Tuesday, December 06, 2011

The Road to Hell

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Are you in a hell of ‘busy work’ resulting in mediocre achievement? Sometimes you’re in this situation because you’re doing what you love or what is easy, not necessarily the difficult or non-fun activities that will get you where you want to go.

There are very few desirable outcomes that happen without performing mundane or difficult tasks. That’s where DISCIPLINE comes in. It is said that 90% of success (or something like that) is a result of just ‘showing up’ – showing up means doing! Doing what needs to be done to achieve your goals. I believe that DISCIPLINE = FREEDOM, not self-denial as some believe. When we do what we need to do, when we need to do it, we get the results we want. Those results provide us with more options. For example, if I do what needs to be done Monday to Friday morning, then Friday afternoon through to Sunday are free for me – yippee!!! It’s soooo worth it!

When we take 100% responsibility for our actions and the consequences of those actions, we understand the power of self-discipline in our lives – for our business, our health, our relationships – you get the picture. A lack of self-discipline is a major cause of failure, frustration, under-achievement, low self-esteem and general unhappiness in life. It causes us to make excuses and play the blame game or became a “yeah… but” person.

We all take the path of least resistance at times so it’s important to establish behaviours, habits and systems for us to overcome this. Figure out what works for you – admit it, you already have a good idea of the excuses and habits that are keeping you from ‘showing up’.

The following tips may help you develop the self-discipline to achieve great things in 2012. Be honest with yourself and remember, every time you WON’T do something it eats away at your self esteem. Self discipline means that you can depend on YOU... making you feel more self-respect and a more powerful person. Self Discipline is a habit!!!

The price of success must always be paid in full – in advance!
  • Set goals – know what you want to accomplish
  • Plan your year, month, week and day in advance
  • Re-write your 10 big goals each morning
  • Set priorities each day – does this help me reach my goals?
  • Focus single mindedly on one thing – multi-tasking is not productive!
  • Feed your brain daily with great ‘food for thought’
  • Learn, Learn, Learn… stay curious and keep learning
  • Invest in yourself – professional and personal development
  • Develop a system of accountability that works for you… with yourself, with the help of others, or by hiring professional support
  • Manage your technology - don’t let IT control YOU
  • Assess the true value of everything you do, then either do, delegate, delay or drop
  • Learn to say NO – to others and yourself
  • Surround yourself with great people
Your ultimate goal in life is to achieve your own happiness. No one else can do this for you. So enough of the excuses, blame game, and “yeah… but”s – it’s your life, what are you going to do with it?

Originally published in New Life Business Newsletter December 2011

No comments:

Post a Comment