Will Power vs. Self-Discipline

I've been thinking about this post for a while. As i feel Anastasia kick me this morning, it makes me think about what she will fight for in life, and what I want her to fight for. I talked (ranted) about laziness in the last post which leads fairly easily into the topic of discipline. My parents were firm believers in physical discipline! My mom likes to tell people about when they switched me from a crib to a bed. I think I was 3 years old and she said I got out of bed 42 times that night! And you know what she did? Spanked me each time and put me back!
That may sound harsh to some of you, but I am convinced that regular, expected, physical discipline from my parents taught me to be a self-disciplined adult. It taught me that there are measurable consequences for my actions!
When people start talking about doing difficult things (losing weight, giving up tobacco, quitting a habit) I often hear the comment "Oh, I just don't have the will power" which is an excuse I've used a few times in the past as well. What is the difference between will power and self discipline? I would argue that the only distinction is attitude.
Will power is that thing we blame when we want to be weak. "Oh, I wish I could (insert difficult thing here), but I just don't have the will power..." If you know you should, but you don't really want to, will power comes to the rescue and let's you off the hook, like a genetic predisposition.
Self-discipline is exactly what it sounds like. Hard, annoying, and not fun. But, it is not an excuse. Self discipline says "I am the only person who can make myself do this, so I will." When I lived in my parents home, I let them discipline me. Now that I have my own home, I am grateful that their discipline taught me to BE disciplined! I don't need someone to tell me to wash the dishes or my laundry or to "Pick up that sock instead of stepping over it again!!" I do it on my own because I know there will be a consequence if I don't.
Foresight is a big part of self-discipline. If I am unaware of the future, I don't know about the consequences and thus don't act to prevent them. I must ask myself "If I leave that food sitting there, what will happen eventually?" Well, bugs will come, my house will get infested, I'll be evicted for destroying our apartment, and then we'll be homeless with a precious baby.
Okay, that's a bit extreme. What I I don't write that paper? It's only 20% of my grade. But, unless I'm doing very well, 20% will cause me to fail the class. If I fail, I can't retake that class for 3 years, which means I definitely can't graduate in May.
I know that Anastasia will fight me sometimes. I know that she won't enjoy being disciplined (I sure didn't!!) But I also know that if she is disciplined as a child, she will be self-disciplined as an adult. I hope that she will see the benefit of self-discipline as much as I do. I hope that she will fight laziness and apathy and will instead welcome in the idea that actions bring consequences!