The Law of Self-Discipline

Four laws alone provide much guidance for building a good and profitable life.
1. The Law of the Rerun

One of the best tests of quality in literature is survival. We watch reruns of old movies on TV and read the classics because their ideas and characters speak to us long after the authors and actors are dead.

Psychologists tell us that when we run an idea through our brains it makes a little groove or engram. And each time the idea is rerun, the groove becomes a little deeper and broader so that we're forming attitudes or habits.

A valuable maxim says: practice makes perfect. If we want to become a great basketball player, we run the skill until it is memorized by the muscle.

Through repetition and drill we gain skill. We develop the habit of creating excellence.

Drill for skill works negatively as well. If we rerun bitterness, resentment, antagonism, we make habits of them.

But when we rerun beauty, ambition, faith, kindness, inspiration they become part of who we are. Thus the rerun is the instrument through which we express our Divine nature.
2. The Law of Retribution

The word "retribution" may sound harsh, but the Law of Retribution simply means that no one can step between an act and its natural consequence. "For every wrong we do, every personality quality we leave undeveloped, every opportunity we fail to take advantage of, we pay a penalty."

Often that penalty is that the undesirable act incarnates, becomes a part of us. "If a person lies, his punishment is that he becomes a liar. If we think negative thoughts, we develop negative minds. If we don't study, the resulting ignorance attracts those undesirable qualities that have an affinity for ignorance."

The point of this law is not to punish us by inflicting pain and suffering, but to awaken us, to prod us into eliminating the wrongs from our system.

For it is one of the great unchangeable laws of the universe that we are all gravitating straight toward where we belong. At the same time, "we must bear the responsibility for the time we have strangled and the development of our personality that was stillborn."
3. The Law of Salesmanship

For discussion about this law, the Bible, which one may read for its history, philosophy, theology, but it is also the greatest sales manual ever written.

In the Sermon on the Mount, it was said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto you."

Jesus also said that the kingdom of God is within each of us.

When applied to salesmanship, the quote means: the first important thing in any success is to develop our character, our inner talents first, and then the sales will come easily as a natural consequence.

If we try to build success without developing courage, industry and service, we usually don't get very far.

We also don't get very far if we behave immorally. Really great salesmanship is founded on doing right. Any sale that does not profit both parties is wrong.

The very best way to be a good salesperson is to be a good person.
4. The Law of Self-Discipline

The Law of Self-Discipline is also the Law of Accomplishment. You can't have one without the other. Without discipline there is no excellence, no progress, no satisfaction.

History is full of people from poor circumstances who rose to great heights chiefly because they learned self-control and self-motivation. People who learn to manage themselves can reach any objective.

To develop discipline where it is lacking, practice something every day that you don't like. My mentor used to say, "Do the things that are uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable being uncomfortable."

The rewards of self-discipline are well worth the effort spent to attain it. We should set substantial objectives for ourselves and through the practice of self-discipline meet every one.