As a parent, one of the most important and often difficult facets is disciplining. Most of us have seen the result of an undisciplined child, such as a screaming kid lying on the floor of the grocery store because his parent won’t give him the item he wants to buy. It’s also a facet we tend to avoid because we naturally love our children and don’t want to appear to be denying that love.

An interesting Biblical verse is Proverbs 29:17, “Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul.” What’s interesting is that this verse points that not only do we need to discipline our children when needed but the result promises to bring us delight. At the same time, I would add that how this disciplining is done should not be neglected as well.

From my experience as a child, parent and teacher, I have found the following principles help in effective disciplining:

1. Tell the child in advance what your expectations are and what are the consequences. Children will often “test” you if you have said nothing about what you expect. However, telling what is important and what will result from bad behavior prevents testing from being necessary. For example, my father told me something that would never be allowed would be to hit my sister. That would result in my receiving a spanking. That got my attention and worked.

2. Have the consequence “fit the crime.” A spanking need not be the punishment for everything a child does wrong.The consequence may very well be a “time out” or the loss of a privilege.

3. The consequence should “fit the child.” Know your child and what would most appropriately fit him or her based upon his or her personality and interests. The age of the child is important to consider. You shouldn’t discipline a teenager in the same way you would a young child.

Finally, consider why you are disciplining. The reason should be more about the child than about you. Basically this should be an act of love. While it’s true that it can be frustrating to see your child misbehaving, why you are doing this most importantly is helping to shape his or her character for the future. A well-disciplined child will be more likely to study hard for his or her school lessons, not be late to work, and more successful in his or her marriage. As you see your child succeeding in life, that will be for you “delight to your soul.”

Over the years, educators and scholars have dedicated much research to the issue of discipline. Though their methods may vary, there seem to be common threads that are prominent in successful student discipline models. These threads include: a committed staff, well defined expectations, clear rules and procedures, and substantial support from the parents and community. With these foundations in place, teachers can begin to form their own successful discipline models within their own classrooms.

One proven method of classroom discipline is to incorporate both students and teachers in the decision making that controls the atmosphere of the class. This is different from the traditional methods of reward and punishment, in that everyone is included and good/ bad behavior is not necessarily singled out. Research on well-disciplined schools indicates that a student-centered environment, incorporating teacher-student problem solving activities, as well as activities to promote student self-esteem and belonging is more effective in reducing behavior problems than punishment. By making student’s responsible for their classroom environment, they may become more aware of what is going on around them and thus more apt to keep it positive.

Another proven form of discipline is the behavior modification technique of self-control skills. Self-control skills are skills such as self-instruction, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement that teach a student to take total responsibility for their own actions and consequences. Utilizing routines in the classroom force students into a behavior of responsibility for their performance. This too differs from the traditional discipline practice of bestowing rewards and punishments on students, self-control skills teach the student to do these themselves.

Use Routines to Simplify Decision Making

Many factors such as immediacy and simultaneity will influence the amount of time a teacher has for instruction in the classroom. By implementing routines for common or predictable and time consuming tasks as well as routine student needs, the teacher increases the amount of time that can be devoted to instruction and interaction with students.

Predictable tasks are events that can be anticipated. Many such events occur in the course of a class period or school day. Some of these might be requests to go to the restroom, collection of work or assessments, needs for materials or formation of study groups. The variable is the time that these events will occur so that routines which are established early in the school term can be effectively taught and utilized by students and teachers and thereby free valuable instruction time during each class.

Routines can be developed with infinite variations but all are designed to achieve four basic goals.

• These goals should minimize time spent on a task,
• minimize the opportunity for disruption,
• maximize student responsibility,
• and minimize adult control and teacher involvement.

Although the initial time expenditure in explaining and teaching each of the classroom procedures and reinforcing the procedures until they become routine seems exorbitant, the students will, understand what is expected of them and take responsibility for their own behavior with an understanding of the consequences for their choices not to follow established procedures. Time needed to “approve” breaks for personal needs, collect homework, class work, and assessments, and return papers will be reduced using the routine procedures, and allow a maximum of instruction time with a minimum of disruption, teacher involvement, and adult control of predictable tasks in the classroom.

With the many theories and abundant research regarding discipline in schools, today’s educators are well equipped to form their own practices and discipline models. No theory or practice is 100% successful every time. A well balanced teacher will acknowledge this and adapt, incorporating many discipline methods to fit their needs.

The regularly asked child rearing question is, “What should I do when my children misbehave in the market?” It’s baffling when youngsters have fits, run away, cry, grumble, or resist in the store. It would be wonderful to have a little booklet entitled, “How to Parent in Public,” that you could use for yourself and pass on to other people who need it.

The answer is that you don’t practice your control methodologies in the supermarket. That is the end of the year test! You practice them in the kitchen, bedroom, pantry, and terrace. Youngsters need to figure out how to handle frustration at home so they can acknowledge a no answer in the checkout line. Kids who haven’t figured out how to acknowledge rectification at home without an awful state of mind will hopelessly fail the test when they have a crowd of people.

Youngsters create examples of relating. It’s anticipated. You realize that on the off chance that you say no to your four-year-old, she’s prone to have a fit, or when you give a guideline to your eight-year-old she’ll contend with you, or when you reprimand your thirteen-year-old, he accuses the issue for others, including you.

Now and again folks feel like they’ve gotten in a move and they don’t know how to turn off the music. They realize that things shouldn’t happen along these lines yet its tricky to roll out improvements. These examples are called social schedules and they get to be more imbued over the long run.

Discipline for teenagers who are disrespectful is most humiliating when you’re in broad daylight. While at the market, your child starts to contend much the same as he does at home. At chapel, your girl responds to you with the same discourtesy you’ve been seeing for a considerable length of time. These open enclosures aren’t the place to work on changing social schedules, at minimum not until you’ve done huge homework.

The propensity of kids to relate in a specific manner creates after some time and frequently requires purposeful push to change. When you recognize the particular issue, and then work on making the best choice again and again. Case in point, Ricky, age 14, disregards his mother when she provides for him a direction. She needs to say the same thing a few times, frequently with expanding force, before he reacts.

Mother then starts the homework by rehearsing this new “come when you’re called” standard with Ricky. More often than not he comes, however off and on again he doesn’t, bringing about prompt remedy. Mother certifies Ricky for his responsiveness when he comes and once she has him close and gives a guideline, she sees stamped change in his responsiveness. Mother keeps on practicing the new normal with Ricky a few times each day. At that point she practices at the recreation center and around the area. When she feels certain that Ricky has changed the relating example altogether, Mom tries the new standard at the store or at chapel with empowering results.

Self discipline requires you to be able to take appropriate action regardless of the emotional state you are in. It is a conscious decision that will take you through whatever you have set your mind upon.

It does not happen overnight, it takes time to build. An analogy of self discipline would be building of endurance. You start off with small steps and gradually progress to a higher level. Your effort has to be consistent and it must not be effected by external conditions such as mood, fatique or time.

Everyone has a different level of self discipline but it doesn’t mean that they have to stay at that level. Your current state of self discipline has a lot to do with your way of thinking and the type of lifestyle you choose. A person with lower self discipline isn’t necessarily weaker in his will except that he may not be conscious at this point about what he wants and has not taken the appropriate action to achieve it. On the other hand, a well discipline person may not be strong will or have a great character, but at some point in his life, he has decided on what he wants and makes a conscious effort to change his situation. Hence, everyone in some point of their lives can make a conscious decision to take control of their situation and make changes to their lifestyle.

It is a common mistake to set your expectations too high initially, when it comes to self discipline. Since your mind is not condition for the work , you give up when you don’t see the results coming through. Very often we hear people talk about how self discipline a person is or isn’t and we jump to conclusion about the person’s character. Sure, a person’s character and determination will affect his decision to take action in the beginning. However, overtime even a man of great persistent will give up if he doesn’t see any results. Self discipline is not about how well you start , but how you carry yourself through in times of trial and adversary. It is a journey not a destination.

The trick to doing it is take small achieveable steps. Do it consistently without fail until you see results. ( its much easier to do simpler , repeatative task ) Naturally these results will motivate you to take the next level and over time, a habit is formed and your mind is convinced. A thing to note here is that you must not be complacent. Once you have achieve your target, you must alway tell yourself you can do more. That way, you stay motivated which is the key to self discipline.

Discipline is a most for every organization that wants to move forward. It is very essential for the smooth running of any firm. It is also very important for peace and harmony in an organization. Peace between employees, customers and clients. It is always necessary for discipline to be instilled in employees to get the best out of your workforce. Before I go on with why we should have discipline and disciplinary actions in case of defaulters, its right to find out what discipline is. Discipline can be seen or defined as a force that prompts individuals, organizations, nation etc to observe rules and regulations stipulated which are deemed necessary for the effective and efficient running of the group, organization or nation. In this article discipline in firms can be seen as an orderly conduct by employees of an organization to adhere to the rules and regulations as well as policies guiding the activities and running of the organization.

How can one instill discipline in organization?

-Rules and regulations should be clearly stated: For discipline to be instilled in employees there should be clear rules and regulations that stipulates what is expected of each employee and what is not expected of them. The employee handbook for instance should be clear in the dos and don’ts of the firm.

-The rules and regulations should be constantly updated and reviewed. This will make it possible to do away with rules that are no more necessary and addition of new ones that are needed.

-There should be no discrimination in enforcing rules and regulations. To make sure that there is discipline in an organization there should be a general rule for every defaulter. What ever applies to A when he defaults should also be applicable to B.

-Another important thing is that things that will prevent employees from getting involved in discipline should be discouraged and prevented.

-There should be proper communication of the rules concerning discipline in the firm. These rules should be written in the employee handbook and also put in notice boards. By so doing no employee can say he or she is not aware of the rules.

-Disciplinary actions should be in such a way that defaulters will not want to be disciplined a second time after defaulting for a first time.

Causes of indiscipline in firms:

Despite the fact that most firms have laid down rules and regulations, and disciplinary actions taken against defaulters, still indiscipline persists. The following are causes of indiscipline in firms;

-Favoritism: Most managers and discipline enforcers in firms favour some staff in their decision making. There are cases where some staff will commit and offense and will not be punished for it while if it is another person he goes in for it. When such a fellow knows that he will not be punished for an offense, he goes own to commit more offense.

-Lack of Communication: If the laws and rules governing the employment of staff is not clearly communicated or is not communicated at all, there is bound to be several cases of indiscipline in that organization.

-Lack of leadership: For every department, there should be a leader who is to supervise the activities of that department. He monitors and instills discipline in his subordinates. Where there is no one like that to lead and control the others, indiscipline abounds.

-Low morale and Motivation among staff. When employees are not motivated and their morale is low, they tend to work haphazardly. This will affect their discipline and way of work.

-Bad Habit: Some employees have bad habits inbuilt in them that they may or may not be able to change. Once some one for instance has formed the habit of coming to work late, it will take termination of his appointment times for him to change.

Disciplinary Actions in firm:

While disciplining an employee, it is always important to make sure that the disciplinary action meted out to the offender is always commensurate to the offense committed. Like earlier said too, it is important to mete out the same punishment to the same category of offenders. Another important thing in punishing offenders is that the person must be given the opportunity to be heard. He must explain reasons for his action before a decision is taken against him. Certain mild offenses should also be punished with mild penalties. Some disciplinary actions in firms include;

-Oral warning; when an offense is not that serious or when an offender is a first offender, he can be given oral warning. The human resources person invites him, talks to him, cautions him and warns him to desist from such actions in the future.

-Written warning: When the offense committed by the employee is not an offense that you can just warn him verbally and let him go, he is issued a query. He replies the query and explains reasons for his action. The query and his response are filed in the staff file for future references. After considering his response, a written warning also is issued to him and a copy of the warning letter also documented in the staff file.

-Loss of entitlement: Some indiscipline is cautioned by denying the offender his or her entitlement as a reprimand for the action. In some cases, the offender may not be paid any allowance or bonus due to him to punish him for an offense or indiscipline committed.

-Suspension: If an offense is strong, they employee may be suspended without pay. Depending on the level of offence the suspension may take up to two months or more without pay.

-Demotion: A staff can be demoted from his position because of indiscipline. If a manager for instance keeps on coming to work late, how will he lead and control his subordinates? The best thing is to demote him if he has been advised about it and he fells to change.

-Termination of appointment: When an employee commits an offense that the company cannot condone, his appointment may be terminated.

-Dismissal: This is the strongest action that can be carried out on an offender. When an employee gets involved in fraud, stealing, illegal business etc the firm may have no other option left than to dismiss him out rightly.

Disciplinary action is always carried out in sequence. For instance if one is a first offender, and the offense is not so bad, he can be warned verbally. Then if he commits another offense, he is queried and probably suspended from duty without pay. If another offense is committed by the same staff, his appointment may be terminated. On the other hand when a staff commits a grievous offense like fraud, the punishment is summary dismissal.

Discipline problems is a fact of every new teacher's life. The most important thing to remember is to avoid entering a panic mode and attempt to regain class control. Make the most of your time in the classroom by finding ways to deal with problems instead of becoming stressed by them. Discipline problems usually come as a threat to their ability to manage the classroom. But you as the new teacher there are a number of important ways to deal with discipline problems.

The first thing is to look at your lesson plan and incorporate the following tips:

1) Have a motivating lesson plan. Students usually act up when they are frustrated or bored. Keep the momentum in the classroom lively and energizing by providing engaging activities that the students will be motivated to do. The level of the activities should be challenging but no too difficult. If you are motivated to teach, your students will be too.

2) Have a back-up plan when activities do not go as planned. Some activities fall through for many reasons, and you'll need some SOS kits for those unpredictable moments.

3) Be flexible. Success with managing a classroom is dependent on how well you are adapt to new classroom situations as they pop up. Inevitably, new teachers need to think fast and change an activity or regroup students or deal with a problematic student after the lesson.

4) Keep updated on new methodologies and learning approach and experiment with new activities. Some methodologies and approaches may not appeal to each and every class, and as a result, discipline problems may occur.

Practice these tips for preventing discipline problems and soon you'll be making the most of your lesson planning and classroom management time, too.

Behind every great achiever is another great achiever who has served as Mentor. In order to achieve the same results the “disciple” must get to know the achiever’s thinking, his attitudes and actions well enough to duplicate them. Role models provide the inspiration, style, example, and strategy for successful accomplishment. Based upon studies of hundreds of successful achievers, here are 10 proven characteristics of a self-disciplined achiever.

1. A STRONG SENSE OF PURPOSE – You must know exactly where you want to go, where you are going, and the strong commitment to take the necessary steps toward that destination. You will let nothing slow you, stop you, or change your direction.

2. SEEKS OUT POSITIVE MENTORS – Inspirational role models provide examples of hard work and consistent effort (paying the price) to achieve the desired objective. They can also provide assistance and encouragement during the process for the disciple. Call on them for advice and inspiration. Once you have achieved some success, become a role model for someone else. You will probably learn as much as they do in the process.

3. A SENSORY RICH VISION (IMAGINATION) – You don’t see things as they are and asking ‘why’, but you visualizing things as they can be and ask ‘why not’. You visualize the outcome, and what will the accomplishment of the goal will look like. You may find it easier to visualize your goals if you cut the pictures out of magazines and post them on a poster board in front of your desk. Seeing them daily will encourage and help motivate you.

4. POSITIVE SENSORY ORIENTATION – Failure is NOT an option, and NOT a recognizable experience. Your past “failures” only become an excuse not to try again. You need to focus on a positive assurance that sees everything being done as movement toward the goal. If you can see it, it will be true for your mind, and you will accomplish it. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between visualization and reality. That’s why your dreams at night seem so real.

5. BELIEF IN GOD & SELF – You need to have a confidence in God, yourself, and your inborn (God-given) “can do” belief that seeks to find ways any given task can be accomplished. If you believe you can do it, it will be only a matter of time before it is done. If you feel you can’t do it on your own, ask for help.

Friends, family, colleges, and prayer have always worked for me.

6. ABILITY TO PLAN & ORGANIZE – Have your priorities established. See your goals not as just to earn money, but what you want to do with that money. Take a methodical approach by breaking it down into a step-by-step process, with a detailed game plan. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!! Check you progress regularly to ensure you are on track.

7. ABILITY TO ACQUIRE LEARNING & NECESSARY SKILLS – You must have a commitment to become educated (equipped) with the necessary knowledge and applications as it relates to the accomplishment of the goal. Your education and experience will never stop. Continue to get more knowledge daily. Take 30-60 minutes everyday out of your schedule for self improvement.

8. KNOWS THE VIRTUE OF PATIENCE – Don’t be intimidated by time. Realizes that time is immaterial, not an enemy, but an ally, a friend. Getting to your goals is more than half the fun of it! Enjoy the process of success and setbacks. Learn from each of them. Take time to enjoy your small achievements. This will go a long way to sustaining you over the long run and assist you in achieving your goals.

9. PERSISTENCE – Perseverance! Do not give up in the face of persecution or setbacks. You need to develop a stick-to-it-iveness in spite of rejection or negative opinions. Be relentless in pursuit of the goal. Have a dogged determination in spite of all odds.

10. SENSE OF PLEASURE / PLAY IN RELATION TO WORK – Be genuinely excited by your goals. Be interested in learning. Have a main source of pleasure on the journey to the goals, with appropriate rewards for reaching certain milepost along the way. It’s got to have the element of fun to give it significance and lasting meaning. Don’t take yourself too seriously. You will wear yourself out too quickly. Remember this is a change for a lifetime.

First you establish your goals, and then you enforce a strict set of disciplines necessary to cross the finish line of achievement. Every act of self-discipline moves you toward your goals, and every exception takes you off course.

You may be tempted to pooh-pooh away this statement as something so obvious, however before you do, ask yourself this important question: “Based on my goals set, am I ahead, on or below target?

The answer to that question is directly tied to your willingness and ability to remain focused on the key actions necessary for success.

The FACTS are simply this; you are either buying or selling. If you are on, or better yet ahead of target than you are a seller. You have sold yourself on the importance of discipline and have stayed focused in spite of the world of options and temptations that circle you all of the time.

If you are below target than you are a buyer. You have bought the same excuses that have led so many others down the pathway of mediocrity. The things you buy are procrastination; lack of discipline and whatever else is your poison of choice.

Remember this absolute rule of discipline; “If you don’t discipline yourself, you are sure to be disciplined by others”. Don’t believe me, huh? Chew on this, run up your credit cards real high, be late on a few payments and see how quickly those companies are to teach you a thing or two about discipline.

I repeat, “If you don’t discipline yourself, you are sure to be disciplined by others”.

To CREATE HISTORY you must become a seller. Sell yourself on the power of your goal; your vision for what is possible. To REPEAT HISTORY all you have to do is continue to be a buyer. Buyers consume not only products from the store but also excuses from their minds. It, meaning success and failure all begins within the parameters of your own mind and the disciplines of your behavior.

We are all walking, talking power struggles: head vs. heart…intellect vs. emotion. Many leave the steering to their emotions and merely bring their intellects along for the ride. Your goals or your excuses, which is running the show in your life?

Contrary to popular belief, freedom does not arise from “letting it all hang out;” freedom is the result of a personal triumph over excuses and bad habits. Excuses such as procrastination are like toxic waste to your potential.

To experience true freedom, you must prove to yourself that you are the master of your own destiny. Never are you less free than when you are held hostage by your excuses and lack of discipline. When lack of discipline and excuses rule, enslavement and mediocrity, not freedom, follows!

Bad habits are the gravitational pull of your emotional life, and overcoming them is not easy. Change is challenging. Surrender is tempting, and it gets tastier with practice. The good news is that it takes less energy to remain disciplined than to regain it.

The only bad news about self-discipline is that it is so easy to give up. Every compromise in behavior (nice word for excuse) greases the wheels for another compromise. Make a personal “no exceptions policy,” and stick to it.

Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. Self-discipline requires you to connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s results.

There’s a season for sowing, a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you know which is which.

Winners prepare and anticipate behind closed doors. Lay the groundwork for success carefully: Effective preparation and self-discipline are closely allied. Do your homework. Since most people are rarely well prepared, you will often succeed by default. When opportunity presents itself, burst out of the starting gate, sprint to the finish line, and take home the prize.

Do what needs to be done. Quality living requires you to make difficult choices and sacrifices; it demands that you do the hard work first. You cannot arrive at true success without making the trip.

Self-discipline is a habit. It is not situational, but it is applied situation by situation. Anyone can be self-disciplined on occasion, but to get consistently positive results requires consistency.

It is the day-in day-out practice of self-discipline that determines where you’ll end up. After all, a lifetime is an accumulation of moments, days, weeks, months, and years.

What you do during each moment counts and influences the degree to which you judge your life to be a success. If you aspire to achieve your goals, you must be prepared to play every play as though the two-minute warning clock is running. Every move is significant. Every move counts!

Everyone struggles with self-discipline. The question is not “Do I…” but “Where do I need to exercise greater self-discipline?” The discipline you establish today determines the successes you’ll enjoy tomorrow.

The strenuous life tastes better. When it comes to self-discipline, a key driver of success, EVERYTHING COUNTS!

Gary Ryan Blair

Modern western families are not, as a norm, teaching self-discipline to their children. External discipline, the one administered forcibly by parents and society, does not always translate into self-discipline. We could certainly learn from Asian families, especially Chinese and Japanese; their children behave splendidly in our American schools.

Parents may ask, quite reasonably, why so many children fail to follow the discipline values that they learned at home. There are several causes which we can find not only at home, television is a big one, but also throughout our modern society. Traditional values are usually interpreted by younger generations as old-fashioned and obsolete. Young parents protest: “We must try to understand our children, we must be better than our own parents.”

This pseudo-scientific attitude, not supported by hard evidence, has caused the American family (in general) to forgive or turn a blind eye to small delinquent behavior in young children. This philosophy began with the baby boomer generation after WWII. As a result, modern day students have relaxed their standards, their values, and this laissez-faire behavior is in part responsible for our present economic woes.

Our societal model of greed and lack of responsibility has given birth to fraudulent financial instruments, to outright lies by real estate agents, and to sleazy accounting procedures. Corruption is rampant among Washington politicians and lobbyists, a factor multiplied by the self-interest (egotism) of high placed bureaucrats who believe that public interest always comes last.

As a teacher in high-school, I see firsthand the consequences of a “let him/her grow into his/her own” attitude by parents. They interpret every little misstep as a “child looking for his/her identity”. Interrupting this process amounts to sacrilege, to a violation of humanistic principles that assume that man is born good. According to this philosophy, society is the villain that makes us “bad”.

As I walked in the classroom, I saw papers strewn on the floor. I asked the student sitting at that desk to pick them up. His reply was a typical “I didn’t do it”. The very notion that somebody else is responsible allows me to forgo all my values regarding helping the community. Somebody else will do it; we don’t know who that other person is, but it’s certainly not I. That same day, I watched an Asian teacher picking up thrash in the hall in front of her classroom. Other teachers usually don’t bother.

This lack of altruism or regard for the social group is prevalent in some groups; many teens dedicate their off time to drinking and carousing. Others, too few unfortunately, are happy to spend their free hours helping others, sometimes people they don’t even know, such as African kids who lack everything. Am I just an old-fashioned, grouchy, elderly man, or is there some truth in my nostalgia for self-discipline?

Parents: Small, “innocent” acts of delinquency can flourish and become full-blown attacks against our social fabric. I do not recommend martial law inside the home, nor do I favor physical punishment unless it is absolutely necessary (repeated disobedience). A few well-placed smacks on the buttocks will hurt pride more than flesh, and the message will be received loud and clear. Early stern intervention will stimulate self-discipline, as children will finally assimilate the idea that they are responsible for their own behavior and for the well-being of society in general.

Discipline in public life ensures peace and harmony which in turn offers impetus to the forces of progress and prosperity. No country, big or small, can afford to play duck and drake with the dirty called discipline. All talk of equity or social justice becomes a cry in the wilderness or a pompous promise if the powers that be fail to comprehended and carry out the dictates of discipline at all costs and in all situations. With discipline as a way of life, all plans, policies, and programmes are bound to bear fruit. Whenever people in public life or in private enterprise dilute the demands of discipline, most aspiration and achievement go astray, leading to failure and frustration at various levels. Discipline for countries like India, which are standing at the threshold of economic break therough, and a stupendous store of opportunities, is the most immediate and urgent pre-requisites. Discipline for the rules and rule is an essential ingredient if we mean business in field and factories.

The recent outbreak of plague and the wrong signals that this “limited epidemic ” sent across the world, was not an act of God as some would like us to believe but the regretful result of unpardonable negligence on the part of civic authorities. The woeful way the routine calls of duty and discipline by paid public servants were given a go is a matter of crying shame for one and all. The heaps of garbage in towns, cities, and metros were allowed to rot and their removal left to lag-pickers, speak volumes of the callous attitude toward discipline and devotion to duty. It is high time that we sit up and do some serious heart searching.

The ease with which state/opposition sponsored “bands” are organized in our country is another area of concern. With discipline in public life under a cloud, the entire socio-economic momentum is brought to a grinding halt. When such is the sadistic approach toward the discipline there is nothing that can come to our rescue if some bigger calamity overtakes us in future. The remedy of so money ills that afflict us today lies not in talk but in the restoration of discipline in public life. Discipline is the only route that can take us to our rightful place among the comity of nation.

The steady slide indiscipline among elected representatives of people manifests itself, more often than not, in state legislatures, where less light and more heat generated over issues of public interest. Some time drama of the absurd is enacted in such a way that all decency of debate and deliberation arte thrown to the winds and only lung- power of muscle-power becomes the norm of the proceeding. Defections, floor-crossing, abductions and they are a painful pointer to the near collapse of discipline in public life. Still worse things happen at the time of elections. In place of issues, intimidation of voters, and instead of performance, the pressure becomes prominent. Vilifications, vituperations, and even violence become the modus operandi of those who ought to have presented themselves as a specimen of discipline and decorum. Such is the sad scenario that one has to witness every now and then, one pretext or the other.

Germany and Japan have become economic gaits, after having been reduced the ashes after the second world war, is not something that we can attribute to some fluke of fortune. Both the countries have come to occupy their present economic supremacy due to the unstinted fact of their rulers and the ruled in the golden principle of hard work and discipline in their private and public life. In Pakistan, we have vast men-power, technological expertise, and natural resources. If we make discipline a part and parcel of our psyche and our day- to – day dealings, there nothing that we can not aim at and achieve. Short plucking the stars from heaven, we can change the face of Pakistan if we sincerely and seriously enforce the pristine principle of discipline in all walk of Pakistan life, without fear or favor. Those sitting at half of the affairs as well as those who are wielding state power, have to become models of perception and performance, concept and conduct. There is no shortcut to development, nor any substitute of discipline. In fact, their combination can leave us far behind the race of economic independence and political stability. All said discipline should be the order of public” life with no ifs and buts attached to it.