Discipline: Tuesdays at 10

Even on a team of superheroes there is a weak link.  We know this to be true in many aspects of our modern life.  The idea that, “a chain is no stronger than its weakest link” seems to permeate our cultural psyche.  The Olympics provide a wonderful illustration of this concept, when announcers talk about the weak runners in the 1500m (a metric mile).  Keeping in mind that the weakest time for the Olympic 1500m run averages around 4 min and change.  Even amongst the worlds greatest runners we, as human beings, assign rank and value to performance. 

We do this, consciously and unconsciously, at work and home, in public and private -- all in order to make sense of the world.  People naturally focus on the areas where we perceive the greatest weaknesses in order to build those areas up.  In many circles this practice is seen as improvement or progress. 

At an earlier point in my career I worked with a group that was in the process of becoming a “dream team” of sorts.  As the group shifted and changed over time I won the title of ‘weakest link’ in the eyes of the boss.  It was made pretty clear that while I was doing “a good job,” I could always “do better.”  In her effort to help me we started meeting every Tuesday at 10 a.m.  

I resented these meetings for several of the first weekly sessions.  I saw the sessions as discipline = punishment.  After a time, I realized that my supervisor also saw the sessions as discipline, but she defined discipline as something more.  Discipline has many definitions, here are some of the most common:

1.  punishment
2. a field of study
3. a rule or system of rules governing conduct or activity
4. A.)  control gained by enforcing obedience or order; B.) self-control
5. training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character. 

As it turns out my boss viewed our sessions as a training opportunity.  Once this came to my attention, I realized I had a choice to make.  I could either see our meetings as a punishment, or embrace them as an opportunity to learn.  I chose to check my pride and embrace the chance to gain knowledge.  It turned out that I learned a great deal, and became a better professional (and perhaps person) for the experience.   On another team, I would have been one of the top performers, but my boss felt that on that particular team I fell back in the pack.

At the end of the day, the fundamental truth stands: you can learn something from every situation.

Sometimes it takes a little longer to see the lesson.  Sometimes extenuating circumstances muddy the water.  Sometimes we’re too emotionally invested in the situation and therefore cannot see the lesson.  But most of the time, a little kernel of truth is floating around in our experiences that can make us better, stronger, faster, smarter -- if we let it.