Imagine getting to the stage that you do the tough things in life on auto pilot. How wonderful would that be? It takes perseverance to get to that stage. The mind does some strange things that has an impact on our decision- making process. The Sandler Sales System calls all this negative stuff floating around in our minds "Head Trash". How true is that? The self-improvement industry is chalk full of books, Cd's and online support websites of some of the biggest names in the business. All this support is directed at a never ending supply of people who want to make an improvement in their lives. Heck, I have been a supporter of the business for decades. I love it to the point that I now write about my experiences and things that I have learned along the way. As successful as I have become I still keep searching for ways to make myself better. So what does all this have to do with self discipline? Everything.
To have self discipline does not mean that you are a boring person. It does not mean that you have your life planned minute by minute. To the contrary. When you have self discipline you have a tendency to get the hard stuff done first. This affords you the time to be spontaneous. More importantly you will make decisions on what you do in your free time based on your over all goals. I believe this to be true. One of my wife's and my common goals was to own a vacation property on the ocean. Thanks to my wife's business acumen and my ability to prepare and market the property was a real team effort. It worked so well we now own two vacation properties. Too make this happen we made a huge time commitment in the form of sweat equity. All our spare time for a year was dedicated to making our dream happen. We also made the decision to rent the properties when we are not using them. We have created an income stream to pay for the properties. We use the properties as a place for us to decompress,relax and have friends by for weekends when the properties are not rented. We are building a nest egg that will help ensure we have a retirement where we chose what we can do. The reason I use this example is simple. Each property took every spare moment of our time and effort to get them to the stage we are now at. Half doing it was not an option. How good is having someone else pay for our future and present day relaxation. It all boils down to how bad you want your dreams and goals.
So how do we achieve or improve our self discipline? Here are some tips that have worked for me.
The first step is to write down a few goals that emotionally charge you. I believe when you have goals that will make you feel good, the emotional attachment will drive you to succeed. Success is imminent when you are passionate about what you want.
The second step is to enter in your diary when you are going to work toward these goals. Yes. Make an appointment with yourself. This will give you a reason to say no when something else comes along. You simply say I am working on a project right now that needs my attention. Just imagine how liberating it is when you have a commitment this strong. Success is now in your grasp.
The third step is to find an accountability partner. This will take some effort on your behalf but it will be the reinforcement of steps one and two. An accountability partner is someone who you share your goals with. I personally have one. We have an appointment at the same time each week and we discuss our progress toward our goals. So how do you feel about telling your accountability partner that you did not work toward your goal this week. Exactly. It feels awful. I have learned from experience that having the right person as an accountability partner is key. Someone who is simply a cheerleader will not do. Your accountability partner must also have realistic goals. Both of you have important things at stake. It works.
Self discipline will bring control into your decision-making process. Self discipline will remove some of the second guessing we are all guilty of. Self discipline will help you focus on what you want to accomplish. Being in control of our emotions and working toward what makes us happy is a good thing for all of us. The work can be fun too when the end result will bring you so much happiness and joy.
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