Hi jpgill: Thanks comments. Here's the answers to your questions.
1.)When did you first begin exercising the type of discipline to which you referred?
My Mom tells me I was that way as a youngster. Very disciplined, focused. I was geared towards achieving things, would set goals, and was quite compulsive.
I can remember as a teenager setting goals, usually short term ones of course at that stage in life, but, nonetheless, I set them.
I recall in college I was already well on my way to setting life goals. I had short, intermediate and long term goals for life before I even got out of college. For example, I've mentioned before that I had a 20 year goal to be debt free by when I was 40. I kept that goal for 20 years and worked on it until I accomplished it. I had the discipline to stay with the plan, year after year, and Mrs. RR and I made decisions as we went through life that were effected by keeping that goal in mind. Discipline.
I did the same thing with short term goals. Set them, and had a structured plan to get there, by hour, by day, depending on what was to be accomplished. Discipline.
Mrs. RR told her Mom when we first started dating 30 years ago that this guy had his life planned out already. I suspect they thought I was nuts. Anyway, jpgill, I guess the point is that I've been that way my entire life to some degree.
2. Who (if anyone) was your example of this type of preparation, discipline, and/or attitude? Was it a parent, sibling, teacher, mentor?
That is a really good question because I don't have a good answer. I didn't get it from either parent, I don't think, as they didn't exhibit these traits to any great extent like I do.
I was very competitive in sports. Grew up in small rural town where sports was everything. I had the "old school" kind of coaches, the kind you don't find in the school system nowadays. My Dad was the same way. So, I suspect some of that came from them.
My band director that I had all the way from the 6th grade through the 12th grade was a huge positive influence on me in terms of instilling discipline and self confidence.
And, I've had the benefit of being around some highly successful business people when I was a young adult climbing the corporate ladder. I watched and listened to them with great respect. Sometimes I have told stories on here about a couple of them.
I use to work for an older man that taught me that problems are not as big as they seem. I admired his ability to dissect issues and work for middle ground to solve them.
Another person that I learned a lot from was a guy about my age. In fact, it was odd because I was the one that initially hired him, yet a few years later, he was my boss for awhile. I was amazed at his preparation, determination and ability to stay positive even in bad situations. I saw how powerful that could be by watching him day after day overcome adversity. He was a good planner, reasoned well, made smart decisions, a leader. Learned a lot from him.
There's others. I could go on and on, jpgill. I'm fortunate that I've learned from some really good people, starting with my parents.
"I still want to be your agent for that first book. You've got a best seller on your hands."
Ha! jpgill, I'd forgotten about that. Should see the PMs I get. Maybe one day. I think Dealer is right when she says there's a lot of folks that read the Porch that don't post.
Take care my Fiend.
RR |
