Lou's Parable
A parable I always use to make the point about the importance of discipline involves two young men, each of whom owned a new puppy. The first man showered his puppy with love and affection and allowed the dog to do whatever it wanted. No restrictions, only unconditional love and freedom. The other man loved his puppy as well but he also put a choke collar on the animal. Anytime the dog behaved improperly the young man would tug on the choke collar. It didn’t take long for that dog to realize there were limitations on his freedom.
A year later, the second man was able to take the choke collar off the dog and the dog roamed the neighborhood. The owner didn’t worry, because he knew that the dog would obey his commands, that he wouldn’t bite anyone or destroy property and he wouldn’t abuse the freedoms his owner had given him. The dog understood this actions had consequences. The first man could not give his dog the same freedoms. If let loose, the first dog would have terrorized the neighborhood, destroyed property and possibly harmed someone. For those reasons the dog had to be confined inside. The freedom the first man thought he was giving his dog by not disciplining him turned out to be just the opposite. The lack of discipline became a lack of freedom.
When I finish telling the story, I always ask the athletes who have been forced to listen, “Now the question I have for you is, do you want a choke collar for a year so that you can enjoy freedom for the rest of your life. Or do you want to be coddled and never free?” Unfortunately some people confuse discipline with harassment, when the two could not be more diametrically opposed. Discipline is administered out of love and caring. If the consequences for a particular action will teach a valuable lesson and make the recipient a better person then you have properly used discipline. If neither of those are true,if no one learns anything form your actions and the person on the receiving end is not made better because of what you’ve done, then you are simply harassing that person, you are not disciplining him.
---Adapted from Wins, Losses and Lessons by Lou Holtz
Comments
Post a Comment