Developing Disciplines that Support the Highest Good of All

Discipline. We all know we need it, or should have it, but what is it? And, what kind of discipline truly supports us, our communities and our world?

The American Heritage dictionary defines discipline as “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”  Clearly there are many other definitions of the word discipline, but for our purposes this is the definition that is aligned with the way we’re using the term.

If we look at it honestly, we all have disciplines. And, we can learn a lot about ourselves from the disciplines we have, the disciplines we don’t have and where the disciplines we have come from.

An important question in assessing our discipline is: what are our disciplines a product of? In other words, what are they in service to? Are they in service to our egos? Our dysfunctions? Or, are they in service to the highest good of all, including ourselves?

I examined my own disciplines in this context, starting with the question: what are my disciplines? I found many: meditation, yoga, exercise, eating healthy foods, making sales calls, coaching and consulting clients, meeting with my consultant, participating in mutual support calls and many more. Then, I looked at these disciplines in light of the question posed above for each of these: what is my discipline in service to in this area?

Through this inquiry, I had a key insight. My discipline of eating healthy, exercising and maintaining my well being has primarily been a way for me to perpetuate the illusion that I am better than others – and to maintain a false sense of superiority. When I looked at it honestly, I could see that what has been driving this discipline is my desire to look good by making others look bad.” And, it was nasty. In my head, it sounded like, “they don’t have any willpower. I do.”

While I could have compassion for myself for doing this, I certainly didn’t want to continue it. I was ready to end the lie and the separation, because it didn’t feel good and it also blocked me from contributing to those who could use my support in this area. As we all know, it is very difficult to feel supported by someone who is judging you. When we drop the judgment, our colleagues and friends can feel and receive our support.

And, when I compared that to other disciplines, such as my meditation discipline, I could see a stark contrast. My meditation discipline was simply a way to connect to the Universe/The Source/God and I didn’t have an agenda to it. It felt a lot different. It felt clean.

Through this inquiry, I came to the conclusion that any discipline that keeps me separate from others needs to be transformed. I can keep doing the practice, but I need to change the context that it exists inside of by asking: Is this in service to the highest good of all, including me? Or, is it in service to my ego? If it’s the latter, it needs to go. I need to change my consciousness about it.

In light of what I discovered about myself, I can now see why we have very little trust of discipline. We don’t trust the source of that discipline. We are not trained in the discipline for what is for our highest good. We follow the discipline of our egos and our wants and our addictions.

We’ve been disciplined by our need to look good. Instead, let’s make a commitment to be disciplined by what is for our highest good and the highest good of all. Each time we act consistent with that commitment we’ll be living our definition of “training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.”

Todd Benton is a consultant and coach who helps business owners, executives, managers and individual contributors fulfill their potential in business without compromising their well-being, personal goals and aspirations. Todd is also the Executive Director of The Stream, a non-profit spiritual community and teaching and learning organization. Todd’s business can be found on the web at www.bentoncg.com.

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