The Stretch of Discipline

Discipline inherently requires a stretch. It requires that you keep stretching whatever you’re dling by taking it up a notch, by increasing the time, the effort, the weight, the distance, etc. In his book on Flow, Csikszentmihalyi (1990) described the stretch of discipline in these words.

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.” (p. 3)

This describes the design and purpose of a discipline. That’s what happens when you learn the art of discipline. Yes, discipline is “a course of study” and “a course of action,” a regime that gives you a planned strategy for how to do something, and it is also a stretch. Actually, stretch defines what we experience as the effort within a disciplined action as well as life. When I feel that my reading and research is stretching me, it requires more effort on my part. It’s the same with lifting weights. Repeating what I can already do offers no stretch. It’s when I push things just a little bit more, when I put in just a little bit more effort, then I feel the stretch.

Without effort in whatever you are doing (and in everything that you do), your knowledge and skills will become dormant, taken for granted, and will become stale. Keep that up and the skills will begin to deteriorate. Your mind and your body needs to be challenged so that you stretch your thinking, your competencies, and your body. That’s when you grow. That’s what makes your life richer and deeper.

“The most enjoyable activities are not natural; they demand an effort that initially one is reluctant to make. But once the interaction starts to provide feedback to the person’s skills, it usually begins to be intrinsically rewarding.” (Flow, 1990, p. 68)

Jack Welch is credited with having invented, or at least popularized, the idea of stretch goals. He did that in General Electric; it was his way of bringing challenge, excitement, and engagement into the work place. Stretch goals cure boredom. They cure disengagement. They cure depression and discouragement. What stretch goals have you set for yourself this year?

We all get bored. Do the same thing over and over and over and you’ll eventually get bored or frustrated. Conversely, stretch goals brings joy back into our lives. They rejuvenate us with a fresh sense of a challenge. When you disciple yourself to a discipline, it’s always hard at first, and so it should be. It’s new, its different, its challenging. To perform it you have to stretch. Once you learn the discipline, things become easy. Comfortable. Now you are in danger. Well, unless you add another level of stretch to what you’re doing.

The Meaning–Performance Quadrants (which includes within it the Flow Zone) warns that we should only incrementally increase the challenge for a stretch otherwise we create anxiety and enter into the panic zone. It also warns that with every stretch of behavior, be sure to add or stretch to additional meanings so it becomes increasingly significant to you. Otherwise, you will get bored and complacent. The mental discipline of adding meaning provides a stretch for your mind. The physical discipline of adding the next degree of competence to your performance offers you a stretch in your neurology. These are the disciplines of stretching forward so that you move forward in life.

Add to all of this the discipline of refusing to give in to moods, circumstances, or the chaos of everyday life. Exercise the discipline of saying Yes to great things by saying No to the urgent, noisy, yet irrelevant demands. What kind of stretch does your disciplines need to keep you fresh and alive?