He’s been called “The American Lion;” a man that stands apart from others in his era as being someone who transformed himself and the time in which he lived. In the late 17TH century he saw the need to modernize the American Navy. While mourning his first wife he learned to rope and ride in the badlands of what is now North Dakota. During the Spanish-American War he dropped everything and went out west to recruit a ragtag group of cavalrymen from myriad walks of life to fight in Cuba under General Leonard Wood, becoming nothing short of a war hero. This man who had started as a frail boy with physical ailments grew to be some of the finest stock this country has offered. Becoming President of the United States at 43 years old, Theodore Roosevelt is in the elite club of Presidents to win the Nobel Prize.
Years ago I recall watching television; there were a series of commercials discussing virtues that people should have and selling them on the “why.” One featured a judge that said that discipline is the everyday price we pay in place of paying the price of regret. We bathe each day instead of regretting being ridiculed by those around us for smelling and/or looking like we have just woken up; we exercise and eat right so that we won’t become overweight and will feel better; we respect others so that they will, in turn, respect us; we follow the law because we would regret being punished for not obeying it (or, a person is just of virtuous character and believes that the rule of law is there for a reason). Discipline is not just important, it is essential for the leader to practice.
Imagine that you are a member of a military unit in a leadership role: Be that as an officer or a non-commissioned officer. With subordinate troops in your charge, in the face of imminent danger do you confide in your troops your fears, thus validating their own and possibly fomenting more, or do you practice proper discipline and do your duty as their leader and an officer of the public and the commander-in-chief that you serve? The answer is obvious in the context of discipline.
In today’s “instant gratification” society the practice of self-discipline is instead often traded for impulsive behaviors that, instead of leading to success, lead to feeling good now. Proper self-discipline can be what separates a slob from a person that looks and plays the part of the successful individual.
“The one quality which sets one man apart from another—the key which lifts one to every aspiration while others are caught up in the mire of mediocrity—is not talent, formal education, nor intellectual brightness—it is self-discipline…With self-discipline, all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream.”
I couldn’t have articulated it better myself.
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