You are either in control or being controlled.

However, to live a well-balanced life - where you have dominion over controlling forces - then you must be the one playing the pipe and dictating the tunes.

In essence, you must be the master of your habits and emotions.

And not the other way round.

I've been asked many times how a person can restrain themselves and live a disciplined and focused life.

Discipline in this regard refers to any principle that empowers you to develop self-restraint and gain control over forces that might stifle your progress.

When you exercise discipline and become focused, you are the one in control of forces and not the other way around.

In a nutshell, a disciplined person is the master of their habits and emotions such that they can ordain a good destiny for themselves.

So, being disciplined in this context means you are in control of:

• Evil spiritual forces
• Evil human influences
• Unhealthy sexual habits
• Negative Emotions
• Inability to manage money
• Forces of lack and want
• Fractured relationships
• Envy and jealousy
• Substance abuse
• Unhealthy sleep habit

If you study the list carefully, you can add similar things that are peculiar to your case.

The only thing that can give you control and make you become a master of those forces is nothing but discipline.

When you are disciplined, you have everything under your control.

Here's the Secret to a Life of Discipline

So the big question people ask is, what is the secret to a disciplined life?

For instance:

If you are  in a sexually provocative environment, how do you maintain sexual sanity?

Or 

• How do you maintain calm whether you have little or excess money?
• How can you be consistent in doing the right thing even if you don't see any result?
• How can you make your marriage work when things get tough without quitting?
• How can you become a man or woman of dignity in spite of hardships?

In a nutshell: 

How can you live a disciplined, focused life?

How can you restrain yourself from making bad decisions like others in similar circumstances?

For instance, a circumstance where an average person would get angry and become destructive, you can be so calm and in control.

What's the secret behind such self-restraint?

The Secret: Seeing the 'End' From 'the Beginning'

The only secret to living a focused life - a life of discipline - is to have a vision.

Vision?

What sort of vision?

Vision in this context means, "The ability to SEE the END from the BEGINNING."

You'll agree with me that there’s always an end to everything.

But the problem of mankind is that we all cannot see an end of everything.

Here's what I mean:

• We only see the beginning of everything and not the end.
• We only see the immediate pleasure, not the consequences.
• We only see the shiny objects and not the danger that lurks behind them.
• We only see the present pain and not the ultimate joy that may later come.

All the things we can only see are what I call "THE OBVIOUS".

So in a nutshell, every human being on earth - including you and me - have one limitation:

WE ONLY SEE THE OBVIOUS!

However, just imagine having the ability to see beyond the OBVIOUS.

Whoever has that ability already has the secret to taking back control of every aspect of life.

And you know what? That ability to see beyond the obvious is what we call a VISION.

Little wonder the Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he" (Prov. 29:18 KJV).

My curiosity drove me to read that passage in another translation:

"Where there is no vision, the people CAST OFF RESTRAINT..." (Prov. 29:18 ASV).

There it is - the simple definition of what a vision is:

"Anything that enables RESTRAINT."

So, a lack of vision is why people cast off restraint!

When someone has vision, they can see beyond the obvious. They are self-restrained, disciplined and focused.

But if someone doesn't have vision, they cannot see beyond the obvious and what happens as a result? They cast off restraint.

This shows that:

• People cast off sexual restraint because they have no vision
• People cast off financial restraint because they have no vision
• People cast off anger restraint because they have no vision

Help me complete the list if you understood the picture I'm painting on here.

When people cannot see beyond the obvious - they lack self-restraint or self-discipline.

People Become Reckless Because They Lack Vision

Stop excusing yourself with 'temperament issue'.

This has nothing to do with temperament.

It's a vision issue.

When you see the end from where you are, it will correct the way you approach life.

People become reckless because they lack vision.

Let's say you're driving on an expressway at 120km/hr. If you suddenly sight a roadblock ahead, what would you do?

Would you still keep going at 120km/hr?

Of course not.

The roadblock you see ahead will inform you to adjust your speed.

You will immediately become self-restrained.

But consider a situation where the person driving doesn't see the roadblock at all.

They will 'cast off restraint' and keep going at top speed, till they run into the roadblock.

What then happens? Destruction!

That's a simple analogy of what vision is. You see an END from where you are, so you can introduce restraint.

Now, imagine if that's how we see everything in life.

Wouldn't all of us have restraints in whatever we do?

However, the opposite is the case, because most people have no vision.

And that explains the reason most people cast off restraint!

If You Can See Far, You'd Embrace A Healthy Living.

I remember a comment someone made when he saw me at a camp meeting in 2023.

The man exclaimed upon seeing me,  "Oh Pastor, you've lost a lot of weight, I almost didn't recognize you."

Then he concluded: "You look 10 years younger in every way!"

The man observed a remarkable difference between the 'me he used to know' and the 'new me he saw.'

I used to be plump, weighing around 120kg.

However, the time he saw me, I had trimmed down so much that I weighed 87kg.

What made me lose so much weight and stick to a healthy lifestyle?

It was vision.

I saw that's the only way to stay strong at old age.

I'm 53 at this writing. And I've sworn to a life of constant exercise and eating healthy.

You'll agree it takes a lot of discipline sticking to such a healthy and fitness regimen

But since I cracked the code that the lifestyle you choose is a function of 'the end' you see, it wasn't difficult for me to adjust my lifestyle to follow suit.

I recently watched a podcast where Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo granted an interview.

The man was asked how he had maintained a trim stature and a healthy lifestyle at 72.

Pastor Matthew replied by saying he watches what he eats and exercises almost every day.

Then he concludes with an interesting statement to reinforce his vision about sticking to a healthy lifestyle regimen:

"You hardly would see a fat old man or woman."

That statement is loaded. It's food for thought.

In a nutshell, the 72-year old Pastor Matthew at the time of the interview, still had the body of a 50-year old.

According to him, sticking to a healthy eating habit and comitting to exercising everyday isn't a difficult discipline to cultivate.

It all depends on seeing the end of the lifestyle you choose from the beginning.

If you have vision of a healthy and fulfilled life from now - a life free from old-age-related illnesses, you will:

• Avoid eating junk
• Hit the gym daily
• Avoid substance abuse
• Cut excessive intake of anything

If You Can See the End, You Will Be Money-Wise

The only reason people put themselves under principles of discipline and self-control is vision.

That’s it. They can see something.

This is also true when it comes to money matters.

If you meet anyone who restrains themselves from frivolous and wasteful spending, they must be seeing what others don't see.

A man whose life exemplifies this a lot is Dr Charles Apoki.

I've listened to Dr Apoki's story many times on his Youtube channel.

He rose from abject poverty to becoming an intelligent medical practiotioner, and an astute businessman just because of one thing: vision.

Even though he was raised by an illiterate father, who could hardly feed his family, his dad had a vision - that his son should become a medical doctor.

Dr Apoki's dad struggled to ensure he went to the best secondary school, and then a premiere university in Nigeria to study medicine.

Today, Dr Charles Apoki is a national icon, having retired from active medical practice, and is now a strong business magnate.

If you ask Dr Apoki today, he owes his achievements to nothing but the ability to see beyond the obvious.

As a strict disciplinarian, he has been able to restrain himself from many things that get most people's hands soiled.

What made him to be so disciplined? Vision.

Dr Apoki always sees the end from the beginning, and so, he avoids anything that would deter his progress and vision.

According to him, he was able to raise a great family and send his children to study abroad.

He made noble choices because of focus and self-discipline.

You too can have vision beyond the present.

If you can see a bright future for yourself, you'd realize that restraining yourself from limiting forces wouldn't be a big deal.

Choosing not to indulge in certain things is simply a function of seeing beyond the obvious.

Reckless People Have No Vision

When you see someone who's reckless with life, it’s because they can’t see far ahead into the future.

They can’t see beyond the immediate things around them.

But it's not the same with someone who has vision.

If they pick up a cigarette, they think twice.

They realize that with every puff, they’re literally cutting their lives short by degrees.

You see certain things people do, and because you've already seen beyond the temporary enjoyment, you just cut it off.

However, if you can’t see a bright future for yourself, you cannot exercise restraint irrespective of what people say.

It all comes down to vision.

How To Correct Misconducts

When someone misbehaves, the best way to correct them is to help them see beyond the obvious.

If you help a person see the consequences of their actions, a correctional alarm will go off in their brain.

That’s why some people change all of a sudden—because they can forsee something drastic befalling them if they continue in their chosen path.

But if they can’t perceive any possible repercussions of their behaviors, they’ll just keep acting the same way.

Sometimes, God goes as far as allowing some people see a vision of heaven or hell.

Sometimes, He allows people to see into the spirit realm just so they can wake up, restrain themselves, slow down, change their ways, and adopt certain life-saving principles.

It’s what you see that confines you to certain principles.

The Choices You Make Are a Function of Your Vision

It's what you see that fuels your choices and decisions.

For instance, if you say:

From henceforth, I will never do such and such again.

I will spend my money wisely.

I will stop wasting my time on such and such, etc.

Such decisions all come down to what you see.

If what I see about the future is different from yours, our actions will be different.

You might wonder, How does this man wake up at 5 AM every day to go to the gym?

Or, How does he get up at 5 AM to pray for an hour?

Or, Why does he wake up at 4 AM to write articles?

The reason people do what they do is a function of what they see.

If you can see the end result from where you are now, it will shape your choices.

That's why I believe anyone can

• Quit smoking or vaping
• Stop bad sexual habits
• Stop bad behaviors and
• Overcome destructive emotions.

It all comes down to having vision - the ability to see beyond the obvious.

But if you see someone who

• makes reckless decisions
• doesn't have self-discipline
• has no self control and
• exercises no restraint

Then you've met someone who has no vision, or who cannot see beyond the obvious.

Imagine yourself in a busy expressway.

If you see vehicles coming at top speed, what do you do?

You restrain yourself. No matter who you are.

You don't need any encouragement to restrain yourself from crossing that busy road.

Even mad people restrain themselves on busy expressways!

I’ve seen a totally mad man suddenly run back at the sight of a speeding vehicle.

That’s a mad person!

Now imagine someone in their right mind. If they see a car coming at top speed, they instinctively pull back.

If you can clearly see dangers ahead, it changes how you behave.

If you realize, "If I don’t quickly do such and such, I’ll be broke by the end of the month," you take action.

If you see that "If I don’t study, I will fail this exam", you won’t be playing around like others.

You start working while others are wasting time because you see something they don’t see.

So it's your vision—what you can see about the future—that constrains you.

It keeps you from doing certain things.

Some people act freely, doing whatever they like, simply because they can’t see anything beyond the present.

They’ve never sat down to think about the bigger picture.

That’s why God sometimes goes to the extent of showing people a revelation.

Some people have visions where they see themselves heading to hell—just like Saul had a vision of himself in destruction.

When people see the end from the beginning, they start making adjustments in their lives.

And they can control their emotions and ordain a great destiny for themselves.

If you want to dive deeper into self-mastery and learn how to gain emotiional mastery, I have prepared a masterclass where I taught extensively on that.

If you are ready, click here to start. 

I will see you there.