THE FEAR OF CONSEQUENCES
SELF GROWTH = SELF DISCIPLINE + CONSISTENCY
Hello, How’re you doing? It’s been a while, whooops, it’s been 8 weeks since you last heard from me. Apologies for the break-in transmission. Trust you’ve been doing fine!!!
In this post I will be taking a quick detour from the ongoing Building Your Brand Series and will be sharing a personal encounter with you. I experienced something and thought it might be of help to someone out there.
In the last 24 hours, three events happened and these events got me thinking. Interestingly, these events are not directly related but in this post, I will be drawing parallels from the three events and you will see for yourself how the fear consequences can make us disciplined to get results.
The first of these events was me submitting Chapter 1 one of my final year project. If you didn’t know before now, I am in the Fifth and Final Year of my undergraduate studies and I am required to write a Final Year Thesis/Project so as to be able to graduate.
The second event was me witnessing the suspension of the Financial Secretary of my Faculty’s Student Association. Also, if you didn’t know before now, I am an active member of my Faculty’s Student Association. I happen to serve as an honourable member of the parliamentary arm of the association and was part of those who meted out the punishment to the Financial Secretary to serve as a lesson to him and other members of the Executive Council (EC). In summary, the reason for the suspension is because the Fin Sec failed to carry out his expected constitutional duties.
The third event was me not completing a task I should have completed.
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
What got me thinking about the first event is the fact that I started writing the project at exactly 9 am this morning which I had to submit between 1-2 pm when I initially had 7 days to come up with chapter 1. I was given the project topic last week Thursday and was told to submit it in a week's time but didn’t get to it until 5hrs to submission time because I kept giving excuses (which seemed valid initially) and kept pushing it forward until it was die-minute. The task which I couldn’t complete in 120+ hours eventually took me 3 hours to complete. My once valid excuses didn’t seem to count anymore because I knew the deadline was fast approaching and there’s a potential punishment for not submitting when I should. Interestingly, the punishment is not even a physical one.
For the second event, the Fin Sec was suspended because he didn’t perform his duty which was to prepare a detailed financial report and not being involved in the budget of the EC with the Gen Sec.
For the third event, I set a deadline for a design task I am to complete but didn’t complete it.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
“For some people, the fear of consequences is the beginning of hardwork”
For the first event, I knew the deadline, I knew what was at stake if I failed to meet the deadline, got to it and avoided the punishment but in the second case the Fin Sec knew what was at stake, didn’t get to it, or probably got to it late but couldn’t avoid the punishment. As for the last event, I knew the deadline but didn’t get to it because I knew there was no grave punishment or consequence if I fail to meet the deadline. This brings us to the point of this whole story, We tend to find the solution to a problem no matter the obstacle if there are consequences or there’s something at stake either physical punishment, financial implication, self-esteem, ego, or self-pride.
We cannot keep doing things only if there are immediate consequence for not doing it
My intention is to draw your attention to the third event. The task I was unable to complete is a very important one which is in line with a very important medium-term plan of mine. Imagine I was going to submit the same task to a manager at work or a client, I definitely would have found a way around it. This is the same way we push aside important things we should get done. That task you have been postponing will probably take you less than one hour to complete.
These three events reestablished to me the importance of discipline. To experience tremendous personal growth, SELF DISCIPLINE is key. In as much as there may not be an immediate tangible implication for not getting some important things done, the long-term effects are enormous.
To practice this, I ensured to put up this post. The planning, writing, editing, and posting of this took me less than a day. There’s no short-term implication if I do not write and post this but in the long run, my ability to write well and improve my writing skill will suffer.
At the beginning of this week, I posted on my WhatsApp status that “First Quarter Goals in the Mud” because I was able to complete fully just one of the 7 things I intend to get done for this first quarter. 4 of them are uncompleted (one of which was the task I mentioned earlier) and didn’t even get around to starting 2 of them at all. Hopefully, I can get some of them done in the few days left this month. It’s not like I didn’t know I needed to get these things done, but I kept giving myself excuses. Thankfully, these recent events have geared me up to reality.
I hope my sharing of this personal experience of mine will help you get back to working on the things you set to achieve even though there may not be a short-term implication for not getting it done.
“The Key to Substantial Growth is doing the small tasks consistently even when you don’t feel like.”
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