The Road Less Travelled



 "Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and wisdom.”― M. Scott Peck

“Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.” ― M. Scott Peck

I picked up my copy of The Road Less Travelled for a re-read and once again, the stark simplicity of the first sentence in the book struck me, like it did the first time:

 ‘Life is difficult’

 Fact or fiction? And he continues. . .

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. . . .Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily, subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy.

Do you know someone like that? Do you live with them? Are you related to them? Is that you? Well, newsflash! Life is difficult and in the last few months, even more so.

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?

Hard question but I’d hope that we all want to solve more and moan less. And it is not all doom and gloom. There is a solution – Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems.

Boom! Something akin to a 4-letter word! DISCIPLINE. Scott makes the point that with discipline, we can solve all the problems that face us in life. That sounds like a grand claim but, is it? When I look back on my 4 decades of life, there have been many challenges that I have had to overcome to get to this point in time, some calling for more effort than others. Indeed, discipline has played a large part in getting me here but what does discipline look like?

Delayed gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth and balancing. Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to experience the pain first and be done with it, then enjoying the pleasure. Saving for months to buy something for cash? That’s what it looks like. Accepting responsibility is taking ownership of a problem and acknowledging it is up to you to solve it. Truth is reality and we are called upon to continually update our mental maps to what is real at this present moment. Not what I would like it to be or what it was yesterday. Living in the now. Balancing is the discipline that gives us flexibility to be fully honest and to withhold that honesty when appropriate, to assume total responsibility for myself but reject responsibility that is not mine and to delay gratification with an eye on the future while living joyously in the present and acting spontaneously when it is appropriate.

Obviously discipline is not for cowards. It demands courage to face the hard things in life.

Courage to face the truth about myself, my situation and how I relate to the world around me. 

Courage to take responsibility, make decisions, chart and navigate a given path.

Courage to do the right thing even when I am the only one doing it.

Courage to dance to the beat I drum for myself.        

Courage to walk the road less travelled.

“Be brave to stand for what you believe in even if you stand alone.”  - Roy T. Bennett

 

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