I Am Project - Disciplined

A requirement of all my black belts and black belt candidates is weekly journalling. I have learned over the years that writing out my thoughts helps me organize my mind and give me insight into my faults and motivations. It is a tool that I encourage all my students to use.

Sometimes it can be difficult to concentrate or even organize my thoughts to the degree required to actually record them in some sort of comprehensible manner. At times like that it is easy to put off my journalling efforts until gumption, opportunity, and inspiration happen to intersect. Without structure and discipline it is easy to fall behind and let time slip by without even noticing I am not fulfilling my commitment to myself until it is too late. To top it off, if I do not journal I am not completely reflecting upon my motivations and actions and thus I tend to react to things in my life without truly understanding the situation that I am reacting to. Makes for hasty decisions and bad choices.

My first trip to Alabama was a real eye opener for me concerning the value of structure. It had been a long time since I had experienced a prolonged situation where my time was structured to such a degree. I really excelled with this imposed structure and I felt more focus and thus experienced more efficiency than I had for years. This gave me insight to the value of discipline in my journalling.

Since I do not have complete control of my gumption or inspiration, it is important for me to exploit the one thing I can control - opportunity. Sunday is my down time, I know that at some point during the day I will have the time and opportunity to journal. If I am disciplined and adhere to the structure of journalling every Sunday, whether or not I have anything to express (like today for instance), I will fulfill my weekly journalling goal and further imprint the discipline of journalling upon my weekly structure.

I know it provides comfort to me when I read my UBBT teammates’ journals. What they write is not as important to me as the fact that they did take the time to write. There is something soothing about knowing they’re out there and traveling on the same path as me.

“He that cannot obey, cannot command.” - Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)