t volunteered at church or in the community.

If you search the internet for “how to have more discipline,” you’ll find pages of websites and blogs and books telling you how to “get it together” and how to “add discipline to your life.”  And that’s what we always try to do isn’t it?  We want to add discipline to the behavior or task we wish to perform.  We want to add some discipline to our eating habits, or add some discipline to our Bible reading plan…that’s the way to do it, right?

Well, the wisest man ever would disagree.

You see, I was reading through King Solomon’s proverbs recently, and, as you can imagine, he had a lot to say about discipline.  One particular proverb jumped out at me:

Proverbs 23:12
Apply yourself to discipline
and listen to words of knowledge.

Just 10 words.  Seems rather straight-forward.  But what struck me was the first half of the proverb: Apply yourself to discipline.  When studying the Bible, it’s important that we pay attention to the order of people, places, and things.  Order can indicate priority – and in this case, I realized that we might be thinking backwards about discipline.

We often want to add discipline to our tasks and behaviors to try to make them successful…but Solomon is putting it the other way around.  Too often, we treat discipline like it’s deodorant…let’s apply a little to our lives and hope it lasts and keeps us from stinking.  And then apply again.  And again.  And again.  Instead, Solomon says we don’t bring discipline to us, instead we are to apply ourselves to discipline. 

Discipline is something we put ourselves into.  If you read the articles and blogs about discipline, you’re likely to get information about systems and avoiding temptation and steps to make you more self-controlled.  However, no matter how many systems we put into place, whether or not we do the task or behavior comes down to one thing – we must choose to do it. 

That’s the one-step secret to having discipline – Do it.  Whatever it is, choose to do it.  Apply yourself to the task.

Even when you’re tired.  Even when you crave the junk food.  Even when you don’t want to read your Bible.  Even when you’d like to bite someone’s head off.  You don’t have to want to.  You don’t have to feel motivated.  You just have to choose to do it.

Systems and steps and self-awareness can help…but you still have to choose.  That said, making the disciplined choice repeatedly will eventually make that choice easier to choose. 

Want to be more disciplined?  Then let’s apply ourselves to it.

Keep Pressing,
Ken