Excerpt from The Black Man's Toolkit, page 32
Tools of Understanding # 6: We Must Understand the Power of Personal Discipline.
Sloth makes you poor; diligence brings wealth. (Proverbs 10:4, The Message) Character gets us out of bed, commitment moves us into action and discipline enables us to follow through. Zig Ziglar
Now that we have touched on the damage done to us by some of the outward barriers to our success, let us now move to some of the inward barriers to our success. Too many black men are failing to reach success due to a lack of personal self discipline or self-control. Self discipline is defined as “correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement”. Too many of us are locked into a pattern of failure, repeating destructive behavior, knowing it’s destructive, yet not knowing how to break the cycle of self-destruction. We are used to other people correcting or regulating us but we are not used to self correction and self regulation. As a result, we develop patterns of destructive and negative behavior. I am here to say that patterns of negative destructive behavior can be broken but it will take a real desire on our part to break them. At some point in our lives we must care enough about the negative consequences of our behavior to want to change. Quite frankly, if we don’t care enough, we will not change. Neither the nagging of our wives, mothers, and girlfriends, the threats of our bosses nor the guilt of our consciences will cause us to change if we don’t care enough. One reason for lack of self-discipline is being more concerned about immediate personal gratification than long term benefits. Self-discipline means that we are willing to delay immediate gratification for future reward. For example the brother who goes to bed early and sacrifices sleeping late in order to get to work on time every day, reaps the long term benefit of a good evaluation for promptness at work. This can lead to other benefits such as commendations and promotions. It’s not likely that you’ll be promoted if you can’t get to work on time. Zig Ziglar says that “character gets us out of bed, commitment moves us into action and discipline enables us to follow through.”
There are many reasons for poor self-discipline, including poor role models as we were growing up. If you didn’t grow up with discipline, you don’t have to stay that way. It is a trait which can be developed by practice and training. The best way to develop discipline is through accountability, whether it is accountability to self or to others. Some black men develop discipline in the military because they don’t want to deal with the consequences of disappointing the drill sergeant. Others develop discipline on the job because they value the job enough to exercise self-control.
If you cannot break through to self-control on your own, by all means, don’t suffer alone. There are community based support groups available to help you overcome these addictions whether that addiction is alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, physical abuse, sexual abuse, abuse of finances other destructive behaviors.
Tools of Application: 1-In what areas of your life are already disciplined? Take time to praise God and celebrate this area of success!
2- In your opinion what motivates you to be disciplined in these areas?
3-Where do you need to grow in your personal discipline.
Prayer: Lord you know I struggle with discipline in the area(s) of _________________________(fill in the blank)
I need your help and wisdom to overcome in these areas. Help me transformed by the renewal of my mind. (Romans 12:2) Help me to become a man of discipline.
Tools of Understanding # 6: We Must Understand the Power of Personal Discipline.
Sloth makes you poor; diligence brings wealth. (Proverbs 10:4, The Message) Character gets us out of bed, commitment moves us into action and discipline enables us to follow through. Zig Ziglar
Now that we have touched on the damage done to us by some of the outward barriers to our success, let us now move to some of the inward barriers to our success. Too many black men are failing to reach success due to a lack of personal self discipline or self-control. Self discipline is defined as “correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement”. Too many of us are locked into a pattern of failure, repeating destructive behavior, knowing it’s destructive, yet not knowing how to break the cycle of self-destruction. We are used to other people correcting or regulating us but we are not used to self correction and self regulation. As a result, we develop patterns of destructive and negative behavior. I am here to say that patterns of negative destructive behavior can be broken but it will take a real desire on our part to break them. At some point in our lives we must care enough about the negative consequences of our behavior to want to change. Quite frankly, if we don’t care enough, we will not change. Neither the nagging of our wives, mothers, and girlfriends, the threats of our bosses nor the guilt of our consciences will cause us to change if we don’t care enough. One reason for lack of self-discipline is being more concerned about immediate personal gratification than long term benefits. Self-discipline means that we are willing to delay immediate gratification for future reward. For example the brother who goes to bed early and sacrifices sleeping late in order to get to work on time every day, reaps the long term benefit of a good evaluation for promptness at work. This can lead to other benefits such as commendations and promotions. It’s not likely that you’ll be promoted if you can’t get to work on time. Zig Ziglar says that “character gets us out of bed, commitment moves us into action and discipline enables us to follow through.”
There are many reasons for poor self-discipline, including poor role models as we were growing up. If you didn’t grow up with discipline, you don’t have to stay that way. It is a trait which can be developed by practice and training. The best way to develop discipline is through accountability, whether it is accountability to self or to others. Some black men develop discipline in the military because they don’t want to deal with the consequences of disappointing the drill sergeant. Others develop discipline on the job because they value the job enough to exercise self-control.
If you cannot break through to self-control on your own, by all means, don’t suffer alone. There are community based support groups available to help you overcome these addictions whether that addiction is alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, physical abuse, sexual abuse, abuse of finances other destructive behaviors.
Tools of Application: 1-In what areas of your life are already disciplined? Take time to praise God and celebrate this area of success!
2- In your opinion what motivates you to be disciplined in these areas?
3-Where do you need to grow in your personal discipline.
Prayer: Lord you know I struggle with discipline in the area(s) of _________________________(fill in the blank)
I need your help and wisdom to overcome in these areas. Help me transformed by the renewal of my mind. (Romans 12:2) Help me to become a man of discipline.