Growing up, back when commercials interrupting live-aired television shows was still a thing, I remember a commercial for the office supplies company, Staples, that featured a big red “Easy Button”. A weary dad trying to change twin babies’ diapers at the same time hits the Easy Button. A rancher about to attempt taming a bucking bronco hits the Easy Button. A surgeon sanitizing his hands before a complex operation hits the Easy Button. You get the idea. The tagline was, “Don’t you wish there was an Easy Button for life? Now there’s one for your business. Staples. That was easy!”
I wish there was an Easy Button for starting things over. As mentioned in my previous article, starting over often includes an immense amount of frustration, and sometimes heartache. If we could just press a button to rewind time so we could do something a different and better way, we could avoid some of these hard feelings. Another example that comes to mind is slang term “Mulligan!” used to announce a quasi-allowed do-over stroke in the game of golf after a bad swing. But, there simply aren’t Mulligans or Easy Buttons when it comes to real life.
Starting over in real life requires discipline. Nelson Mandela is quoted as saying “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” When your knees still hurt and the embarrassment is still coursing through your veins, it takes guts to get back up and try again. Whether you are trying to learn a new skill or you are trying to build a new reputation after mistakes were made, you must have courage and work ethic to make it happen. Courage and discipline are intimately linked.
Discipline commonly has negative connotations associated with punishment. But, it also has many positive connotations, associated with ideas of growth, development, public service, and more. Where do we find this discipline, then? Although this may feel counterintuitive, I believe discipline comes only from failure. It is a learned behavior, a positive repetition for a better outcome despite one’s current limitations or past experiences. We must fail to even be presented with the character-building choice of trying again.
When we do choose to try again, we start to see a new tenacity in our spirts. Perfection is not what we human beings really admire in each other (despite social media’s attempt to convince us so). It’s this tenacity that we admire. You are going to screw up. You are going to make mistakes and you are going to have lessons that can only be learned the “hard way”. I encourage you to try again. Choose the discipline, even if it’s unpleasant at first. This choice almost always pays off for yourself and for those around you.
If you feel like you are currently in a place where you don’t have the support to make this choice, or in a place where that courage to start over is nowhere to be found, please call The Willow Center at 317-852-3690. We can help, and we’ll meet you wherever you’re at to start building that discipline together. You are not alone!
–Written by Chase Cotten, Community Director
