Yes, I imagine the confusion as you read the title. Where am I headed with this? Bear with me as I tour down the self-help rabbit trail.
Inspiration is the mental stimulation of thought, usually positive. Pretty easy to come by and usually fleeting. It typically manifests itself as “I wish I had”. It can be physical, mental, spiritual, material, or a plethora of other things. Inspiration is typically a good thing as it motivates us to improve ourselves.
Motivation comes next. It is typically the action associated with inspiration. Motivation is a harder step in the process of self-improvement. If you spend any time on social media platforms you will quickly get overwhelmed with motivational blurbs. From the beginning of Nike’s “just do it” campaign to Jordan Peterson’s “get some responsibility” speech, motivating reels will fill up your feeds. Being motivated is absolutely necessary for us as humans to be a positive and productive member of our society.
Discipline, yeah here we go! While inspiration and motivation come easy, discipline is very hard. Committing yourself to every day for an extended period of time to a possible outcome is hard. The long-term GRIND of staying disciplined for however long it takes is something very few people can do.
As our society gets further and further removed from agriculture we are getting less and less disciplined. Instant gratification is the expectation now. If the internet doesn’t work in two seconds, we become impatient. For most young people to commit to anything longer than two seconds is almost unheard of. Job, college major, trade, relationship, take your pick, they upgrade faster than iPhones. Lots of inspiration but very little discipline – the exception to this rule is AG kids.
The inspiration for this article comes from helping a few neighbors brand and watching the kids coming up in our industry. They give me hope for mankind. Growing up with livestock discipline is engrained in you. The cows tore the fence up and are out again, you go put them back in.
Sunday morning blizzard, you’re sick, but the cows still have to be fed. 4:00 AM getting up to go brand, you can take motivation completely out of the equation. The job HAS to be done whether you “feel like” it or not. Why do you think companies seek out AG kids to hire? Teaching patience, commitment and discipline to our young people is one of the most important things we can do in my opinion.
So from my perspective, if you want to teach your kids discipline, get them a cow.
Hanes Holman, President, NCA