“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”

Jim Rohn

My grandfather was a real Clint Eastwood type. A former police officer who spent his retirement years on a ranch up in the Idaho mountains, my grandfather had a short (bordering on gruff), yet sweet way of communicating.

As a kid, I’d spend my summers between school years on that ranch riding horses, firing guns, feeding ducks, and plucking raspberries.

It was like stepping into a different world. Out of the city and into…I dunno, maybe a western movie?

I craved my grandfather’s attention cause to me at that time he embodied what it meant to be a man.

So I pushed myself to wake up at the crack of dawn alongside him (though still to this day I don’t see what the rush to beat the sun was, surely the animals would wait?).

I pushed myself to work hard digging fence-posts, even when it seemed as though we were building a fence to keep the nothing away from the other nothing.

I pushed myself to find only the perfect berries, and pluck them with delicate care, when buried deep in the bowels of a raspberry bush, even though there were countless thousands of good-enough berries easily within finger’s reach.

I learned discipline from my grandfather, but at the time, it wasn’t entirely clear what we we’re disciplining ourselves for. To a kid, it seemed like an awful lot of work for no particular reason.

Surely he wanted to spend his retirement relaxing a little more. Surely he would’ve been happier sleeping in and working a little less.

I asked him about this once. His answer has stuck with me all these years:

“People mostly only ever regret the things they don’t do.”

This puzzled my young pre-adolescent brain, but I nodded solemnly as though I understood perfectly.

In the years since that conversation I’ve twirled this little chunk of advice around my mind’s dance-floor a couple thousand times. Each time it reveals something new.

Not bad for only 9 words.

OPPORTUNITY

“My biggest regret could be summed up in one word, and that’s procrastination.”

Ron Cooper

Life is a cavalcade of opportunities.

Your time is limited, and yet so many of us live as though it’s not. We put off until tomorrow what would best be done today, confident in the unspoken promise that there will be a tomorrow.

We know this to be false, but whose there to call us out when we lie to ourselves?

So ask yourself this, “What am I putting off?”

What conversation have you been meaning to have with a loved one?

What task have you been telling yourself you’re gonna do tomorrow?

What life are you leading because you haven’t yet changed course?

These seemingly little things that we put off until tomorrow have a way of compiling themselves into a teetering tower of regret years down the road.

And it is regret you’ll feel when you reach the finish line of your life and look back to consider all the things you could have done.

It is regret you’ll feel when you look back and see so clearly the person youcould have been.

“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.”

Woody Allen

DISCIPLINE

“Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.”

John C. Maxwell

We don’t like to hurt. We don’t like to be uncomfortable.

But, as an interesting quirk of human psychology, we can’t achieve our maximum levels of personal life satisfaction without growth, and growth only ever comes through effort.

So we find ourselves at an interesting crossroad.

On the one side, we may willingly choose a path that we know will hurt. We know it will be uncomfortable. We know it will require sacrifice and effort.

This is the road of discipline.

The road leading the opposite direction is no less uncomfortable. It requires no less sacrifice or effort and surely it will hurt just as bad.

This is the road of regret.

The difference between these two roads is that discipline leads to progression, and achievement, and ultimately self-mastery, while the road to regret leads to unfulfilled promises, potential, and the inescapable truth that you are not all you could have been.

“Winners embrace hard work.They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win.Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment.And that’s the difference.”

Lou Holtz

PICK YOUR POISON

“The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.”

Jocko Willink

There are two types of pain, and it is up to you to decide which is right for you:

The Pain of Discipline

or

The Pain of Regret

It’s a decision that must be made moment-by-moment, day-by-day, and that means it will be difficult to stay on the path of discipline.

That’s okay.

The difficult path is surely the one worth following. It is the difficult path that will ultimately forge you into the strong, capable, and successful person you wish to be.

So stop putting off until tomorrow what can be done today.

Stop slacking and get to work.

And when you do work, make sure it is always to the best of your ability.

Never settle for good-enough.

Remember, it’s okay to try and fail. Every failure is a seed of opportunity from which learning and growth may yet sprout.

You have the power to choose the trajectory of your life. You have the power to obtain any goal you set for yourself. You have the ability to be whatever you set your mind to.

It’s only a matter of discipline.

So which path are you going to choose?

“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.”

Roy L. Smith