For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards. That's
one of life's great arrangements. In fact, it's an extension of the Biblical
law that says that if you sow well, you will reap well.
Here's a unique part of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Not only
does it suggest that we'll all reap what we've sown, it also suggests that
we'll reap much more. Life is full of laws that both govern and explain
behaviors, but this may well be the major law we need to understand: for every
disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards.
What a concept! If you render unique service, your reward will
be multiplied. If you're fair and honest and patient with others, your reward
will be multiplied. If you give more than you expect to receive, your reward is
more than you expect. But remember: the key word here, as you might well
imagine, is discipline.
Everything of value requires care, attention and discipline. Our
thoughts require discipline. We must consistently determine our inner
boundaries and our codes of conduct, or our thoughts will be confused. And if
our thoughts are confused, we will become hopelessly lost in the maze of life.
Confused thoughts produce confused results. Remember the law: "For every
disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards." Learn the discipline of
writing a card or a letter to a friend. Learn the discipline of paying your
bills on time, arriving to appointments on time, or using your time more
effectively. Learn the discipline of paying attention, or paying your taxes or
paying yourself. Learn the discipline of having regular meetings with your
associates, or your spouse, or your child, or your parent. Learn the discipline
of learning all you can learn, of teaching all you can teach, of reading all
you can read.
For each discipline, multiple rewards. For each book, new
knowledge. For each success, new ambition. For each challenge, new
understanding. For each failure, new determination. Life is like that. Even the
bad experiences of life provide their own special contribution. But a word of
caution here for those who neglect the need for care and attention to life's
disciplines: everything has its price. Everything affects everything else.
Neglect discipline, and there will be a price to pay. All things of value can
be taken for granted with the passing of time.
That's what we call the Law of Familiarity. Without the
discipline of paying constant, daily attention, we take things for granted. Be
serious. Life's not a practice session.
If you're often inclined to toss your clothes onto the chair
rather than hanging them in the closet, be careful. It could suggest a lack of
discipline. And remember, a lack of discipline in the small areas of life can
cost you heavily in the more important areas of life. You cannot clean up your
company until you learn the discipline of cleaning your own garage. You cannot
be impatient with your children and be patient with your distributors or your
employees. You cannot inspire others to sell more when that goal is inconsistent
with your own conduct. You cannot admonish others to read good books when you
don't have a library card.
Think about your life at this moment. What areas need attention
right now? Perhaps you've had a disagreement with someone you love or someone
who loves you, and your anger won't allow you to speak to that person. Wouldn't
this be an ideal time to examine your need for a new discipline? Perhaps you're
on the brink of giving up, or starting over, or starting out. And the only
missing ingredient to your incredible success story in the future is a new and
self-imposed discipline that will make you try harder and work more intensely
than you ever thought you could.
The most valuable form of discipline is the one that you impose
upon yourself. Don't wait for things to deteriorate so drastically that someone
else must impose discipline in your life. Wouldn't that be tragic? How could
you possibly explain the fact that someone else thought more of you than you
thought of yourself? That they forced you to get up early and get out into the
marketplace when you would have been content to let success go to someone else
who cared more about themselves.
Your life, my life, the life of each one of us is going to serve
as either a warning or an example. A warning of the consequences of neglect,
self-pity, lack of direction and ambition... or an example of talent put to
use, of discipline self-imposed, and of objectives clearly perceived and
intensely pursued.
