Taking the Punishment out of Discipline

"Discipline is the prelude to freedom. Therefore, we enter willingly into discipline to gain freedom." -John-Roger

Discipline has been a scary word for me. Maybe it stems from a childhood fear of being disciplined by my parents. Now as an adult the idea of being disciplined with myself in terms of work habits or diet/exercise or mental/emotional habits sounds so stringent and rigorous. I’m a nerd for etymology. When I looked up the origin of the word “discipline,” unsurprisingly it comes from the Old French word descepline, which means punishment. However, it also derives from the Latin word disciplina, which means instruction, teaching, learning, or knowledge. In English, these two origins evolved into the same word and I think that is quite unfortunate.

Even though I have avoided it, I am learning to embrace it because, as this quote states, it is a prelude to freedom, and freedom is what I (and many others) are ultimately after. Instead of looking at discipline from the Old French punishment perspective, I encourage all of us (myself included) to focus on the Latin root of word. By focusing on what a particular task has to teach us, we can view discipline as an exploratory learning process. And like all learning process, they take time, there will be mistakes, and, given enough effort and interest, we will master it. Being disciplined in something is no different than learning any other thing you’ve ever had to learn in your life. You have to stick with it.