President for Self-Discipline Club

If Self-discipline had a Fan Club, I would nominate myself for President, and then I would run a very self-disciplined campaign to win. That’s how big a fan of Self-discipline I am.

Self-discipline seems to be a learned trait, and I credit my parents with training and molding me into who I am today. They drilled into me that I needed to study hard and then work hard at a job in order to support myself, and also to be frugal and save-save-save. They gave me some pretty good genes (but also passed on some pretty awful traits like selfish, self-centered, superficial, moody, and materialistic). I suspect that my Self-discipline is selfishly motivated, and is combined with less admirable traits like super-competitiveness and seeking approval from others. Thankfully, the negative traits I’ve got seem to co-exist very well with Self-discipline.

self_discipline_queen

In my life-journey, Self-discipline didn’t mean “by-myself-discipline” and all along the way I took suggestions, advice, and help from others (i.e., another ‘bad’ trait: opportunistic). It’s good to, if at all possible, milk the good out of people trying to tell you what to do, rather than see it as criticism. Soliciting help seems natural, not to be thought of as an admission of weakness or failure, and certainly not contrary to having Self-discipline. Taking advantage of outside resources gives me a much better chance of success vs. going it alone. If I need to make changes in my life but choose only to rely solely on myself (pardon the redundancy, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to make this point), then I’ll end up not far from where I am already, since I’m the person responsible for getting to the point of needing to change.

In the final analysis, Self-discipline is my friend for life, along with its sister traits of determination and consistency.

[Img.Src: Florida Citrus Queen, 1955]

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