The Enemy Within

And you… Revolution or Resistance?

Is it living or just existence?

Yeah you!? It takes a little more persistence

To get up and go the distance.

Rock Band Rush

When I was younger, I used to marvel at my father and his work habits. He had his own business and a couple of employees, but he always seemed to work much harder than anyone else. As a matter of fact, even to this day, I have yet to see anyone work any harder than him. He had his daily goals and his weekly goals, and he held fast to each of them. There were days when he didn’t come home till 8 or 9 at night because he still hadn’t achieved his objectives. I didn’t quite understand why he worked so hard then, but I surely do now. With a wife and 5 kids to feed, he had to make things work, and make it work he did. He was one of the most disciplined people that I have ever seen.

With Dad, there never seemed to be an easy way out. If something was to be done, it was worth doing right the first time. I don’t remember him ever taking a shortcut on a job or a project, and as a result, his business grew to such a level that he had trouble keeping up with it. He had a terrific reputation as a man who could get the job done.

I wish that I had inherited more of his discipline. I know that I can start and finish projects; I usually do, but there are some things that probably could have taken a shorter time to finish, but I just lost my momentum. Like painting the deck in my backyard or finishing the quarter-round in the hallway when I laid the new floor tiles, or even the paperwork that should have been done after a session that I presented. First, I lost my focus, and then I lost my energy, and my lack of finishing discipline kicked in and… well, you get the picture.

I often watch high-level athletes and am in awe of their level of skills. I remember little Kerry Scruggs at the 1996 Summer Olympics when she won her gold medal. Even before she had to do her last vault, her ankle was paining her. Because of her discipline and her training, she focused on the job at hand and visualized her successful completion of the last vault that she had to do. The look of seriousness and complete focus was so evident on her face as she prepared for her vault. Even though there were thousands of people in the arena and things going on all around her, she remained focused and intent on not just finishing but on giving a gold medal performance. For Kerry, good enough was not going to cut it; she had to do better than her last personal best. As history has recorded it, she did a spectacular job on the vault, and when she landed, her ankle gave way, but she stuck it and gave a gold medal performance. She had to be carried off by her coach because the pain was too great for her to walk. That is discipline.

The enemy of success, on the other hand, is a lack of discipline. How many people do we know with terrific potential that don’t live up to their abilities? They have an abundance of skills, but these skills remain dormant. If they put as much energy into doing as they put into getting out of doing something, they would simply astound themselves with their accomplishments.

If you feel that you are missing out on some great things because of a lack of discipline in a certain area, is it too late? No, absolutely not! Living up to our own potential is simply a choice that we have to make. Discipline is not something that we are born with; it is a skill to be learned and developed. It is a revolution that we need to create in our lives. Some people feel that it’s okay to quit when they hit the “wall,” but truly successful people only start to pick up momentum when they see their first obstacle. Instead of saying, “Oh, poor me, I guess I’ll have to quit now,” they say, “What’s the best way through, around, or under this problem.” They don’t quit until they choose to quit, and they don’t let other people decide how far they can go either. They know that it takes persistence to go the distance.

This week, as you are creating your future and accomplishing your goals, create a discipline of success and persistence. Develop the inner strength to carry yourself over the hurdles of life, and you will find yourself one day standing on a higher place and receiving your own gold medal.

Make this your best week ever.

Paul

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