Character X (2) -- Discipline

The talk of character continues. In the first post of this series we talked about humility and how it would help us if we'd integrate this into our daily lives. Discipline, is another ingredient in the recipe that we need in order to be successful or to live our life to the fullest.

Discipline, what it is all about?

"Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability"

-Roy L.Smith-

I've heard many people, including myself complaining about how limited is our time, how wish we could have 48 hours a day! Having said that and relising what is the problem with it, I knew that I had to change, I had to be more discpiline. You may think that discilpline restricts your creativity because you may think that it does not give you the freedom to do whatever you like to do at any given time or moment.

Think again.

Discipline is not restricting, in turn it releases and enhances your ability to be creative and at the same time being efficient. It helps you to finish your task in hand in the right duration and that allow you more time to do more things that you can ever think of. Be disciplined and you will find that you are having more time to do things than before.

Being discipline is to endure and finish off given task no matter how much you hate it. Being discipline is not an emotion-based decision, it is an rational-based decision. Meaning one day you might not be feeling to be discipline, but you chose to be discipline. For instance a property agent would have to have enormous self-discipline in order to achieve higher sales, it is not emotion-based decision because the agent may not have any income at all if him/her based on their own emotions. There would be tough times in life, time that we would have to dig deep and overcome it with a rational-based decision, to be discipline, to be persistant to overcome the situation.

So be discipline, and remember discipline does not restrict or stop you from being creative, but it enhances your creativity and turn them into enormous ability!

Down but not out

Any grown ups or kids that had watched any episode of Ultraman could tell you the ending of each episode without watching it: The bad guy had few shots at the Ultraman, the light turns red and blink, then the Ultraman fights back with the killer strike, Ultraman wins.

An epic example of never stop fighting, when you had fell, come right back up and fight again. 

It is easy to be condemned in past failures, bragging about it all our lives and that's it, there goes our lives, wasted due to our failure to get right up when we fell. Great man and women in the history were not great because they did not failed in their lives, they were great because of how they overcame their failures and moved on to make success in their lives. Abraham Lincoln overcoming time and time of election defeats and finally being elected as the president of the United States; Thomas Edison overcoming times of failure in finding the right material to make the lgiht bulb and so many more other great man and women in the history.

There are 2 example in the bible that we could use to illustrate what differences it could be when we decide to either condemn ourselves in failure, or to move on from it.

King David (2 Samuel 11-12)

In the story of King David, recorded in 2 Samuel, had sinned against God, by committing adultery and set up the husband of the women whom he had gone to bed with, to death ultimately. Knowing this, God sent a prophet in the name of Nathan, to rebuke him and pointing out what he had done wrong and immediately King David confessed and asked forgiveness from God. A King we are talking about, he could have just ordered marshalls to take Nathan down and put him to sentence because of accusing the king. But he did not, he knew what was wrong and switfly admitting it and submitting to God once again. He then became one of the greatest king in the history of Israel and God stated in Acts 13:22 :"I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my heart..". 

Apostle Peter (John 18,21)

Apostle Peter was one of the greatest apostle the bible had ever recorded. But one of his most infamous act was his denial of Jesus during Jesus' presecution, which then led to a temporary heart breaking period for Peter. But in chapter 21 Jesus talked to Paul and 3 times He asked Peter whether he loves Him, and all 3 times Peter said yes. Peter had 2 choices, one is to condemn himself to what he had done, or two to accept God's love and grace and bounce back to serve Him more. Peter chose the latter, and because of that He went on to spread the word of God so passionately that 3000 accepted Christ in one of His sermon.

So my friends, I urged you that in life, all man and women would fail in one way or another. The question you should ask yourself is not how could I possible fail, or fall but to ask yourself where do I go from now, do I stay one and keep bragging about my failure or to take the failure as a lesson so that you will never let it happen again?

The decisions are yours to be made.

完全交托，在你手中

最近在听一首歌，一首很感人的歌.

提醒了我很多东西，也完全的溶化了我的心. 有多少时间我们在挣扎，不愿意放手，不愿意把自己的不安全感完全交托. 将工作，家庭，人际关系，甚至所有的情绪自己一个人来扛. 听了这首歌，我全然轻松了。

“凡劳苦担重担的人，可以到我这里来，我就使你们的安息。” 马太福音11:28

交托，是信心的动作，代表完全的顺服.

交托，也是把生命完全托在祂的肩膀，生命中一切让祂为你扛. 

交托到来喜乐，带来安息.

当你选择完全交托给祂，祂就会为你的生命负责到底，永远在你左右，永远不离开你.

生命就像一天条橡胶带，你拉得越紧，橡胶带就越容易断开，但当你学习放手，橡胶带会是完美无缺. 

学习交托，顺服是一生都学不完的功课，但我相信至少我们可以今天比昨天更会交托，更多顺服.