Finding Balance and Discipline
One of the toughest challenges we face as human beings is to find the ideal of a balanced and disciplined lifestyle. Balance and discipline seemingly don’t align with each other from a superficial perspective. Upon further review of the two concepts, one will discover an interesting dynamic. It is definitely a difficult process to understand this dynamic and apply it to our lives. I certainly found myself living too disciplined of a life and lacked the balance that is needed to experience the true wonders of life. The problem, from my perspective, in finding the optimum between balance and discipline stems from the nature and representation of the two very words.
Discipline instantaneously makes the human mind think of a rigid routine in pursuit of success. You push yourself to the extreme in order to achieve success; there is really no room for comfort. It is a stronghold of control on mind and body and does not allow for any room to stray away from the goal. In that state of mind, nothing else forces its way in since you have dictated the ins and outs of your mind. I found myself living too disciplined a life a few years back. My entire being was focused on one goal, so I committed my very being to ensure that I would not fail. In doing so, you lead your mental and physical states on a path almost certain for deterioration. That irreversible point in time of ultimate destruction, both mentally and physically, nearly happened to me if you remember from my last post.
The pressures of the world likely push us towards this disciplined lifestyle. You feel at affect to all of the surrounding events and, in turn, react to that sort of energy given off. Especially in modern-day, the advancement of technology and heightened performance of really anything in general is leading the human race towards this ever so illusive state of a perfect, predictable, programmable world. With this type of “perfect energy” in the air, you feel as if you need to commit your very being to this sort of perfection in pursuit of something as well. Let me be the one to tell you that this insane degree of discipline that you are about to impose on yourself is nowhere near the amount you need to “succeed”. This forced thrust into an unknown territory will do you no good. Let your own being commit itself to what is most natural. Then let a sense of discipline enter your life.
Balance, on the other hand, evokes a sense of comfort. You are in harmony with all of your elements and do not let one take over your life more so than the other. There is a flow that keeps everything from falling out-of-order. In this flow, you have the ability to experience all flavors of this rich world. However, you, as was the case with me, will feel the lack of purpose and aim at times with such a great deal of balance in your life. I initially found a more balanced lifestyle to be appealing once I shifted my whole mindset when it came to approaching life. However, I felt as if my life was not progressing towards something useful. Sure, this may stem from the fact that I am a competitive and goal oriented person by nature, but I think it is generally known fact that human beings want to feel useful in this world in some manner.
Comfort is a commodity nowadays that a lot of us choose to forgo for the material goods right now. You let your very being, from a mental, physical, spiritual etc. standpoint, slowly worsen for something that only lasts you a set period of time. Take the initiative in investing in yourself as family member, friend, professional and just a person in general to find a comfortable balance in life. By doing so, you will be investing in something which will last forever and will exceed past just a physical standpoint. Just remember that, as famous Bollywood actor Aamir Khan once stated in an interview, “Nothing is forever but that is the charm of life.”
Now, take a look back at the two concepts again. They seem to both flow well with each other. Discipline is enforced in order to make you more successful, thus leading to a greater sense of comfort to enter in your life. Balance is established in order to keep you even kill with all of the highs and lows you will experience in life. Both work in tandem well. More often than not, people visualize these sort of things, as did I once before, in a simple, straight line; take that very line and bend it and you get a whole new look at life. There is a cyclical nature to all things in life. We fail to realize this since we always seem to think of everything with a start an end point or on polar ends of a spectrum. Bend that straight line and you will come to the epiphany that rather there is a period of birth, growth and sustenance, destruction and REBIRTH.
From all of this, I have learned that it is vital that we strive to find that ideal between balance and discipline. Think of it like this: balance is necessary for a spiritual well-being and discipline is necessary for a physical well-being. A lot of you may not immediately understand what I mean by one’s “spiritual well-being”. To discuss this dichotomy between the spiritual and physical, I would go on forever and I know how valuable all of your time is in this fast-paced world, so I won’t digress into that right now. If you are interested in the topic though, I highly suggest watching this video and reading this article, both of which delve into this concept of the Law of Attraction.
"Freedom without discipline is foolish, discipline without freedom is insanity." - Ilona Mialik
