discipline...

a principle of mine had this legendary sentence attached to him. "You know why our school ranking has dropped? Because of people like you. No discipline, no sense of urgency..."

The hidden meaning behind that sentence is that a result or success is usually because of the amount of discipline that a person has. You put in the desired level of discipline, and the turnout is exactly as how much the input is. Mathematically, it is impossible to calculate the accuracy of your success because there is no definite formulas, but it is immediately obvious to infer that the relationship is directly proportionate.

So then, what is this term 'Discipline'? A simple definition would consist merely of replacing this word with another --- 'Self-control'. Self-control as it implies, is the ability to control oneself regardless of the situation, be it being tempted into doing something nasty or choosing the easy way out.

Self-control is an essential aspect of life that should not be left out, because it is the control within us that is most sincere. There is no point if somebody imposes rules on us for us to abide to, because that is not to our liking and we might just choose to ignore it if we do not see its benefits. However, if we do see its benefits and decide to follow it, then we have chosen to integrate it into our set of rules that we want to adhere to.

Those that instill discipline are labeled as disciplinarians. They are often portrayed as thin and lean men giving that stern look of always suspecting you, while holding a cane in their hand and walking around as if he is Big Brother. This picture painted, is stereotypical and only half true. It is correct because rules are not often followed when they should be, and it is them who have to take on the dirty job to punish offenders and eventually gain everybody's hatred in the process. It would have been much easier if everybody just chose to have maintained the discipline that they should and not make any trouble.

However, that is only possible in the most idealistic situations - whereby people in a particular system merely commit themselves to the task at hand and not do anything that is considered unnecessary or unproductive. It is much like the organisation described as in the book, 'Brave New World'. They stick to their daily routine and the work that they have to do, rarely ever stepping out into the unknown to explore because they have no time for such endeavours. They may be considered as robots, but they go about it with the thinking that it is for theirs and everybody elses' good, after all the conditioning that they had to go through when they were young.

Of course, where there are humans, idealism is unlikely to exist even anywhere in the near future. Rules still have to be put in place, and actions taken against oppressors of world systems. Discipline still has to be enforced, so that we, as a society, can progress towards the future for the common good.