You can do whatever you want to do: The Lie

You can do whatever you want to do. Isn’t this what many are told all through our lives? So many parents and teachers tell those in their care that statement as a means of motivation if a person is having difficulty with a task. Little ones are told this by their parents. Most come into the world with full expectations of success. Why not? They don’t know that they “can’t”. If you believe you can’t fail, you could do anything.

What is missing with the “You can do whatever you want” statement? This is a lie IF it is not followed with: As long as you study, do the work and apply the discipline necessary. Why is that part left out? Sure, we want our activities to be “fun” or “enjoyable”. Why spoil it with “work”? Right? Sitting down with a guitar or at the piano and just playing a melody? Yes, that is fun. Just allowing the music to flow from us truly connecting to the possibilities of the universe. But, how many sound good just allowing the music to flow? Very few. Sure, they are having fun, but is it any “good”?

What does it take to be good? Practice, study, learning the basics, repetition. Having a teacher criticize and improve the technique. Then practice, study and repeat… over and over again. Then the teacher begins to disappear from this equation as the student of many years begins to self-motivate, having learned the basics and practiced them to subconscious memory. This self-motivated practice is known as discipline. Doing it not because someone told you to. Doing it because you want to: to become better; to understand more. You want IT to be.

Why are so many people afraid of Discipline? Looking at the definition, this word can be bad:

  • the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience:
  • train (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience

Wow. So many view discipline this way: To punish for disobedient behavior. Punishment. Here are more definitions:

  • training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character
  • the ability to control yourself or other peopleeven in difficult situations
  • the ability to control a mental activity
  • the ability to make yourself do something, even if it is difficult, so that you can achieve a goal. (This one was way down the list of definitions at the Cambridge Dictionary website)
  • a subject or a particular type of work

I associate it with education and self-control, along the lines of Merriam-Webster:

The Root and Meanings of Discipline

Discipline comes from discipulus, the Latin word for pupil, which also provided the source of the word disciple (albeit by way of a Late Latin sense-shift to “a follower of Jesus Christ in his lifetime”). Given that several meanings of discipline deal with study, governing one’s behavior, and instruction, one might assume that the word’s first meaning in English had to do with education. In fact, the earliest known use of discipline appears to be punishment-related; it first was used in the 13th century to refer to chastisement of a religious nature, such as self-flagellation.

Yikes! No wonder people fight against this word. For so long it has held negative implications… if you do something wrong you will be disciplined. Although self-discipline is supposed to be more positive, if you think about the 13th century and self-flagellation, maybe not. Our independent nature tends to fight against doing what we are told… even if it is ourselves telling us to do it. We have to get passed this. Not because we are told to do. Because we want to do better as people.

You can do whatever you want to do… as long as you are willing to put in the effort. Just make sure what you want to do is inline with furthering the cause of humanity. Let’s face it, most people these days are not interested in doing good or helping there fellow human. They have become spoiled brats or just plain lazy waiting for someone else to do the work for them.

Get out there and do what you want to do! Maybe you won’t succeed on the first try. (The second, or even the hundredth) Just keep going! Apply the discipline necessary and you can do whatever you want! We await your contribution and will salute your success!

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