You Only Need Discipline When You Have A Choice

October 27th, 2008          Email This Post        Print This Post

Discipline will help you do mitzvos, avoid aveiros, do more learning, stick to that diet, and help with just about anything you want. But discipline doesn’t account for all of your actions.

When something is 100% clear that you must do it now, then you do it. The same for the opposite - if it is 100% clear that the loss is greater than the gain, you won’t do it.

If you are in a rush to cross the street, you won’t jump in front of a truck that you know will hit you. It isn’t discipline to hold yourself back - you don’t have a reasonable choice - it is just so blindingly obvious.

When you have to turn in an essay the next day, and it is 10pm at night, I expect you would have at least started. If you think you can do it the next day - e.g. you may have time the next morning, you are expecting a snow day, the teacher has been out sick, then you may procrastinate a bit more. If it isn’t clear that you must do it now, then you have given yourself an excuse.

If you ever considered speaking lashon harah or onaas devarim (damaging with words, e.g. making fun of or insulting another person. Both are unfortunately quite common.) then perhaps you aren’t 100% convinced that this is actually asur, or perhaps the overall concept of an aveirah doesn’t have proper significance to you. How real is punishment to you? If you viewed speaking lashon harah like jumping in front of a moving truck, then you wouldn’t need any discipline.

While you should use discipline to stop yourself, realize that there is a deeper issue - why did you even consider this action in the first place? Instead of trying to merely overcome the obstacle, look for the root cause. Generally, there is a doubt: is this really worth the effort? Can’t I do it later? Is it really asur? Is the concept of punishment for aveiros something I have integrated, or do I just pay lip service to it?

Yes, using discipline should overcome the issue - eventually, and perhaps with many setbacks. Over time, the correct way of acting will become your self-image and a habit. But that may take quite a long time and remain superficial. Attack the root. Find what the deeper problem is.

When you find and fix the deeper issue, you will probably see this was just one symptom. When you delve deeper, your positive changes can have a much broader impact. Get more bang for your buck when you are working on yourself. Why treat the symptom, when you can treat the cause? 

Why are you resisting doing the right thing? Make the right choice so blindlingly obvious… that you no longer have a choice.

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