Applying What You Know

This week I’ve written about discipline and knowing the rules. Over the years people, mostly friends, some family, have asked why I keep going? Some have asked what will it take for me to stick with one job? Others ask how is it that I’m happy considering all I’ve gone through? Applying what I’ve learned or what I know to what I’m going through at the moment is one way to get through tough times.

Herb and I spoke yesterday and during our conversation the differences in generations came up. We spoke about responsibility, being accountable, and taking initiative, but resolve or resilience could have easily fit into our dialogue. We hve evolve to either seek pleasure or avoid pain as Tony Robbins puts it and I agree. Society today has softened our human experience. In school only the top three spots in a competition received any type of award when I attended. Today and for years now as I understand it, everyone gets recognized and awarded a participation trophy. Life is quite the opposite.

When I was an employee, I was not recognized for showing up on time or doing my job. I was not sent a trophy when I paid my rent or electric bill on time. I did suffer the consequences of not paying a bill with decreased credit scores or no electricity though. A night or two without electricity taught me to pay my bills on time.There are lessons to be learned in my failures, but when we are insulated from failure and praised for simply showing up, we are deprived of those lessons.

Falling down is the simplest way to learn how to get up. Impact with the ground isn’t pleasant, but that’s part of the consequences. Recall the definition of discipline, the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience. The punishment was the ground impact as a consequence for not following the code for walking. A benefit is learning how to get up and keep walking by following the rules for walking. If I don’t follow the rules of my employer, I will be terminated as an employee. If I don’t follow the rules of traffic, I will be issued traffic citations or involved in traffic accidents.

Each situation has its own rewards and consequences. Application of life’s lessons are vital. A fool is doomed to repeat the past. If I’m still suffering the consequences for not following the rules of behavior after one or two failed attempts, it’s quite possible my punishment wasn’t severe enough to change my behavior. I’ve had that experience also and when it gets more severe, it’s a game changer.

Applying what I’ve learned and what others have learned lessens the amount of failures I have to suffer. Some suffer more than others. “A hard head makes for a soft behind” is a phrase my Mom would state when I misbehaved as a child. One of many such phrases have stuck over the years and are just as true today as they were when she uttered them all those years ago.

There may be ways to insulate yourself from all consequences. The flip side of the same coin is softness. Instead pf building your resilience muscle, it atrophies and dies.

Today, Friday, May 3, 2024, I am grateful that:

Recalling my history helps dictate my

This is the first part of the entry.