discipline and desire
In which an element essential to success of projects is discussed, the need for one,
the benefit of the other, and the difference between them.
Now that I have started some of my projects for 2008, the magnitude of the undertakings has begun to sink in, and I’ve started to realize what is necessary to bring them to successful completion. High on that list is discipline. At first blush this easily mistaken for persistence, but discipline goes beyond that. Persistence is simply continuing to work on something until completion. Discipline, at least in this case, means continuing to do things, but to do them at the appropriate time. This dimension of time and timing is what sets it apart from persistence. Discipline is required to go out in cold weather and take pictures in the winter, and it will be needed to go out in nintey to one hundred degree plus weather in the summer to do the same. It’s needed to make myself sit down and write immediately after a visit, to put my thughts down before I’ve forgotten them and the narrative becomes garbled, as it did the first two weeks.
Although it requires discipline, I want to take those pictures. I want to write that narrative. I want to finish these projects successfully. That’s desire. But it still takes discipline. There are other things I desire too, and it’s easy for me to get distracted by my environment and not do what I know I need to do. The two are complementary, though sometimes they are at odds. Although I want to write this narrative, there are other things I desire also, more immediate things - so I need discipline to make myself do what will make me happy in the long run and not allow myself to get distracted.
Desire is the fuel and engine driving a person to achieve a goal, and discipline is the steering. I know this may sound obvious, but today this kjnowledge seems to be lost on many people. For myself, I think maybe I should always have at least on long term project going, I don’t have nearly the same discipline now that I did when I was younger. Perhaps because my life was simpler, or I was better at focusing on what I want and tuning out distraction.
For those of you still reading, you may be formulating the argument that if I really desired the project to be successful, I wouldn’t need discipline because desire would carry me through. There was a time when I would have made that argument myself, but those days have come and gone. Desire, certain forms of it anyway, can be very short lived. Desire must be backed by commitment. That requires a conscious decision be made to proceed in a particular direction, and discipline keeps you going in the direction you have chosen in the manner you have chosen. You are always free to re-evaluate the manner of your travel, and even the direction you have gone in. Just don’t lightly discard your decisions without considering how close you may actually be to your goal. More people give up right before they achieve what they want than at any other time.