The Work Principle You Don’t Want to Hear
The Dreaded D
I read a chapter from the book of Proverbs almost every morning. Anything that was written by the world’s wisest man, can teach me something. It has, at least in concept: a nagging little concept that keeps coming up.
It’s called discipline.
It’s necessary, in some amount for any kind of survival.
It’s necessary, in truck loads, for any kind of success as a freelance writer.
What It Isn’t
You hear discipline and remember a lecture from Dad, his eyebrow twitching, that ended with you being grounded for a week in the middle of summer. You don’t want truck loads more of that.
Discipline isn’t all negative consequences to wrong actions, though that’s what you remember best. Discipline is understanding what right actions are and applying that knowledge to your actions, decisions, daily habits, before you experience the negative consequences of not taking right action. The flip side of discipline is getting those bad consequences, either because you didn’t do what you should have or you did do what you shouldn’t have.
And you thought all that ended once you moved out of the house.
Nope. The principle of discipline is “self-evident,” as Stephen Covey says, “and can easily be validated by any individual.” Discipline belongs to that class of natural laws that “seem to exist in all human beings, regardless of social conditioning and loyalty to them, even though they might be submerged or numbed…”
Tenacious D?
I keep going back to this post by Allena at About.com. “Tenacity,” she proposes, “is the single most important thing you need to make it.” Wordnet tells me that tenacity is “doggedness; stubborn determination,” which is, surprise, a big part of discipline.
You, the freelance writer, don’t have a boss, set office hours, or the pressure of coworkers in the next cubicle to make us do what we know we need to do in order to succeed. You are your own boss. You choose your office hours, and then you choose whether to write or play solitaire. The coworker in the next cubicle might be your 2-year-old daughter. Mine would prefer I gave up this discipline thing altogether and blew bubbles with her constantly.
Forces, mighty forces of doom, darkness, rejection letters, and megalomaniac editors work against us. Discipline isn’t something you like, because it’s more difficult to do the right thing and consciously work at success than it is to just float along and hope you make it somewhere good. Throw in all the resistance from outside, and you must be doggedly, stubbornly determined to do what it takes.
The Payoff
The nice thing about universal principles is that they don’t fail. Focused discipline, applied consistently toward making you reach your goal, will get you there. It takes time, another reason you have to be doggedly, stubbornly determined. And have a great coffee maker near by.
References:
Stephen Covey, The 7 Principles of Highly Effective People, page 34.
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