sim'ple and easy to learn. So it is really a matter of doing
what you must do and not doing what you must not do.
That's discipline. It's not always fun. Sometimes it's dis-
agreeable. Sometimes it's just plain rough. But it pays off
big in results. Much better than physical permissiveness.
Because physical permissiveness will make you a slob.
Even so, physical discipline is easier than
mental discipline. Somehow it's harder to keep your mind
under control than your body. That's because, in evolu-
tion, man's body developed before his mind .. In fact, man's
mind hasn't developed very much yet. The day's news is
ample evidence of that.
There is a great excess of mental permissive-
ness: mental wandering, aimless, uncontrolled, undisci-
plined.
Of course, there is a great deal of subconscious
mental wandering during sleep. It is a phenomenon which
should not be left to Freud. The opportunities for con-
structive use of the time thus spent every night are too
great. Research, to date, has accomplished too little. Yet
the problem is so complex, we must leave it to the special-
ists.
However, there is much we can do about mental
discipline during our waking hours. And there is much we
need to do. For example, take concentration. Can you
concentrate on just one simple, single thought without
another thought interrupting for fifteen seconds? For
thirty seconds? For a minute? Try it.
Without the mental discipline of controlled
concentration, we accomplish only a slight fraction of what