Is Discipline A Dirty Word?

I had a lovely lunch with my, kind, creative, friend yesterday and we had a great discussion about creativity. We talked about staying on task, allowing ourselves enough time and discipline to be creative and to actively produce art work.

Growing up, discipline for me was a rather dirty word, in that I thought, surely in order to be really disciplined you couldn't possible equate this with having fun or enjoyment. Oh how wrong I was, and fortunately I don't think this way anymore and after many years, I have come  know that within discipline there is much freedom to be found. Not that I still don't struggle with daily habitual discipline, believe me I do. Yes, sometimes I entertain thoughts of sitting with my thumb up my arse! My apologies to those not used to my Maritime use of the word arse...it's just a word we like to use!

The relationship, ideas of and between discipline and freedom is different for each individual I'm sure. Personally, discipline enables me to achieve my goals, to become a happier, healthier and better human being and to begin to really understand the meaning of freedom, and who I am as an individual, which I believe is a life long learning process, because we are always trying to improve our skills and grow as creative people.
It's difficult to articulate and I'm certain there are many folks who can do a far better job at articulating, and I would love to hear from any of you who are inclined to do so.
I intend to do some further in depth reading on this subject as it has come up a number of times in my conversations with others.


 Lori Woodward Simon had some very helpful and relevant points to make in her blog article, Freedom VS. Self Discipline: The Professional Artist Struggle.