Discipline
“Discipline is remembering what you want.”
Just as the first glass of Barbera was poured–before I even had a chance to order my amatriciana–my friend Megan and I were off, talking about love and the choices women make. You see, many of our girlfriends have enviable resumes, Rolodexes and 401k’s but just can’t seem to get it together when it comes to men. Professionally brilliant, emotionally stunted. Without the brilliance or the 401k, I can be that woman as well.
New York City breeds this dichotomy in the fairer sex; we fight through our days on the asphalt and in the cloud-skimming skyscrapers and then throw up our hands come twilight. We can’t be “on” all the time. We don’t want to have the same discipline with our boyfriends that we have with our careers. In some aspect of our lives, we want to be naive, trusting, loving–blindly confident that everything is going to work out despite the spreadsheet numbers and facts.
There, sitting, listening on the banquet at “Lupa,” I heard Megan utter one of the most emotionally intelligent–and Big City, in your 20’s relevant–expressions I’ve ever heard. “Discipline is remembering what you want.”
We women have to be proactive to accomplish our professional and sentimental dreams. Don’t sit back and wait for him (Would you sit back and wait for a job?). Remember the full life that you want, and always go after it.
(And if you need something to warm you on these chilly, October nights, stick to this warm chowder instead of any ol’ warm body… I promise the soup won’t cause an awkward ’morning moment…’)
October 24th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Can I quote you on ‘Remember the full life … ‘ ?
October 24th, 2006 at 7:36 am
of course you can. and, i must credit julia child and her book, “my life in france” for deciding to use such a word. she said that, before france, she had lived a good life. but in paris and in the countryside her life was “full,” like never before.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:22 am
I have to say, I completely agree with you about approaching all areas of life the same as you would your career. I have always tried to operate that way, until one man caused me to let go, and those are three years I’ll never get back….