I do what I should do, when I should do it, whether I feel like it or not.
Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved without discipline. Yet it is the most disliked word. While many approve of it, few follow it. I will not be among the undisciplined crowd at the base of the mountain. I will be at the top with the few who dared to discipline themselves.
I know I am similar to a stone. Yet I will not remain a stone. I will shape myself into a masterpiece of inspiration for generations to come.
I am both the sculptor and the tools of sculpting. My chisel is attitude and my mallet is discipline. I use the tools carefully for even the slightest miscalculation can damage my hand or the stone.
Bit by bit, I rough out unwanted traits in me. And I learn to work with loving discipline for if I try to force myself into something I don’t want to be, I will break. I realize that I become what I want to, by seeing it first and then by carving myself into it with measured blows of discipline.
Related posts from Affirmative Thinking
I am responsible for my life. I accept self-responsibility
I am today the result of my thoughts
Related posts from the web
Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity – Brian Tracy
Each piece I make is a statement, I feel I am leaving little pieces of me and how I feel embedded in the sculpture. You have to learn to work with the stone, if you try to force it into something it doesn’t want to be, it will break. Eventually, you become part of the sculpture, and you can feel if it is right. – Gordon Cline
Mallet is different from hammer even as discipline is different from punishment
Related thoughts of Great Men and Women
If A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on till Z=26, then ATTITUDE is 100. What most of us perhaps are not aware of is that DISCIPLINE is also 100. That means with attitude and discipline we can achieve 200%. (A=1 T=20 T=20 I=9 T=20 U=21 D=4 E=5) + (D=4 I=9 S=19 C=3 I=9 P=16 L=12 I=9 N=14 E=5) = 200 – Anon
There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work. – Marion Rudy Kopmeyer
The picture used in this is post is one I admire and respect the most. It is a sculpture by Bobbie Carlyle. It is his vision of a Self Made Man who is carving himself out of stone, carving his character, carving his future.
June 12, 2009 at 7:40 am |
[...] I Do What I Should Do [...]
May 12, 2009 at 10:14 am |
Hello sir, Good evening
I neither opened the mail nor I visited the site for many days, not knowing what it is. But yesterday I opened it and went through the ‘perfect day’. Its really inspiring and motivating and these perfectly match my requirements as I often get confused and get depressed for unnecessary things.
I felt bad that I have not checked these mails related to affirmative thinking all these days.Still I did not completely understand the concept of these mails and the website and from whom I am exactly receiving these, I am happy that I could access them.
Sir, like the way mentioned in the perfect day, I have many times planned my days and routine(like how to begin a day, how good I can be, choosing the best ways of handling our daily routine by not hurting others feelings, to be genuine, introspecting at the end of every day, making a note in the dairy,etc,.) and started implementing and failed many times to continue it longer due to improper management of my works and time.
I always started them when I am disturbed or depressed, to get things back into control, but over a period of time when I used to stop them, its really difficult for me to restart with the same enthusiasm and determination that I did earlier. I want to overcome this. At the same time I have a question ,’cant we be perfect and live perfect by being genuine at heart, though there are some discrepancies and postponements in performing our activities and fulfilling our responsibilities, and not by putting every thing on paper and preparing a daily time table for our activities and schedules for our behaviors, which when we fail to perform to the fullest is demotivating me always.???”
May 12, 2009 at 11:01 am |
Thank you Ms.Ramya for your comment and questions. I believe that a perfect day is one in which we have done our best to be ourselves- genuine at heart, as you rightly said. A broken routine does not mean the end of the routine. As long as there is life there is hope for renewal.
A perfect day means this,”Today better and happier than yesterday and tomorrow better and happier than today.” And to answer your question, if sometimes or many times we cannot put on to a paper our activities, we can still put them in my minds.
And Ramya life is about growing up. Each day a little. Sometimes from our failures. At times from our hardships. Other times from our sorrows. And always from our joys. One question we should ask ourselves at the end of each day: Am I better now than in I was this morning when I woke up?” If the answer is yes, you are on track. If the answer is no, you are still on track, provided you find where you need to work on being better.
Recently I attended a training program of JCI where the trainer said this often: Good is bad; best is better.
Just do you best. And be better! Be Happier!!
May 9, 2009 at 8:22 am |
Dear Venkata Vinay,
Today I could take out some time to read your posts and they are really thought provoking. In fact, your version of life skills is interesting as I have the same wave length. But if I can add something I would like to say that after all the predicament, DISCIPLINE is not something one imposes on us. It is what we give to ourselves – to be, to do and to have. That is what is success in the real sense.
It is great to be in touch with you again. I wish you all the BEST. As you believe “THE RIGHT ATTITUDE ALWAYS HELPS”
Regards
ASHALATHA
May 11, 2009 at 7:39 am |
Dear Ms.Ashalatha,
I am very happy to receive your feedback. I am greatly indebted to your clarification that ‘DISCIPLINE is not something one imposes on us’. Thanks to your addition, I have changed the title from DISCIPLINE to SELF-DISCIPLINE.
I understand that the post is disciplining oneself but the title conveys a different sentiment.
Thanks again to you for helping me out with the synchronicity between the post and the title.
Please do visit the blog again and share your impressions on the posts.
Regards
Venkata Vinay
May 7, 2009 at 9:39 pm |
You are so right. Vivekananda has inspired us of our infinite inner strengths. We must not feel we are weak. But a mighty warrior like Arjuna too became helpless and needed Lord Krishna to guide him. I wonder if Lord Krishna played the role of a sculptor?
As I have very little knowledge in this area my questions may sound much too basic. Anyways thank you for your insightful reply.
May 8, 2009 at 4:36 am |
Dear Dilipji,
Truth is so delightfully simple. And basic too. Your questions are about truth. And so they are delightful.
The beauty of the Bhagavad Gita is that it appeals to the frailty in us to get up and get going.
My choice of the metaphor of the sculpture is based on a favorite prayer of mine: Mother, Chisel Thou my life according to Thy design. Also if we observe a sculptor in action, we will readily appreciate the need to do the same with our lives. The greatest tools the sculptor uses are not the ones in his or her hand, but in his or her head and heart!
The ‘I’ in the passage is not the little ‘ego’ but the soul, the atman. Ramana Maharshi, the humble saint of South India, had a chisel he said would sculpt us in our true design. It was asking ourselves,’Who am I ?’
Sculpting essentially involves three stages: “roughing out” stage, refining stage and the finishing stage. All stages involve removing large or small, unwanted chunks. Lord Krishna did just the same. He removed the ‘unwanted chunks’ like a divine sculptor from the mental makeup of Arjuna. Krishna urges,’yield not to this unmanliness, O Arjuna, for it does not become thee. Cast off this petty faintheartedness and arise, O Arjuna.*’
And Arjuna says, ‘I am your humble disciple. Teach me. Tell me what is best for me.’ For the first time, Arjuna uses the word disciple( Discipline and Disciple come from the same root). Till then, Sri Krishna had been his friend and comrade. And Krishna begins to chisel and in 700 strokes(verses) makes him fit for the battle of life.
May 6, 2009 at 11:54 pm |
Sir you have highlighted the aspect of discipline beautifully. However to say that ‘I am both the sculptor and the tools of sculpting’. If I am the sculptor can I work on myself? Will my mind, ego and other frailties not make it impossible for me to work and craft myself objectively?
http://dilipnaidu.wordpress.com/
May 7, 2009 at 7:14 am |
Dear Dilipji, Thank you for your question. It kept me thinking. And here is my opinion.
I feel that working on oneself requires discipline.
This problem is not unique. As you know, even Arjuna faced it on the battle field of Kurukshetra where Lord Krishna disciplines him to stand up and fight the enemies (symbolically mind, ego and frailties). Every one of us has our own battle to fight. And discipline makes the difference between greatness and insignificance.
As Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Do you know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces, are still lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man first came here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.’
Discipline, it is my opinion, reveals the possibilities that lie within the ’stone’ called ‘I’.
May 4, 2009 at 5:23 am |
Hi sir, good one.All your postings are motivating .