Re-Blog: Discipline

Note: This post was originally written on my good friend Nathan's blog: www.beekeeperontheloose.wordpress.com. It is part of a fantastic series of posts on manly virtues. After reading this particular one, I thought it good enough to share with my own readers.

Eric Weisz was born in Hungary in 1874 and immigrated to the U.S. at a very young age. The rest of his history is obscure, but he grew into a young man who knew locks. Eric was also very good with sleight of hand tricks and became a big attraction at the local circus dime show. He wasn’t there long because his skill was in much more than just cards and locks, it was in escape. Eric grew in fame as he escaped every pair of handcuffs with which he was shackled. He also got out of strait jackets, coffins, jail cells and six feet of earth. Eric Weisz gained national fame and traveled the globe as the Handcuff King and Escape Artist Extraordinaire. But we know him better as Harry Houdini.


How did he do it? Discipline. The training he put himself through is enough to make anyone cringe, but he could escape because of it. Resolve is a good pre-cursor to discipline because you must have the discipline to carry out your resolve. They are two sister virtues that must come together or not at all. From resolving to read this horrendously long article, to resolving to escape six feet of earth alive, it all takes discipline. But I hope you will do it. There are four parts to discipline: Habit, Will, Focus and Efficiency. Discipline is the difference between escape and death, success and failure, riches and bare existence, Godliness and foolishness, manliness and boyhood. It doesn’t take being a Houdini to be disciplined; it only takes understanding its rudimentary parts.


Discipline through Habit
“This fact applies to everything that we do, and to every relation of our lives. We can make a habit of honesty, of industry, of kindliness, of attention, of courtesy, and of whatever we will. Indeed, Aristotle, one of the wisest men of antiquity, defined virtue as a habit of right doing… Another great advantage that springs from the fixity of habits is found in the fact that, by means of this, our lives may make real progress.” ~ Charles Carroll Everett.


Discipline through Will
“I want to be first. I vehemently want to be first. First in my profession… For that I give all the thought, all the power, that is in me. To stand at the head of my rank: it is all I ask… so I have struggled and fought. I have done and abstained; I have tortured my body and risked my life, only for that – to have one plank on the stage where they must fall back and cry “Master!”… I am strong, as you see; strong in flesh, but my will has been stronger than my flesh. I have struggled with iron and steel, with locks and chains; I have burned, drowned, and frozen till my body has become almost insensible to pain; I have done things which rightly I could not do, because I said to myself, “You must”; and now I am old at 36. A man is only a man, and the flesh revenges itself. Yet the will is its master when the will is strong enough.” ~ Harry Houdini
Discipline through Focus
There are two parts to focus: doing but one thing at a time and being one in purpose and action. In a letter to his son, Lord Chesterfield wrote:


“A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure who either cannot, or does not, command and direct his attention to the present object, and in some degree banish, for that time, all other objects from his thoughts… There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time… This steady and dissipated attention to one object is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”
Second, you must be one man; one in purpose and in action:


“My man, first of all consider what kind of thing it is: and then examine your own nature, if you are able to sustain the character… different men are formed by nature for different things…You must be one man, either good or bad. You must either cultivate your own ruling faculty, or external things; you must either exercise your skill on internal things or on external things; that is you must either maintain the petition of a philosopher or that of a common person.” ~ Epictetus


Discipline through Efficiency
Houdini was a master in physical efficiency. He tied knots with his toes and worked a deck of cards while conversing with guests. He also took ice baths and submerged himself under water to where he could hold his breath for four minutes. Because he was physically efficient, he was the best in what he did. But what about being mentally efficient? Here is the kicker. We are notorious for all of the diets and work outs we put our body through to get it in shape. However, we are sorely lacking in having our mental faculties as sharp as they should be. Being mentally efficient is just as important as being physically efficient in discipline. Here are a few tips from a 1911 article by Arnold Bennett:


“A strange thing – was it not? – That I never had the idea of devoting a quarter of an hour a day after shaving to the pursuit of mental efficiency… Your conscience tells you that your mind is less active and less informed than it might be… you say to yourself that you will take your mind in hand and do something with it. Wait a moment. What precautions are you going to take against failure this time? For your will is probably no stronger now than it was aforetime… What are your precautions? Have you thought of them? Failure in the past was due to one or more of three causes. And the first was that you undertook too much at the beginning… do not form an elaborate programme. Simply content yourself with a preliminary canter, a ridiculously easy preliminary canter… The second possible cause of previous failure was the disintegrating effect on the will-power of the ironic, superior smile of friends… Therefore don’t go and nail your flag to the mast. Don’t raise any flag. Say nothing. Work as unobtrusively as you can… The third possible cause was that you did not rearrange your day… Robbing yourself of sleep won’t help you, nor trying to ‘squeeze in’ a time for study between two other times. Use the knife, and use it freely. If you mean to read or think half an hour a day, arrange for an hour. A hundred percent margin is not too much for a beginner… We come now to what I may call the calisthenics of the business… [first exercise] There are few mental exercises better than learning great poetry or prose by heart… The chief, but not the only, merit of learning by heart as an exercise is that it compels the mind to concentrate. And the most important preliminary to self-development is the faculty of concentrating at will… [second exercise] the exercise of writing is an indispensable part of any genuine effort towards mental efficiency. I don’t care much what you write, so long as you compose sentences and achieve continuity. There are forty ways of writing in an unprofessional manner, and they are all good… After writing comes thinking.”
… And proficiency in thought is our ultimate goal.


Wrapping it up, I was particularly struck by the words of Harry Houdini in his quote under “Discipline through Will.” His words reminded me very much of Apostle Paul’s creed and I decided to re-phrased Houdini’s quote to reflect Paul’s thoughts and turn it into something we can declare as well.


I want to run well. I vehemently want to run well. For that I give all the thought, all the power that is in me. To stand before my King and hear Him say “Well Done!” It is all I ask… so I have struggled and fought. I have done and abstained; I have tortured my body and risked my life, only for that – to hear the praise of my Maker. I am strong, as you see; strong in flesh, but my will must be stronger than my flesh. I have struggled with iron and steel, with locks and chains; I have been beaten, spat upon, and harassed till my body has become almost insensible to pain; I have done things which rightly I could not do, because I said to myself, “You must”; because of Grace; because of faith; because of my King. I am only a man, and the flesh revenges itself. But the King is the master of my will, my will is the master of my flesh and my flesh will run this race well.


Amen


Be strong and courageous. Be disciplined.