(Jerry is a nickname for Gerard, a name I hated as a child so much I could not stand to spell Jerry with a "G." Jerry is sufficient.)
Thank you chloe, for your thoughtful reply. My first post is not an error; I accidentally posted before finishing my comments was the problem. What I said there goes to my observations in America and fit with yours.

Instant messaging, fast food, and high-speed internet: I want what I want and I want it NOW! Spell-check and calculators. Disposable lighters, phones, and cameras. Degrees in your PJs. Heck, work in PJs. There seems to be many things that have added to what you see as a deterioation of the "persevere mode" in consciousness. And I whole-heartedly agree.  

What I found that varied from my view was not meant to come off so pompous and hyperbolic. My apologies. I will try to coax it down off its high horse..

My twenty-five years of alcohol abuse appears to be a perverse and unintentional spiritual discipline (pun intended). The self must die daily--and it did, although from a misplaced devotion. If a spiritual discipline is meant to reduce our worldliness or whatever may block a full surrender and dependence upon God, to be truly hidden in Christ, then alcoholism acted like the path of the saint. I was utterly defeated and thanks to saving grace, my brokenness became clear.

Yes, I know, I appeared to give this undending joyful union with God as my perpetual state. The exception to my normal shame-based and troubled self as a young man was sports. And I truly loved it all, for I felt this was what God gave me to be close to him. Jesus ran by my side, gamboled with me in football, and sweated through the practices.  Looking back, I see it was definitely more inspired than motivated. That is the difference in the approach to spiritual discipline that I was trying to make, ever so annoyingly.

"But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize." That would be motivation and it had nothing to do with why I ran or why I follow Christ today. (Again, probably because I was a strange kid.) The "present was the only reality I could conceive of" or desire and that had nothing to do with an unsure future or lack of imagination.  Keeping both eyes on this moment is my best vision of tomorrow. Why strive for perfection or anything when to be still is to know God. Ah, but how do we get mature enough to "be still," even knowing Jesus said "the work is to enter the rest" and present day society says, "Manana." 

To me, a spiritual discipline is all about reduction of my resistance to godliness and my dependency on self. No practice adds a jot of godliness to me, yet it can reduce what diminishes or blocks a complete abandoment to divine providence. The appeal is to have warriors for a new paradigm, to boldly go where few have gone before. (Or in our vernacular, be Christlike.) Ask, want the greatest thrill and challenge you will ever face, the ultimate test of who you are? It is far more death-defying in a way than any X-Factor experience. Why? Because it welcomes death, it does not defy it.