I’ve been thinking about discipline lately and the way I see it, discipline has to come from within. You might be able to force someone to do something but once you’re no longer around, will they keep doing it? If not, then they lack discipline and were only doing it to get you off their back.
To be disciplined, you have to have a desire to develop good habits, build them into routines that allow you to accomplish your goals, and then work at them consistently. Nobody else can do this for you; you have to develop it within yourself. The best thing someone else can do for you in this regard is show you how discipline will get you where you want to go. They can lead by example, use their past experiences as illustrations, and point out examples of discipline in your own life that you might have overlooked or never recognized in the first place. They might even let you experience the consequences that stem from a lack of discipline (provided you’re not severely harmed or killed as a result). These approaches are much more effective than trying to force you to be disciplined and then punishing you for noncompliance.
My experience with discipline is that it’s difficult to develop initially but takes a relatively short amount of time to become second nature. Once it’s developed, it’s easy to apply in a number of different areas so that it becomes a way of life. This doesn’t mean that I’m never without discipline or that I never regress; both of those things happen from time to time. However, when that happens, I’m now capable of picking myself up, getting back in the game, and picking up where I left off. This has been a long journey for me but I’ve gotten better at walking it and I think everything I’ve learned about discipline is going to serve me well in the years to come.