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“The Discipline of Steel and it’s Parallel to Your Life” by Tony Terranova

Physics was once called ‘natural philosophy’ and became the foundation for many other sciences including engineering. Sometimes it is helpful to look at life in parallel to our surroundings as we all see things every day and often take them for granted. Winston Churchill made a similar observation when he said, ‘Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.’

Now, by this point some of you might be asking yourselves what relevance steel has to your life? But please kindly read on and I will try to explain.

Over the past 70 years a disciplined effort has been made to improve steels. The changes consisted of adding elements such as chromium, zinc, copper, manganese, nickel, aluminium, molybdenum, cobalt, vanadium, silicon and others. The technical term used for this is ‘alloying steels with elements’. Additionally new methods enabled impurities (which make the steels weaker) to be removed during the smelting process (this is the manufacturing stage of steel). This has resulted in a new range of metals that are lighter, stronger, more corrosion resistant and so on. For example, by adding 0.3% of copper to steel it takes twice as long to go rusty. By adding 0.5% of molybdenum the steel’s strength increases by over 10%. A combination of 1% chromium with 0.5% molybdenum results in the steel being used in temperatures 50% higher than normal steels and so on.

These specific changes have provided us with aeroplanes, cars, refrigerators, televisions, steel bridges, surgical operating equipment, weapons, and thousands of other beneficial innovations. Once steel is disciplined to have new capabilities, it retains them. For example, the bridge you drive over retains its form for you to use every day. And the steel pin in a broken bone will hold strong until the limb is fully healed.

Our lives are no different. The choices we make may result in our developing new capabilities. If we decide not to change, we may be just like the old steels - with limited potential. It is the adding of alloys to and removing of impurities from steel that enables it to perform to the new capabilities (there is no luck involved). Everything we have experienced in our past brings us to the place we are in life today.

It would be great if we humans could make a change in our lives that has the resultant discipline that alloying (mixing elements) does to steel - that is we stay the course once we make the change. The hardest part is staying disciplined and believing in ourselves so that we are strong enough to change our habits. The belief that we can do it is a very important ‘element’ to success. Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.’ I agree with him and the self-help gurus who say, - you will never achieve any sustainable success that exceeds the image you have of yourself’.

Life is a habit and then the habit becomes you. We are all creatures of habit. We are what we do, we are what we eat and we are what we train. We have all been at that point, the moment where we slip back into bad habits and before we know it we are in the depths of lethargy. At times like these don’t forget the lessons of steel - have the discipline to get back on your chosen track. Before our scientists and engineers embarked on the long task of producing steels with greater potential, the task was fraught with doubts and unknowns; all that was clear was that without change nothing would improve.

We are just the same as those engineers. Unless we walk out into the unknown, the odds of making a profound difference in our lives are extremely remote. We can increase our capabilities by getting rid of our bad habits (impurities) and replacing them with good ones (new elements). We do this by applying discipline, making the changes and thus achieving our goals (actions equal results). Aristotle taught, ‘Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.’

Sometimes it is the acknowledgement of another person’s achievements that has the required effect in our lives when we are at our most undisciplined state. For example take the sight of the lonely boxer training on the punch bag on his own in his garage. That is such a cool and inspiring sight. Why? because he is driven by passion and commitment - the feeders of discipline. That’s why the film ‘Rocky’ was a success. It showed what an average guy (with bad habits) could do when he has ‘the discipline of steel’.

The next time you feel you are slipping into bad habits - stop, look at your surroundings and let the disciplines of steel inspire you. Remember the scene out of ‘Conan the Barbarian’ where Conan’s father is showing him his sword (just before the battle starts). He says, ‘The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan you must learn its discipline. For no one, no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts, this you can trust’. Now that's the kind of stuff that can motivate you to train harder. But we are all different: your inspirational fuel might be music, reading a great book, chatting with a motivational friend or watching an empowering movie. Whatever it is, make it a part of your life.

I know it is hard to change. We all have a comfort zone and we fear the unknown. At certain times in my life I have been the king of the comfort zone. I recently returned to martial arts training (at the age of 45 after a 10-year break) after receiving a call from Geoff Thompson telling me ‘You need get back on the mat’. I had previously trained for 8 years (having started my training together with Geoff). Although this has been one of my better decisions, the changes and discipline required for me to return to martial arts training were very hard, but the results (new capabilities) have all been worth it. I kept waiting for the right time to go back into training and realised there is never a right time. If we want to be in that small percentage of people who succeed in life, we must act now and decide to live with a dedicated goal. Harness your ability to be disciplined and you can change your destiny.

Do not let yourself be beaten by the humdrum nature of everyday life, make your plans knowing that there is risk in safety and safety in risk. It is your future aspirations that determine your daily actions, if you want to be successful, then let discipline take its place in your life.