Self Discipline: Key to Personal Success

Alci Alliata

Observing and from reading the stories of the many great men and women that lived and still live on this planet, I noticed that many of the highly successful people are in a way or another living by a set of “golden rules.”

Today I want to share with you one of the lessons we can all learn from one person whom most of us consider God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, as I am sure many of us will find it very empowering, helping us live a more inspiring, balanced, happier and successful life.

Monk-like discipline

I had got out a couple of times to balls bowled outside the off stump. So I decided not to play the cover-drive.

Sachin Tendulkar

When Sachin Tendulkar arrived in Sydney for the fourth Test between India and Australia 2003-04, he had scores of 0, 1, 37, 0 and 44 in his five Test innings on the tour. India was in the midst of one of the greatest tours of the Antipodes, and somehow, Sachin Tendulkar had not yet scored a half century.

Tendulkar had shown snatches of his best form, but had perished to a snick while playing an expansive cover drive.

Now, as he walked in at the fall of the second wicket, the great man was determined to banish the horrors — 82 runs in 5 innings, including two blobs — that had dogged him through the tour.

Tendulkar’s innings began 20 minutes into the second session on Day One. Ten hours later, he was still batting on the third morning. When India declared the innings at a mammoth 705 for 7, he walked off after having batted 613 minutes, negotiating 436 balls without being conquered.

It was an extraordinary knock, during which another facet of Tendulkar’s immense genius peeped through from behind the self-imposed barricade on strokeplay. A world that knew him for scintillating drives through the covers, off the front foot and back, now suddenly discovered the face of restraint. In a monk-like self discipline, Tendulkar did not play one drive through the off side in more than 10 hours of batting. The balls pitched up outside the off-stump were allowed to go through, the years of mastery curbed in a dour display of discipline.

When the innings was closed, the great man walked back to thundering applause, still unbeaten on 241.

Conclusion

After reading this story I was pretty, Self discipline is the foundation of success. Not even the genius can escape that. No goals, achievement, success can be realized without being self discipline. It is the most important attribute that is needed to achieve any type of personal excellence. It is the ability of a person to control one’s impulses, emotions, desire and behaviour. If you have self discipline, you will be able to turn down immediate pleasure in favour of gaining long term satisfaction and achieving success in the best possible way.