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https://archive.org/download/Recording4_20151007/Recording%20(4).mp3 The definition of discipline today is almost in opposition to the freedom celebrated by the modern society today. Any sense of restriction, limitation, or adherence to a certain set of rules, teachings, regulations, laws is not something easily swallowed by our society. Instead, human freedom is promoted, human rights are fought, and human expression is at the pinnacle throughout any point in the history. While it’s not the intention of this post to specifically identify certain flawed human ‘rights’ today, it’s important for us to revisit the basic principle underlying human discipline. Far from what is embedded in the school system today, the word ‘discipline’ has an intrinsic meaning of ‘disciple’. The word ‘disciple’ is used when there is a master worth following, and the followers are willing to set their lives apart to imitate their master. A short quote by Harry Emerson Fodsdick, as cited in Everyday Greatness written by Stephen Covey, wrote that “No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined” (p.113). Another one by Roy L. Smith, “Real freedom is won through self-government, not through self-expression”. One of the fruits we should seek as we mature and learn to be team players in an interdependent society is discipline. Some called it self-control, or self-restrain, or self-government. It has a sense of safeguarding and watching over our own actions, to see that these faculties of ours are not indulged in empty passions and destructive habits. Evan just turned to age. Celebrating his ultimate arrival of freedom, he partakes alcohol, indulged in illicit sex, and crammed through his university years. Few years down the road in his early career as a business administrator, Evan felt unaccomplished with his dated human skills. Soon he lost his jobs, disappointment and depression sank in, and he wonders about the meaning of his existence. Frank tires himself almost daily after school on the football field. It is his passion to play better, and he dreams about playing with the best team in his local district. Nevertheless, he flunk numerous times in Mathematics, which worries his family. Seeing an increasing imbalance between his academic and football commitment, the school teacher proposes if Frank would take additional hours during weekend to catch up with the studies. Feeling reluctant at first, Frank was eventually persuaded and was willing to press on despite his indifference to his scores. His eyes were on the football. I gave two fictitious, imperfect examples. Evan thought of receiving his freedom by attaining age 21. The world is opened to him, or should we say he is now finally ‘opened’ to everything the world has to offer. We know the ending. The end is not good. Freedom does not promise good to Evan. He wasted his university years. He fails to build lifelong learning skill. He was way behind what the society wants from an employee. His freedom looks good at first, but he eventually pays the price. Frank has a good future in developing his football habit. Constant discipline is needed to improve himself continuously. We may see that small setbacks, struggles, or some physical hurt did not hinder his passion. It has an unusual level of energy when it comes to football. While this piece of discipline may pay off, Frank’s academic result may betray him in the long run. Exercising discipline today to work on his studies means lesser contact hour with the round football, perhaps some sleep in the weekend, or some less interaction with other things. Discipline is essentially paying a price to work on a worthy goal, again and again to see the progress and eventually the finishing line. When we think about discipline today, we think of body builder. Or when we think about discipline today, we think about yoga. But it can be more than that. Discipline means securing the freedom of our future by deliberating focusing our energy today on worthy goals. Without focus, our lives are scattered. We may eventually lose our ways if we are not careful. With focus, add on discipline, and at its finishing line we may celebrate with the freedom. And this type of freedom is the function of our discipline.

P/PC Balance, or Production to Production Capability balance, is a simply yet powerful illustration used in both personal and organizational development. https://archive.org/download/Podcast001PPC/Podcast%20001%20PPC.mp3 Production refers to any desired result that we want. At personal level, our production may be our degree, our exam result, our work performance, or our goals and milestones in life. Production Capability refers to the engine, the asset running behind the production. To obtain a degree, we need to be intellectually ready. To do well in work, we need to keep up with the skills required by the job nature. Simply put, it is a golden egg and goose story. Take good care of the goose, and it will produce golden egg for you every day. Abuse it or treat it poorly may still get you the golden egg (sometimes even more in short term), but overtime the goose died and we lost the ability to gain golden egg. P/PC requires balance. Here I present two extremes. Bobby worked 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. He feels that working during weekend is a means to get ahead of his competitor. Sometimes he dismisses family request for quality time on a Sunday, and head back to office for half a day of work Whenever he finds little time he squeeze it to his work schedule. He did a lot of stuff, but his health deteriorates. Relationship suffers. He died a young age of 40 without seeing his children growing to adulthood. Catherine is a yoga-aholic. Though a female, she loves to spend time either in the social club or at home exercising. She also holds a career in financial advisory firm serving as a assistant fund manger. Later she quit, finding that dedicating too much time at work may be too stressful for her at an early age of 28. She is seeking a day job, preferably 4 hours or so, so that she can concentrate in maintaining her shape. Firstly, there are nothing too serious about the two fictitious examples above. Bobby is slightly into production, while Catherine production capability. Depending on individual’s focus, an imbalance on the P/PC may lead to decreased effectiveness in the long run. Think about what Bobby could do to both his work and his family if he doesn’t neglect both his health and his family now. And think about Catherine who has a promising career in late 20. What more could she achieve if work stress is dealt with properly with balance. It takes wisdom to strike a balance between P/PC. Yes, sometimes we may in the season of rushing production, i.e., peak time, where we need to dedicate some off-work time to finish up a project or an assignment. And we certainly remembered the holidays we enjoyed back then, where we get recharged and refocused before moving on. But other than these, P/PC can be managed deliberately to ensure its balance will deliver highest effectiveness. Managing ‘P’ takes milestone planning, or goal setting. Plan each time a year as to what expected milestone should be achieved. Allow buffer for breathing space, but not too much so as to create a challenging goal. Then, further break it down to smaller, measurable goal plans. Focus on these plans will lead us to move ahead to our goal, one step at a time. Managing PC takes discipline and willpower. Know when to stop working, and know when to bulk up and unleash our highest skill and productiveness. Learn to take care of our physical faculty, as well as the mental, emotional, and spiritual faculties. A still mind, heart, and soul are not something dispensable if we’re talking about PC maintenance. Healthy body certainly helps, and PC renewal should ultimately push us to seek ways to go beyond maintenance, that we will seek ways to stretch our capability. Learn new skills. Learn interdependence. Pray. Build muscles. It’s only when we are better equipped that we will deliver a great P.