Love and Self-Discipline

Two parallel realities.

M. Scott Peck says,

“Love and discipline go hand in hand, so that unloving, uncaring parents are people lacking in discipline, and when they fail to provide their children with a sense of being loved, they also fail to provide them with the capacity for self-discipline.”[1]

Self-discipline then is a reliable predictor for our capacity to love both ourselves and others.

This explains for us why we know a good parent from a bad one almost instinctually. The same principle holds for all in positions of leadership.

We all have a capacity for caring, rooted in a ruggedly solid, and dependable, self-discipline.

We hence personally then ought to always seek for coherent levels of self-control, prudence in action and inaction, insight and discretion. A ‘duty to care’ sits behind all of good life.

Self-discipline, further, is the practical secret behind the golden, victorious life, at all levels of rapport.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

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[1] M. Scott Peck, Wisdom from the Road Less Traveled (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2001), p. 76-77.