Discipline, Darling! by Abbie

Discipline, Darling! by Abbie - February 2023 Scholarship Essay

Your pencil, notes and paper are laid out in front of you. On the big screen, your digital textbook and some practice problems are pulled up on the browser. There’s a big final coming up, you should get a head start on studying; calculus isn’t your strongest subject. You’ve just completed one practice problem, although struggled through one is a more apt description. Reluctantly, you scroll to the next one. But you don’t begin. You stare blankly at the unintelligible letters and numbers, it was like reading a foreign language. After a few minutes, you decide that you can study it later, opening another tab and pulling up your favorite distraction. The notes are pushed aside, ignored.

Having self-discipline is one of the most important soft skills that lead to a successful education. Self-discipline is having the self control to delay doing what you want to do and doing what you should do, even if you don’t want to. Today’s world is filled with distractions. Your phone buzzes from a text message, the news app pings with an update, and there is endless entertainment both on and off the internet. Self-discipline has a big impact on a successful education, as it allows you to get tasks done, do your best work, and achieve academic goals set outside of the classroom.

The first step towards a successful education is doing the work. For example, few would prefer to do calculus, chemistry, or history homework over a leisure activity. However, homework often helps reinforce concepts taught in class, and oftentimes can make or break your grades, understanding, and future performance. So while many would rather not do it, it’s a critical part to obtaining a successful education. The first step towards success is “showing up,” in this case, in the form of doing the assigned work. With self-discipline, it allows you to focus on the task at hand and finish it, even if you don’t want to. Self-discipline drives you to do the work, pushing you towards a successful education.

Second, doing the work doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be your best work. This is a critical difference that can deeply affect the path of a student’s education. Whether that be homework or a major project, poor work reflects poorly on you. This is important because your performance affects what doors will be open to you. If you consistently show you don’t put effort into your work, your teacher won’t write you a letter of recommendation to praise your work ethic. Poor work can result in poor grades, leading to a less than stellar GPA: college admissions and honors often look at GPA. Your work is a reflection of you, proving that to have a successful education, you must do your best work. Strong self-discipline can have the biggest effect on the quality of work, as it motivates you to give it your best, even if you don’t want to do it. Thus, self-discipline has a major impact on a successful education by driving you to not just do the work, but to do it well.

Finally, education doesn’t just stay in the classroom. In today's society, education can take place anywhere. Whether that be reading, learning a skill through videos, or online self-guided courses, all these options require the drive and focus to accomplish them. With the lack of a teacher to create and enforce goals and deadlines, you must learn to set and enforce them yourself. This is why self-discipline has the biggest impact on a successful education. With a third party involved, it’s easier to drive yourself to do the work to your best ability; when it’s only you to hold yourself accountable, self-discipline will be the deciding factor in whether this skill will be learned. Enforcing your own goals has an important impact on whether education ends in the classroom, or continues with you, enriching your entire life. This makes self-discipline the soft skill with the biggest impact on a successful education: without it, you may set academic goals outside of school, but they’ll never be achieved.

Self-discipline is a significant factor that affects the success of an education: it drives you to complete the required work, complete it to the best of your ability, and to enforce your own learning goals outside of the classroom. The first two are critical to a successful education in the classroom, but you need all three to have a successful education regardless of age or place, proving that self-discipline is the main driver of a successful education.