The Discipline of Writing

Years ago when I met my current Writing Mentor Herb, one of the things he suggested was to write something everyday. He further explained it didn’t matter if I wrote a paragraph, a page, or a chapter. He basically said I needed to get better by doing what I said I was doing, writing.

Years before, when I was a new Financial Advisor, one of the tenured advisors told all the new people to write a ticket everyday. In essence, perform a securities transaction daily. It didn’t matter whether I was buying or selling a stock, an option, or bonds, but that we needed write an order ticket everyday.A former fellow coworker and salesman says and does the same thing with cars. “Hermano, if I’m not selling a car everyday, I have to ask myself why I came to work. It’s why I’m here, to sell cars and if I’m not selling one, then why I am taking time away from my family?” Each of them and many more exhibit self discipline.

Defined as the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience, each of the three mentioned earlier displayed exceptional amounts of discipline. I on the other hand, faced the punishment side of the definition. Without self discipline, I was punished with failure or mediocrity as a Financial Advisor and Car Salesman. The definition holds true that if you don’t do one, follow a code of behavior, you get punished.

One of the benefits or by-products of living with purpose is self discipline. I have vast experience of living without it, but only scattered amounts of living with it. Sustained self discipline has proven elusive, until recently. Over the last seven or eight years, I’ve done a few things consistently and I’ve begun to reap the benefits. The discipline of writing goes beyond writing and cn be applied to every other career I’ve had and probably every other aspect of my life.

Ignorance is not a viable option. The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior says what need to happen on my end. If I don’t know the rules or the code of behavior, I must first learn those. Once I’ve committed those to memory, then I must follow that code or set of rules. It’s simple and straightforward, but not easy as it sounds

Toady, Monday, April 28, 2024, I am grateful that:

I feel more renewed after the weekend. I was able to gather my thoughts, get a bit of clarity, and develop a tentative plan of action. I say tentative since plans change as life happens. The destination remains unchanged though.

I completed a first draft of an outline. I’ve got several more books in me and I’ve begun the process of writing my next one. It’ll combine my experiences with the values and principles I live by. It’ll basically lay out how I’ve been able to do what I’ve done nd what I’m doing.

Vision is returning. I’m able to see my destination and how I’ll get there. It may vary a bit since I’m going some place I’ve never been and my mind fills in the blanks with similar instances, but the vision is there. I hadn;t had this type of clarity and vision in quite a while and it’s a sig my recovery is progressing nicely.

What are one or two core duties of your current

This is the first part of the entry.