By Chima ‘Cinkeay’
Nkiru
Discipline is a fundamental element in obtaining goals,
dreams and desires. “Being disciplined means being very structured,” (Adriana
Girdler).
Why talk about discipline?
A lot of us have found ourselves at a particular place in
life due to choices we made, the ones made for us or by mistake. A saying goes
that whatever you find to do, do it well, and wherever you find yourself leave
an impact. For one to get far in life, one has to have dreams, priorities, a
set pace to follow and discipline. Not just discipline which can be from
parents, guardians, friends, in the way of advice, scolding and sometimes
punishment. Self discipline is personal, it’s you (self), it’s the voice of you
speaking to you, cautioning you and no one would be best to change you except
you.
Discipline in a chosen profession or course of study is the
only thing after God that would make one excel in that field. The dictionary
defines discipline as, “The training of people to obey rules or code of
behavior, it could also be called controlled behavior”. As students, our top
priority is studying, but far beyond or before that, there is obedience to the
institution where one is schooling, compliance to rules and regulation,
attendance to lectures, obedience to everything pertaining to the course of
study etc.
Let us get to the
crux of the matter; as an Agricultural Technology student, first thing would be
to fall in love and stay in love with the course, or else as a course mate
would say, “u don barsh!”. No one, I mean no sane person jokes about with
something he/she is in love with. The issue will be taken as serious as a heart
attack. You learn to take crap from so many people because you love something
they do not understand.
It is said that whoever watches the sky will not plant,
because he will definitely find something that would put a damper on his plans.
For example, we (Yabatech, Agric tech students) are all carrying out various
entrepreneurial projects. The group planting water melon is our case study. Let
us get to the purposed end of their project, which will be DOH i.e Day of
Harvesting. If other students get to be privy to this DOH, they would go, “Ohh,
ah, these water melons are fine, they are fresh”, (another course mate swag
talk), “Can I have some? How did you do it?” No one would know that the land
had to be cleared, which I might add is strenuous, back braking, hand bending,
brow sweating labour (I coined that word, mind you). Then there is making of
seed beds, I wonder if there is a bigger word for weakening and tiresome other
than strenuous?
Well you get my drift, now the beds are in total, twenty
two, those bed also have to be manured, and wet regularly in preparation for
planting. The seeds are planted, now there is continuous watering, lest I
forget, weeding too, stubborn carpet grass if I may say so myself. I am even
tired of listing all the stages and processes involved. But it goes without
saying; a lot of work was put into making the DOH possible. All this would not
happen without discipline.
Discipline is the foundation of every successful venture. To
borrow from Adrianna Girdler, four elements needed to ensure discipline in the
business environment, I guess for now school is our business; are:
1. Purpose:
Be clear with where you want to go and the outcome you want.
2. Plan:
Write down the plan of how to get there.
3. Mini
rewards: Give yourself for good work and be a good self motivator.
4. Trust:
You must trust your purpose and plan.
Discipline sets apart those who just dream
and those who dream and do. The bible which is my number one source of
motivation says in Ecclesiastes, “The end of a thing is better than its
beginning.” No one would know what troubles or travails you have, you are going
through. But every one will have an opinion
about the end product, so be prayerful, persistent, disciplined and
never give up, the sky is just the starting point and stepping stone to
greatness.
