Moving to Johannesburg has been interesting. New sites and new sounds. New weaves (people, there is actually a LARGE variety) and new faces.
Arriving here was an interesting challenge. I am generally a socialite, except in unfamiliar ground. I kind of shrink back because I don’t know how people may respond to my random comments, or if they will even like me. For some reason, it’s difficult to be myself completely.
Anyway, I met a guy at church. Cool guy. Wouldn’t mind becoming good friends with this guy. One day during the week, I see him walking reading his cellphone, and I asked him what he’s doing. He tells me he’s reading the bible. He has this plan where he reads a chapter of Proverbs every day, so that in a month he can go through the whole book (31 chapters in Proverbs). I thought to myself, WOAH, this guy is deep.
So I tried to be deep and do the same thing. April 7th, Proverbs 7 (this is actually a random date and has no real significance). It’s rather hard getting into the habit of something. But one of the things I saw is Proverbs is a deep book.
Reading through it, the recurring themes of hard work and discipline seem to come up. Apparently, those things take you far in life, like guns and women (at least thats what I’m told by gangster rap). Now discipline is definitely something I’m not good at. Last year, I had this plan that I’m going to make my bed everyday when I wake up, and keep my room clean. My flatmate said it would last 2 weeks, and I’d get over it… and guess what. I WON!!! It lasted 2 and a half weeks SUCKER!
Hard work has also been something that’s not habitual for me. Sometimes the world is unfair, and so far, I’ve been on the favorable side of the unfairness. I went through school and university relatively easily. I could put in less hours than the average, and achieve good results. When I started working, that came back to bite me. I hadn’t built up the necessary work ethic, and my ability to understand easily, which got me through my educational years wasn’t enough (it’s kinda funny how one year you’re seen as a legend because you’re killing it academically, but a few months later you’re seen as a lazy fool because you struggle sitting down and working for more than 30 minutes). Work ethic is now something I wish I had formed earlier in my life, so that I wouldn’t have to try and learn the habit now.
So what have I decided to do now? I have decided to start being disciplined, even in the small things. This means in the morning, less snoozing. Wake up, make my bed and make sure I leave my flat in a desirable state. In the evening, make sure I’ve washed up dishes and left the flat in a decent state. At work, spend less time on Facebook and YouTube and actually do what I’m meant to do. Disciplines built up in the small things will become easier in the big things.
Why am I telling the whole world this? It’s easy to say to myself, “Today, I’m a new man. No more I tell you. NO MORE! From now on, I’ll wake up at 3:30, have my God time for 2 hours, go to gym for 1 and work my butt off at work until my head is steaming” (which is a completely impractical reality for me). But if I tell the world, everyone is keeping me accountable to the words I’ve said and goals I’ve set.
So what do you think? Do you need more discipline in your life? Do you think this is an overshare?
Patrick Kayongo 