Success and Failing

Rules Every Achiever Knows

In October 1982, a 25-year-old woman finished the New York City Marathon. No

big deal until you learn that Linda Down has cerebral palsy and was the first

woman ever to complete the 26.2 mile race on crutches. She fell down half a dozen

times, but kept going until she crossed the finish line, 11 hours after she

started. Her handicap limited her speed but not her determination.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote: "Great is the art of beginning, but

greater the art is of ending." How nice it would be if we all had a genie,

who could help us finish what we begin. Unfortunately, we don't. But what we

do have is a dynamic called discipline-which extracts a high price. Following

one of Paderewski's performances, a fan said to him, "I'd give my life to play

like that." The brilliant pianist replied, "I did."

Accomplishment is often deceptive because we don't see the pain and

perseverance that produced it. So we may credit the achiever with brains,

brawn or lucky breaks, and let ourselves off the hook because we fall short in

all three. Not that we could all be concert pianists just by exercising

enough discipline. Rather, each of us has the makings of success in some

endeavor, but we will achieve this only if we apply our wills and work at it.

How can we acquire stick-to-itiveness? There is no simple, fast formula. But

I have developed a way of thinking that has rescued my own vacillating will

more than once. Here are the basic elements:

"Won't" power. This is as important as willpower. The ancient Chinese

philosopher Mencius said, "Men must be decided on what they will not do, and

then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do."

Discipline means choices. Every time you say yes to a goal or objective you

say no to many more. Every prize has its price. The prize in the yes: the

price is the no. Igor Gorin, the noted Ukrainian-American baritone, told of

his early days studying voice. He loved to smoke a pipe, but one day his

professor said, "Igor, you will have to make up your mind whether you are

going to be a great singer, or a great pipe smoker. You cannot be both." So

the pipe went.

Delayed gratification. M. Scott Peck, M. D., author of the best seller The

Road Less Traveled, describes this tool of discipline as "a process of

scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the

pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over

with."

This might involve routine daily decisions-something as simple as skipping a

favorite late-night TV show and getting to bed early, to be wide awake for a

meeting the next morning. Or it might involve longer-term resolves. A young

widow with three children decided to invest her insurance settlement in a

college education for herself. She considered the realities of a tight budget

and little free time, but these seemed small sacrifices in return for the

doors that a degree would open. Today she is a highly paid financial

consultant.

The secret of such commitment is getting past the drudgery and seeing the

delight. "The fact is that many worthwhile endeavors aren't fun," says

syndicated radio and TV commentator Mort Crim. "True, all work and no play

makes Johnny a dull boy. But trying to turn everything we do into play makes

for terrible frustrations, because life-even the most rewarding one-includes

circumstances that aren't fun at all. I like my job as a journalist. It's

personally satisfying, but it isn't always fun."