Choose Discipline or Regret

Today I'm going to touch on discipline one more time this week because I think it's so important to our success - in everything.

Getting ourselves to take consistent action, even when we don't want to, can be tough. No question. But it's been said that the top 10% of the folks at the top are there because they are willing to do the things the rest of the folks don't want to do.

Being disciplined challenges most folks.

I keep this quote in my head all the time:

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” -Jim Rohn

I think most of us would agree that we regret far more things that we didn't do, than things we did do.

We've got to force ourselves to take action. The more action the better. More of it and more often.

Just think of how much time you waste in a day. I know if I fail to write out tomorrow's activities before I go to bed, I'll be far less productive than if I have a written plan in place. Far less.

Try it for one week and you'll see just how much more you can do. And while you're at it fix your "time" problem.

People are always impressed by how much I accomplish. I owe my success in that to two things. Having a full plan written out for the day (even if I don't get everything on it done everyday) and I've fixed my "time" problem.

How do you fix your time problem? You do it by changing your perception of how long something will take to do. Most folks go around saying they "don't have enough time". And since that is their belief, sure enough they prove themselves right. I suggest changing your belief. Instead, say to yourself, "Oh, I have time for that."

You'll find you get a whole lot more done with that attitude. Instead of wasting all those little bits of time during the day "in between things" you'll start using those times to get more done. With that belief (whose correctness your subconscious will try to justify) you'll automatically speed up and accomplish more. Getting more done will become a personal challenge - one that you'll win time and again.

One of my favorite mentors, Dan Kennedy, who I quote often in my book put it this way, "It's not the specific actions you take that make you successful as much as it is that you take lots of actions."

Discipline and action 
are critical components of your prosperity.


What can you accomplish with discipline and action? Almost anything I believe. I don't know your particular and unique set of skills, but here are just a few things I have done with not a whole lot more than you have, if anything:

• Located and purchased my first dream sports car in less than 48 hours using less than $1000 cash out of pocket.
• Planned and executed my wife's dream "Garden Wedding" in the middle of a snowy Buffalo winter, IN JUST 8 DAYS! Many guests commented that it was the classiest wedding they'd ever been to. It even included a  scale replica of Niagara Falls, indoors, and the water flowed all night long amongst the flower gardens and live tall trees at Rich's Renaissance Atrium. I received a personal thank you note from billionaire owner, Robert E. Rich, Jr. too!
  
• Took the next 30 days and wrote my first book, telling exactly how you could do that too. It was called, "Plan and Enjoy Your Perfect Wedding, In Just 8 Days!" It was a hit at all the local bridal shows.
• As a marketing representative, in less than 4 months, took an unknown Asian gem merchant from a position of not being able to get a visa to the USA, to sharing a booth with the founder of one of the world's most famous American gem shows, interviewed and published by a renowned gem testing authority, and sold more than $60,000 worth of gemstones - at wholesale price - in her first week here in the U.S..
• Most recently, assembled, photographed and published all the material for "Building Blocks of Prosperity" in just 30 days, including website and sales material...and got it's name out to more than 450,000 qualified prospects!
  

You'll really be surprised just how much you can do when you let action and discipline become your habit.

As it happens, one of my favorite authors, Robert Ringer just had a column published on discipline. Funny how that topic always comes up this time of year as we start dropping all those great New Years plans. You can read his excellent column on discipline here:
http://www.earlytorise.com/2010/01/13/be-relentlessness-in-pursuit-of-your-dreams.html

Robert Schwarztrauber

Your Bridge to Success

Discipline:
A system of essential rules and duties.

Remember yesterday we talked about
Ivy Lee and his great tip for Charles Schwab
that produced millions in profits?




There are actually two important parts to that plan.

First, the plan or the system actually worked.

It worked because it required the essential step of writing down what you want to accomplish - that being the first step in turning wishes or dreams into achievable goals. And it required you to prioritize your goals so that you could begin work on the most important one first.

Second, it required you to have discipline.
And that is where most of us fail.

We can do something once, or for a little while, but then we revert back to our more familiar ways. When things get hard, or obstacles appear we abandon ship and move on to the next project - consoled by the fact that we're not "wasting time" butting our heads on the last thing.

But Ivy Lee's plan won't let you do that. You MUST complete the most important thing on your list before moving on to the next. No sweeping it under the rug, no putting it off until tomorrow. No procrastination allowed.

So make your list, and begin. Successful people differ most from others in that they FINISH the tasks that are important. They don't quit when the going gets tough and they don't put off until tomorrow what they can do today. If you thought it was the most important thing on your list, don't suddenly change your mind.

It's a little thing called discipline.

A system (means its automatic, it just happens - you just DO IT WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT!) of essential (means without it, it won't work) rules (agreed upon ways of doing things) and duties (the things you must do).

Discipline is simply defined yet oh so hard for most folks to follow. And therein lies the root cause of most failures. Failures in school, in business, in personal lives, in self-improvement. We can find hundreds of examples of WHAT to do, we just can't seem to follow through daily with the actions that are required to achieve the success that has been laid out for us.

On page 37 of my book "Building Blocks of Prosperity" I tell you the one question successful folks ask that can give you all the discipline you need to succeed. And it never fails!

Robert Schwarztrauber