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 have the potential to define our performance or our experience. Others are smaller and less significant, but important nonetheless. Whatever it is you spend your time dreaming about or wishing for, there’s a space - a gap, a divide - between where you currently are and where it is you want to go. That space can feel overwhelming, intimidating, and demoralizing. You know what you want. You can see it clearly. But how, you may find yourself wondering, 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 the only way to reach our desired destination.
The bridge represents the daily decisions we make to do what winning demands, even when and maybe especially when we don’t feel like 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 us to do. It’s what you might call the “heavy lifting” of any meaningful achievement.
That’s what discipline is. It’s the decision we make each day - and often many times each day - to do the hard but necessary things that success requires us to do.
Imagine lifting a heavy concrete block, carrying it down into that divide, and setting a single piece of that bridge meticulously into place. Over and over again each day, this is the work discipline is calling us to do. It’s the price success requires us to pay. It’s difficult, inconvenient, uncomfortable work, but embracing it today gets us one step closer to making those dreams and aspirations a reality tomorrow.
It’d be nice of course if we could just wish our way to success, or if we could hire out the work and let someone else do the heavy lifting for us once in a while. It’d be nice if the process wasn’t so painful or if the progress wasn’t so slow. It'd be nice if living with discipline was easy...but it’s not. That’s why so many people avoid the work, 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, discipline can be cultivated. It’s not something that's programmed into our DNA. It's something we can develop. In fact, every time we intentionally make a difficult decision - like exhibiting some willpower or delaying some gratification, for example - we engage what's called the anterior midcingulate cortex of our brain. Like a muscle, that section of our cerebrum gets stronger, and in doing so prepares us to do more heavy lifting next time. The weight of those difficult choices never gets lighter, but our mind does get stronger. The more we work at it, the better and more capable it becomes.
I want to challenge you today to do what champions do: to keep working to develop your discipline, and to keep building your bridge. To do more than just talk about what you want, but to embrace the hard work it takes to turn that dream into reality. To do what needs done today, even if and maybe especially if you don’t feel like it. What you want is over there, across that divide. Can you see it? Today is an opportunity to embrace the process and to make some progress. To close that gap on your dream. To keep building your bridge - and in doing so, move another step closer to your desired destination.
