BUILD YOUR BRIDGE
We all have things we want. Call them goals or dreams or aspirations, but they're out there for each of us. Some of them are really big and meaningful, the kind that feel like they might define our performance or our experience. Others are smaller and less significant, but important nonetheless. Whatever it is you spend your time thinking about or wishing for, there’s a space - a gap, a divide - between where you are and where it is you want to go. That space between can feel overwhelming, intimidating, and demoralizing. You know what you want. You can see it clearly. But how will you ever get there?
The answer to that question is simple. The answer is discipline. The author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” I love the image he creates with those words. We’re here, and what we want is over there. Discipline is the bridge. It’s our only means to get there.
The bridge is our ability to do what needs to be done, even if and especially when we don’t feel like doing it. That’s what discipline is. It’s the choice we make each day - and often many times each day - to do the hard but necessary things that success requires from us. It’s what you might call the “heavy lifting” of successful living.
That’s what discipline is. It’s the choice we make each day - and often many times each day - to do the hard but necessary things that success requires from us.
Imagine carrying a heavy concrete block down into that divide and setting another small piece of that bridge meticulously into place. Over and over again each day, this is the work that discipline calls us to do. It’s the price success requires us to pay. It’s inconvenient, uncomfortable work, but embracing it today gets us one step closer to making those dreams and aspirations attainable.
It’d be great if we could just wish our way to success, or if we could hire out the work and let someone else do it somedays. It’d be nice if the process wasn’t so painful or if the progress wasn’t so slow. It'd be ideal if living with discipline was easy...but it’s not. That’s why so many bridges go unbuilt, and why so many dreams and aspirations go unmet.
There is good news for us bridge builders, though. Science has proven that like any other skill, our discipline can be developed. It’s not something we either have or we don’t. In fact, every time we make a difficult choice - like exhibiting some willpower or delaying some gratification, for example - we engage the prefrontal cortex of our brain. Like a muscle, that area of our mind gets stronger, and in doing so prepares us to do more heavy lifting next time. The weight of those difficult choices never gets lighter. The building blocks of discipline will always be a burden. But your mind does get stronger. The more you work it, the better it gets.
I want to challenge you today to do what champions do: to develop your discipline and build your bridge. To do more than just talk about what you want, but to embrace the hard work it takes to turn your dream into reality. To make that commitment a priority, and to intentionally do what needs done today, even if and especially when you don’t feel like it. What you want is over there, across that divide. Can you see it? Today is the day to embrace the process and to make some progress. Today is the day to close the gap on your dream. Today is the day to keep building.