A random note on Discipline

I agree with M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled) that a type of discipline is balancing, and a type of balancing is what he calls bracketing. To me, this means that when you come across something or someone strange, instead of automatically judging it or (them) by what your past experiences have taught you to think, think outside the box and accept this thing or person for what or who they are. In other words, don’t be too quick to judge and have an awareness of your judgmental state, and why it is the way it is. It could be your upbringing, or your personality, or a combination of the two.

The phrase “ignorance is bliss” is not true. I have always thought it was, because the less you know about something scary, the less painful it is to endure. But Peck has taught me that the pain you go through because of the knowledge you have is ultimately for your betterment. At the end of your experience, whatever it may be, after all the pain is over, you are stronger and smarter for it. That is what life is all about. Learning and edifying yourself through painful experiences. If you shrug back from pain and shortcut to the end, not only are you selling yourself short of a life’s lesson, but you are also cheating and making yourself, and others think that you are someone you are not.

Examples of these “painful experiences” can be anything. They can be a death of a loved one, writing a novel, a long journey (this journey can be physical or mental), or even something as simple or reading a comprehensive, or somewhat boring book, doing your hair, or brushing your teeth. The point is that with any of these, you can either do it right, and go through the pain of doing it, and in the end- reap the rewards; or you can cut through the hard parts, hurry through it, and not get the best experience of it. If we choose to live our lives this way, then at the end of life, when all is said and done, we will have many regrets and not be able to say that we lived life to its fullest. So my goal is to face challenges and tackle them with full force…because I know that it will strengthen me, and make me want more out of life, and therefore, more challenges.