Let's face it. Americans are kind of schizophrenic. By schizophrenic, I'm talking about double minded. On the one hand, they talk a big game about working hard. In fact, if you watch political speeches, you will come across the phrase “hard work” at least a couple of times.
It seems that when it comes to official pronouncements of what makes America great and the great American character, people talk about hard work, hard work and hard work. In fact, they talk about it in the same tones as the way they talk about the middle class.
But the problem is this is very disconnected to how Americans actually behave. You only need to look at your corner pizzeria or pizza shop to understand exactly what I'm talking about. When you pick up that phone to reach out to your local pizzeria, what will they tell you?
That's right. Your pie will get to your place in 15 minutes or it's free. Why are they doing that? Why are they offering that kind of deal? Well, guess what? Pizzerias are creatures of the market. They wouldn't be offering that if their competition wasn't offering that.
The reason why people are offering that in the first place is because that is what the market demands. That's right. The market means people like you and me. In other words, our behavior is all about convenience.
You only need to look at the internet where everything is available by instant download. When you click a button, money is automatically transported from PayPal to whatever it is you're buying from, that's just the way our society is set up. You have to understand that given the size and magnitude of our obsession with convenience, something has to give.
Guess what happens? Self-discipline, despite the fact that we love talking about it as some sort of vague, far away concept, is exactly the personality trait that suffers. In other words, people love self-discipline. But nobody wants to be self-disciplined.
If they're forced to, they would admit that they would love other people around them to be more self-disciplined. Maybe people should be cleaner. Maybe people should put trash in trash cans. Maybe people should be more responsible. Maybe people should care for other people better. So on and so forth.
But as far as their own personal conduct and personal moral code goes, not so much. This is the reason why I am bold enough to say that modern America discourages self-control and self-discipline. While we encourage it based on the things we say, you and I both know that that's not how things work.
You pay attention to what people do. You're old enough and mature enough to know that people say all sorts of stuff. You're mature enough and adult enough not to trust people at their word. Instead, you pay close attention and you take confidence from their actions and they're impatient. They have short attention spans.
It is no surprise that self-discipline is not all that popular in America. In fact, the more you say it, the more people are turned off. Of course, they try to put on a public face. They try to look attentive. But deep down inside, they've tuned you out because nobody wants to touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Unfortunately, if you want to be successful in any way, shape or form in the United States, you have to be self-disciplined. You have to discipline yourself otherwise somebody else will do it for you. And believe me. It's not going to be pleasant.
So how do you do this? Well, it's as simple as getting what you need to get on the road to better and more effective self-discipline. Even if you think you are already self-disciplined, this framework will take you to another level.
Do yourself that favor. You owe it to yourself.
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