365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 32: On Cultivating Self-Discipline Like a

Plant

Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night when

we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth slowly and

tenderly,  needing  much  pains  to  cultivate  it,  much  care  to  guard  it,  much

time to mature it, in our untoward soil, in this world’s unkindly weather.

—Isaac Barrow

 

31

If self-discipline were like a mushroom that springs up of itself without

the  need  for  a  gardener,  everybody  would  possess  it.  Unfortunately  —  or

fortunately, depending on how you look at it — it’s more like a plant that

you need to constantly cultivate, or else it withers.

Some people believe that one either possesses a “green thumb” or not

— as if one person were born with an inborn talent to care for plants and

another not.

In  reality,  the  person  with  the  supposed  green  thumb  is  simply  more

attentive to their plants. They make sure their plants have everything they

need  to  thrive  and  regularly  check  up  on  them  to  make  sure  they  stay

healthy.

Think  of  self-discipline  in  the  same  way.  You  plant  its  seeds  the

moment  you  decide  it’s  time  to  stop  coasting  through  life  and  prioritize

long-term rewards over instant gratification. However, this moment is just

the very beginning; as in the case of planting the seed for a new flowering

plant, there’s a lot of time and energy you’ll still need to invest to make it

bloom. If you want to have a beautiful plant, you can’t water it occasionally

or move it from one place to another every other week.

Ask yourself: what kind of a gardener am I for my own self-discipline?

If your self-control were a plant, how would it look based on how you’ve

been cultivating it the past years?

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