Blind discipline

"Discipline is sacrifice. Yes, and blindness."

Supposedly, the life of a successful person
Is dominantly characterized by discipline.
He doesn't go to any bars after work.
She goes to work at 7:30 every morning, so she can maximize her productivity.
They both gave up five consecutive summers for summer classes and research.
That's discipline, we say.

Give up X and Y, and in return, get Z.
Sacrifice X and Y and everything else, for the sake of Z.
And hopefully, that Z is worth the price of the rest.

But will you ever really know?
Will you ever know for sure, just what X and Y were?
Or A? Or B? Or C?
Anything but that one and only, Z?

You can't know, because you've never experienced them.
So you plow on ahead with what you've got.
With your precious little Z
That you've given up so much for.

And over time, you force yourself to forget about the other letters.
There's no sense regretting the past, you say to yourself.
You close your ears to everyone else and their X's, their Y's, their ABC's.

You shut your eyes and your mind
And then you are truly blind.