The Role of Discipline
Often I hear people say that they’re not disciplined enough to learn martial arts. But it’s not discipline you need – it’s only curiosity, and a desire to learn. Discipline, like strength, flexibility and the specific techniques you learn, is not a prerequisite – it is a skill that develops over time, as you practice it.
All advanced martial artists – the discipline they possess is not that which they started with. They started with curiosity – and maybe a desire to learn how to defend themselves, to learn to protect themselves and their loved ones from harm.
I was nervous, and easily intimidated as a youth. I believed I needed to exercise but I didn’t like conventional methods of training. I didn’t like team sports, and didn’t feel like I could always participate. But my curiosity was engaged by the martial arts, even though I was not disciplined. I was merely interested.
Self-discipline. We always assume it’s good. It enables you to follow through with the things you love, that you find rewarding. It enables you to protect that which is weak, vulnerable and in need of protection. It can help you to grow, it can serve your development and liberation, but if misapplied, it can also be used as a tool to enforce your own oppression.
And that’s how we’re used to thinking of it these days – I must be disciplined and not eat that cookie – all that diet propaganda – these rules that would have you believe they’re for your own benefit, when really they exploit your fears and demand your obedience. Discipline should be used to help you to grow, but it becomes tricky when you discipline yourself to a thing that may not be in your best interests.
We have become used to disciplining ourselves to certain tasks, behaviours or actions, and many of these can have harmful consequences. The role of discipline is not to make you train past the point of what’s safe or effective, it is not to force you to eat grossly inadequate amounts of food in the name of health. These are perversions.
All martial artists who are dedicated to their training care about protecting that which is vulnerable.
Discipline can help you to see through the lies and decide for yourself what’s worthwhile. Because if you’re going to invest your time and energy into a thing, it had better be worth it.
The key lies not in pretending that vulnerabilities don’t exist, but in learning to accept and understand them, and in learning how to protect them from threatening situations and antagonistic forces.
These days people would demand our compliance and tell us it’s all for our own personal development. But what’s personal about pandering to the demands of the status-quo? What can be a useful tool in serving our development and liberation has become a tool to ensure our own compliance. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. The purpose of training is not so that we may serve the beauty standard, it is about our own development. That’s why it’s called training.
You can learn to protect your own boundaries, you can learn to defend your own vulnerabilities, as you would defend the rights of the people you love. Self-discipline helps you to do just that. Discipline reminds us to treat ourselves with kindness – to understand and accept our vulnerabilities and care for them with respect – and to care for ourselves with respect.
Discipline does not require harshness, or stubbornness, or to buy into the delusion that our vulnerabilities can be eliminated. It does not require negative self-talk, but instead grants us fortitude against negative self-talk, because self-discipline bestows upon us the capacity to say no, and to reject the notion that we must belittle ourselves when we fail at compliance. When we berate ourselves, our sense of self-discipline can remind us not to do so, and enable us to forgive ourselves, to be not resentful, and to move forward into a more positive head-space.
Self-discipline reminds us that our vulnerabilities do not make us weak, but instead it reveals to our conscious mind the insidious threats to our vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed. And in time, through training and clear thinking, we can learn to defend ourselves against these threats.
Our character, that which makes us unique, is under threat. Modern fitness culture would have us believe that we cannot be a capable judge of what’s good for us, what’s in our own best interests. Discipline reminds us that we need not strive to be what society demands of us, and that our own path is our own, and it must be respected and protected.
Being disciplined does not mean that you have to control your emotions and desires all the time, it grants you freedom to dedicate yourself to your goal, whatever that may be. But discipline does not dictate our goals and values to us.
So the role of self-discipline is not to enable us to berate or abuse ourselves. We use discipline to enable our growth and development, that is it’s true purpose, and to protect our sense of self, our confidence and self-esteem. Our worth, in the face of a culture that would have us believe we are unworthy if we’re not skinny, and would see us living in a perpetual state of needing to qualify and seeking validation.
Our self-discipline protects us from exploitation, it does not serve to exploit us further. When correctly applied, discipline enables you to protect and defend that which is fragile, and precious, and deserves to be protected – be it your own body or character, or family – and that is what learning martial arts is all about.
All advanced martial artists – the discipline they possess is not that which they started with. They started with curiosity – and maybe a desire to learn how to defend themselves, to learn to protect themselves and their loved ones from harm.
I was nervous, and easily intimidated as a youth. I believed I needed to exercise but I didn’t like conventional methods of training. I didn’t like team sports, and didn’t feel like I could always participate. But my curiosity was engaged by the martial arts, even though I was not disciplined. I was merely interested.
Self-discipline. We always assume it’s good. It enables you to follow through with the things you love, that you find rewarding. It enables you to protect that which is weak, vulnerable and in need of protection. It can help you to grow, it can serve your development and liberation, but if misapplied, it can also be used as a tool to enforce your own oppression.
And that’s how we’re used to thinking of it these days – I must be disciplined and not eat that cookie – all that diet propaganda – these rules that would have you believe they’re for your own benefit, when really they exploit your fears and demand your obedience. Discipline should be used to help you to grow, but it becomes tricky when you discipline yourself to a thing that may not be in your best interests.
We have become used to disciplining ourselves to certain tasks, behaviours or actions, and many of these can have harmful consequences. The role of discipline is not to make you train past the point of what’s safe or effective, it is not to force you to eat grossly inadequate amounts of food in the name of health. These are perversions.
All martial artists who are dedicated to their training care about protecting that which is vulnerable.
Discipline can help you to see through the lies and decide for yourself what’s worthwhile. Because if you’re going to invest your time and energy into a thing, it had better be worth it.
The key lies not in pretending that vulnerabilities don’t exist, but in learning to accept and understand them, and in learning how to protect them from threatening situations and antagonistic forces.
These days people would demand our compliance and tell us it’s all for our own personal development. But what’s personal about pandering to the demands of the status-quo? What can be a useful tool in serving our development and liberation has become a tool to ensure our own compliance. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. The purpose of training is not so that we may serve the beauty standard, it is about our own development. That’s why it’s called training.
You can learn to protect your own boundaries, you can learn to defend your own vulnerabilities, as you would defend the rights of the people you love. Self-discipline helps you to do just that. Discipline reminds us to treat ourselves with kindness – to understand and accept our vulnerabilities and care for them with respect – and to care for ourselves with respect.
Discipline does not require harshness, or stubbornness, or to buy into the delusion that our vulnerabilities can be eliminated. It does not require negative self-talk, but instead grants us fortitude against negative self-talk, because self-discipline bestows upon us the capacity to say no, and to reject the notion that we must belittle ourselves when we fail at compliance. When we berate ourselves, our sense of self-discipline can remind us not to do so, and enable us to forgive ourselves, to be not resentful, and to move forward into a more positive head-space.
Self-discipline reminds us that our vulnerabilities do not make us weak, but instead it reveals to our conscious mind the insidious threats to our vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed. And in time, through training and clear thinking, we can learn to defend ourselves against these threats.
Our character, that which makes us unique, is under threat. Modern fitness culture would have us believe that we cannot be a capable judge of what’s good for us, what’s in our own best interests. Discipline reminds us that we need not strive to be what society demands of us, and that our own path is our own, and it must be respected and protected.
Being disciplined does not mean that you have to control your emotions and desires all the time, it grants you freedom to dedicate yourself to your goal, whatever that may be. But discipline does not dictate our goals and values to us.
So the role of self-discipline is not to enable us to berate or abuse ourselves. We use discipline to enable our growth and development, that is it’s true purpose, and to protect our sense of self, our confidence and self-esteem. Our worth, in the face of a culture that would have us believe we are unworthy if we’re not skinny, and would see us living in a perpetual state of needing to qualify and seeking validation.
Our self-discipline protects us from exploitation, it does not serve to exploit us further. When correctly applied, discipline enables you to protect and defend that which is fragile, and precious, and deserves to be protected – be it your own body or character, or family – and that is what learning martial arts is all about.