a meaningful life
DISCIPLINE: BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS AN EXCUSE!
And if you accept them, Life will even give you reasons to Quit.
Mon.Jan.15.2024 - Ubochi Eke
Mohammed Ali and Joe Fraiser fight in Los Angeles, California - Guess which one is the "World's Greatest Boxer".
I just came out of a meeting today in which we were discussing our intentions to build a new private airport in Nigeria and one of my Elders, a person deserving of respect, could not fathom why we would not just buy one of the many Moribund and ill delivered Airports littering around Nigeria - Because there is no room in our visions of Nigeria for mediocrity.
No room.
No room means it is not permissible, tolerable, managable and cannot be fathomed or tolerated even if it is gifted.
Discipline, is how I have survived this long. A staunch resistance to the winds of corporation, Assimilation, Co-option and Settlement that permeates every aspect of Nigerian life.
I have had Police cases for failure to spare coins, Court cases for failure to accept simple corruptions of the agreed terms or my personal standards, lost beautiful women to a refusal to double dip, Lost deals for a failure to "deal". Against all odds, against benefits and gains, refusing to budge or accept Nigeria's failings as sufficient "excuse" to be anything other than the best that is possible, in my search for "A Meaningful Life" for all of us.
This is not a boast of personal excellence, it is an introduction to discipline, because at the heart of it, discipline is a "cost", that you must pay to be exceptional and execeptional is a breed you must be perfect "A Meaningful Life".
When I say exceptional I do not mean Elon Musk or King Ifeanyichiukwu Oruruo, I mean exactly what the word says, "Exceptional", an exception from the rule, Divergent, Different and hopefully the net result is - Better.
THE JOURNEY NEVER ENDS
Eliud Kipchoge may make it look easy, but the discipline to run a Marathon is not a smiling affair and neither is the race for "A Meaningful Life".
nigeria may never stop being corrupt and Africa may never stop being Colonized. This is not my prayer, but it may well be.
In my journey through life and my struggle to build an Africa that works for all of us, I must recognize this fact and still do the work everyday as if the problem will end Tomorrow. This takes discipline.
Discipline, to segrate actions from reality and still guide actions to reality.
Discipline to fight everyday, without having an end date on the battle and in fact with the clear knowledge that the fight may only be beginning.
In boxing match, a fighter enters the rings and hears the opening bell, but no body gives him a minute count, he must fight for 2minutes and 50 seconds before he can know if he has any chance of making it out of the ring, and for those 2:50minutes and the 10 seconds remaining, he must endure, even when he is taking a beating. The ability to stand and keep his hands up takes discipline. Discipline to hold on for the bell.
As you walk down the road to "A Meaningful Life", the woman you love may step aside, the Child you prefer may turnout strange, the business you worked for may crash and burn, but as long as you are alive, a meaningful life is still within reach.
A meaningful life is a question of the "Whole" result, not the bumps in the journey and you must see it through to end, well. And the end date is not set, so you must be disciplined and stay on course, no matter how often the road twists, to shake you into a ditch of the unknown.
DISTRACTIONS LINE THE WAY
Poision can be low hanging fruit.
lagos (Murtala Mohammed International Airport), Abuja (Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport) and Enugu (Akanu-Ibiam International Airport), represent the best Airports in Nigeria but all are poor expressions of mediocrity and cannot be considered a Domestic Airport in most of the developed world. However, they all exist and having any of them is much more than I have now - Low hanging Fruit, Danger, Danger, Danger.
If you want to be a fashion designer and you have no discipline, see you, see tailor.
If you want to be a Doctor and you have no discipline, see you, see Microbiology.
If you want to marry a Queen and you have no Discipline, see you see exit.
The pains that come in boxing match the Division and the Belt in contest and equally the greatest gifts of life, the higher they go, come with not just pains but Ice cold distractions and easy ways out, and is you are not disciplined, you will drink plan B and take the wrong exit to a road that leads to good ideas, far away from your best calling.
Discipline is what is required for you to hold on to your best ideals when they do not seem viable and when more easy roads present themselves.
By now you can see the similarities between discipline and focus, if you had read my article on Focus. At this point in that article we Were als talking about "Low Hanging Fruit" as distractions. Here we are, also talking about "Distractions".
If Focus and Discipline are this similar, maybe I need to explain what the difference is.
DISCIPLINE AND FOCUS
Knowing where you are going does not remove the rocks from the road - you must.
discipline and Focus go hand in hand but are not the same.
While Focus is about sight and a laser alignment with your Visions for your life and is therefore elemental to staying on course, Discipline is about Strenght and Tolerance because the road to destiny has unavoidable beatings that await you and waylay's that occur much more on the chosen road than on the worn paths others suggest - or so it seems.
The truth about the Boxer is that if he quits in the middle of the round, he will beat himself up for it later, and if he lasts till the end of the round he will take a beating all the same. The difference between the 2 is that with the last option, there still remains a chance at a lucky punch that will save the day.
Discipline is a recognition of this potential for a lucky punch. The child that deviated from course my get back in line, the Wife that left may return in time or be replaced by one better, the Business that failed may be a gateway to the best opportunity, that needs the empty lot it creates.
The meandering nature of life, the role of God and the on and of chance of time and seasons, make hanging on as important as staying focused. At its most basic definition, discipline is just about hanging on.
OTHERS WILL DOUBT
Changi Airport in Singapore has a Botanical Forest and Waterfall and Istanbul Airport has 5 Runways - Yet 220million people later, Nigeria's best Airport cannot compare to the Oakland City Airport. Who can then believe you, when you say you will reinvent the Airport as a whole.
When my Elder and very experienced "partner", warns of the perils of building a private Airport in Nigeria he is right. Africa is not ready for development.
What he may not understand however, is that I know this and yet it is not an excuse, because it is not a condition that must be allowed to persist and against all odds, I will take every punch of every round, to get Africa ready for Development and them engage in extra fights, regardless of turf, to make the ideal developments happen.
Such ambition is the difference between being an Amatuer Boxer and aiming to be the "Unified, Undisputed" Heavy Weight Champion of the World.
Even when you are an Excellent Boxer, even your mother may not have confidence that "Her" Baby can survive "the monsters" in the ring and much the same, even if you are a Genius Business mind, your partners cannot fathom how the "Honest" partner and "Gentle" Colleague they have, can deal with "The Demons" that superintend over the affairs of Africa.
Others will doubt, but you must know what you are made of, and that knowledge cannot be tested until it is needed, but it can be "founded" in the journey thus far and the Disciplines you have built, grooming yourself in the challenges of the present, for and in view of the challenges ahead.
At this point the question is, what is disicpline and how do you build it.
WHAT IS DISCIPLINE AND HOW DO YOU GROW IT
Each performance by Olympic Athletes like Simone Biles is a replication of what has been tried 200 times, often unsuccessfully - this is how you grow discipline, refuse to accept the limits.
In my Book Genius, discipline is mentioned 64 times and in fact the entire 7th chapter is dedicated to Discipline. This is how important I know it to be, in living a meaningful Life.
In Genius, I define it as so, "When I speak of discipline I speak of {Command}. I define it as “The ability to starve the desire for things which you should ordinarily want but which have proven detrimental to the things which you ultimately need, it is also the ability to prescribe hierarchy to needs so that your preferred destinations are never scarified on the alter of ease or availability. It is choice that in spite of this, that”.
For every single thing that you truly desire, their will be an army of Competition, Detractors and Thieves and you must Beat the Competition, Survice the Detractors and Burn the Theives.
When you write Jamb, your results must compete with the smart students, beat the Theives whose parents paid for results and Stand the detractors who tried to convince you not to study, Cracked jokes in the hall or even got you to drink the night before.
Even in the game of Private Airports, I will have to compete with Governors who do not want to be put to shame by a Private Citizen, Survive Governors who attempt to sabotage to protect the fraud of their wasteful developments and Fight off Governors who will attempt to even steal the project outright, whether with earnest intent to finish it, or just as greedy cousins.
Regardless, I must withstand the punches, throw mine and regardless of the powers of the Status Quo, have the Strength of mind to wait till the last bell, fighting all the way and hoping for a "hail marry".
In the end, I must choose the ideal, regardless of the status quo, my Preferred destination over any convenient stops, A glorious end, over any desirable paradise that parades itself along the way. No excuses, because life will givn you even "reasons", to change course.
DAY TURNS TO NIGHT
And you must make it to the morning.
The light at the end of the tunnel can only come, if you make it to the other end.
When my "Elder" speaks of the hard road to a "fully private Airport in Nigeria, as a Regional Hub for International and Continental Travel, competiting against the likes of Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai, Atlanta's Hartfield and Turkey's new re-imagination of competition in Istanbul, he is not really understanding, that I do not merely intend to beat these Airports, I intend to change what an Airport is - completely.
To dream of such madness in the Day is daunting. To fathom it in the "Nightmare" that is Africa, as it is today, is adequate reason to be committed to a mental institution.
Clear eyed however, this is what I intend to do and no amount of Nightshade will change it.
As you chase your dreams of a "Happy Married Life", your wife may leave you, the second may also leave, the 3rd may also leave and Yet the 4th may last.
As you fight to put your children on the right path, the 1st may go Gay, the 2nd "40 year Virgin", the 3rd, Womanizer, Yet the 4th may give you 4 Boys and 4 Girls, enough grandchildren to cover for all the others.
Life is not calculated in today, but in the combined gains of all the years and the total score of a life time, and I hope that yours adds up to a Meaningful life.
For that to happen, you must not commit sucide nor abort your dreams.
Train yourself with the understanding that quiting before the end of the round and quiting after, are both beatings, but only one has a shot at Gold.
AML - SERIES PROFILE
A MEANINGFUL LIFE
the "A MEANINGFUL LIFE" series is a non Religious, Non Enterprise look at life and meaning, written with the hope of getting you to a life of pure Joy, real Happiness and Satisfaction with your own life, regardless of your faith and economic profile.
It does not intend to preach, but where necessary it will. At the end, the desired result is that from this series you will pick up the tools to give your life greater meaning, and live a more satisfying existence.
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