SELF-DISCIPLINE -THE KEY TO SUCCESS

 "TO GET WHAT YOU'VE NEVER HAD, YOU MUST DO WHAT YOU'VE NEVER DONE"

Dear Students….Understanding this title can be the difference between winning or losing and between greatness or mediocrity. It captures the essence of success .

I am sure most of us have asked these questions a million times over…..Why are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money? Why do some people live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?

I myself started out in life with few advantages, and then I began asking myself the same question time and again, “Why are some people more successful than me ?” This question changed my life completely.

Over the years, I have read hundreds of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two hundred years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As a famous philosopher summarized it beautifully years ago,   “Success is tons of discipline.”

Last year while I was attending an educational conference in Delhi during the lunch break I took my food and was looking for a table to sit down. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last empty table by myself, even though it was a table for three. A few minutes later, an elderly gentleman and a younger woman who was his daughter came along , obviously they were looking for a place to sit. With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me he sat down. I had just heard his fantastic paper presentation on Success & Achievement before the lunch break and was really excited to get a chance to interact with him. …!! Since he had just made a presentation on success and achievement, he started talking to me about success principles that he had derived from more than thirty five years of research and study during his tenure as a Principal.

After we had chatted for a while, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, “Of all the success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?”       He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, “The most important success principle of all he said , 'Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like doing it or not.'” He went on to say, “There are many other success principles that I have found in my research and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work.”

I am sure you will agree with me that Self-discipline is indeed the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for us, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can also rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can him. But without self-discipline, even a person with the best educational background and opportunities will seldom rise above mediocrity. As we all know that life is a constant struggle, we can never afford to rest on our oars, for if we do we will soon see ourselves going down-stream again.

Tina Olyai  

Director LAHS 

Gwalior