In any area of your life in which you want achieve sustained success you’re going to need to be disciplined. Because what makes the difference between reaching success and sustaining it is discipline. Discipline is the practice of developing self-control. It is the practice of saying yes to one thing, the right thing, and saying no, to everything else. Saying no to temptations, distractions, opportunities, discouragement and fatigue.

The problem is that discipline is not a quality we’re born with, it’s a quality we must learn and develop. But what makes developing discipline truly difficult, is that it’s developed within the framework of freedom and responsibility. Speaking about freedom the Apostle Paul wrote: All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. – 1 Corinthians 10:23 NKJ

Freedom allows us to do anything we want to do. Freedom allows us the choice to give in to temptations, distractions, opportunities, discouragement, and fatigue. But freedom also gives us permission to act responsibly.

To achieve sustained success we need to be disciplined, and in order to be disciplined we need to develop the ability to act responsibly. Developing responsibility simply means to develop the will to say yes to the one thing and no to everything else. But, how do we know what to say yes to? Well, that’s going to require that we clearly define our responsibilities. When we don’t have clearly defined responsibilities it’s always easy to excuse our irresponsibility and it also allows us to blame others. But when our responsibilities are specific we eliminate the option to give excuses and to blame others. Clearly defined responsibilities are a big step towards living a disciplined life.

To sum it up, when we choose to act responsibly it enables us to develop discipline and discipline allows us to achieve sustained success.