In his book, “The Road Less Traveled” Peck addresses the importance of discipline and discusses four aspects that relate to the discipline since “life is difficult” (Peck, p11). Comparing with the previous readings, a lot of emphasis on Discipline is put on Peck’s book. Therefore, I will consider discussing four elements are described in the book to reinforcement the Discipline as the subject matter.
From my preview, the following elements help to describe subject discipline in various actions. Just highlighting these elements includes Acceptance and responsibility- whereby the main agenda is accepting the responsibility for personal decisions. Secondly, balancing, balancing refers to the ways appropriate to handle the different issues. Thirdly, delaying gratification, this involves sacrificing the present luxury for the future gains. Lastly, dedication to the truth, these elements maintain honesty by word and action. Therefore, According to Peck, he discusses disciplines as a skill that prioritizes personal behavior. I note that experience is undersigned to be an easy task. Therefore life is inevitably a sequence of personal life difficulties that could be resolved by finding a solution or else be ignored.
From the reading, Balance is projected as the one of the basic set of tools that necessary to resolve the so-called problems in the life process. I observe that discipline is a technique suffering which enables pain problems to be solved in a very systematic method, reproducing some development. Ideally, people try to evade the pain of engaging with their problems and gives ideas that the life becomes deal meaningfully by facing the pain the problem-solving. Like any other task, the Pain-related problem is a hectic issue that requires some systematic personal solutions. Therefore, the pain of problems has always made people take some ways of dealing with the issue hence incorporating them into based moral behaviors. This behavior determines or suggests the direction towards the discipline. Therefore, the multiple decisions taken by the people tend to have different experiences and pain problem-solving process. By evaluating every issue in systematic nature, every concern is catered for appropriately hence archiving life balance as an element.
To my understanding, delaying gratification entails the process in which the pain is preferred being practiced just prior the desire. The best example this case I find to use a six-year-old child. For instance, at the age of six years, a kid would prefer eating a cake as priority and frosting as the last. Another instance, the child would instead have to complete my homework and subsequently have time to play later on. The two examples portray simple “gratification delay.” However, some complications are found, for example when a substantial number of the adolescent would appear to lack “delaying gratification” capability. Actually, this is witnessed mostly by students. The students are adequately organized by the instincts. Such kind of young stars do indulge in drug abuses, involves in fights and hence finding themselves confronted with the authority, all these negative impacts are a result of mismanaging time to productive activity but instead uses the opportunity for awkward behaviors hence ruining some of their lives.
What comes to Acceptance and responsibility, the obvious mind is that the problems can only be solved by taking responsibility and accepting of the fact that problem is incorporated in life. As Peck explains, character disorder and Neurosis people present two disorders that are opposite regarding responsibility. The Neurotics are said to have too much assumption on liability, and they actually feel guilty of all that goes in the incorrect direction on their lifetime while the charm disorder people always, blame others refute the accountability for their experienced problems. At some point in life, everybody is character disordered or neurotic and the best way to balance to avoid both extremes. Both extremes involve some negativity on ideology hence generating inappropriate decisions that weaken someone’s life. This indicates to that life is a process, not an event. Specific measures need to be set to determine what kind of person one is either neurotic, or character disorder regarding on the perceptive one takes on a problem arising matters. Hence two ideals. “Neurotic tend to exploit themselves miserably while the ones with character disorders tend to make everyone else life to be more miserable” (Peck, p36).
Dedication to the truth tends to represent the individual capacity to improve oneself. Considering the case of a bitter childhood, the child takes a false notion that the world is full of inhuman and hostility places. Nevertheless, for a continued exposure tends to incorporate more optimistic features on personal view. It matters if the fact that dedication to the truth shows that life is full of honest contemplation which is a willingness to be individually defied by other people and which is genuine to a personal level. Realty or truth is avoided when is regarded to be painful. I find that always one can revise their map only when they acquire particular discipline integrated to overcome that pain by accepting responsibility.
Nevertheless, to archive discipline, the truth is an aspect that one must be dedicated to. Thus at a personal level, an individual is supposed to hold truth as best as one can manage to be more vital, more essential to own interest than personal comfort/luxuries. Conversely one must always reconsider the personal discomforts that are relatively unimportant and even have to welcome it in efforts to search for truth. Mental health is an ongoing dedication process into reality at all costs (Peck, p49-50).
I observe dedication to the truth as, a basic set tool that required to solve life problem. Without transparency, nothing is considered to be genuine. Truth brings about honesty and therefore in case of problem discipline is archived by solving uprising issue with facts. However, in case of uncomfortable feelings that are often painful as particular kind of physical pain, at some point equaling every sort of physical pain. The pain is a result of the experienced conflicts or events engendering people hence called problems; life is complicated full of both joy and sadness. Therefore truth would act like the man subject to help concur issues related to pains.
In my opinion, I discover that the process regarding on problem-solving gives the life meaning; the problems are said to be the cutting edge that manages to distinguish in-between failure and success. The challenges call forth for personal courage and wisdom and hence creates the bravery and personal knowledge. Issues help to grow both spiritually and mentally. On an initiative to encourage human spiritual growth, a challenge arises to promote the human capacity in problem-solving just as in class whereby students meet set problems for them to solve Peck states. Therefore, it is through the confrontation and problem resolving that one get to learn. Ideally, from my experience, those things that hurt help me to reason wise and learn not to dread but to welcome the challenges and most probably the pain of problems.
In conclusion, discipline is a product of created pain of problems whereby the experienced difficulties helps to generate different life perspectives. Ideally, the pain of challenges helps one life due to the approaches that undertake towards the initiative on solving the upcoming or existing pain of the problem. Thus, displaying particular discipline concerning a specific individual. The uncomfortable and physical pain generates different understanding and makes mixed emotions towards the specific event at personal level thereby different outlooks witnessed. From Peck’s work use various integrated discipline techniques which are paramount relating to conflicts and difficulties. Life requirement needs to be dealt with in a balanced and successful way in objective to discipline perspective. Thus, any person would take responsibility acceptance, balancing, gratification delaying and truth dedication promote the importance of discipline upon the life of a human being. From my analyses, I conclude that problems depend on their nature, evoke in personal frustration, guilt or regret or landlessness or anxiety despair grief or sadness or anguish, thus structuring the discipline as behavior from an individual motive.
Work cited
Peck, M. Scott. The road less traveled: A new psychology of love, traditional values, and spiritual growth. Simon and Schuster, 2002.
