Discipline, A Strategy For Success

Discipline, A Strategy For Success

Discipline Discipline, A Strategy For SuccessDis-ci-pline;

(1) Training intended to produce a specified character or pattern of behavior.

(2) Controlled behavior resulting from such behavior.

The characteristic of discipline has many advantages and benefits for any one’s journey towards success. With so many of life’s distractions that take up space in our minds we are always at risk of derailing ourselves from the daily activities required for self-amelioration. Nonetheless if we are determined to succeed at any goal from becoming a better writer, business marketer or losing weight, structuring our behavior to complete task in a disciplined manner is critical.

I have to admit that when I was in college in the early 90s I was not the most disciplined student. Being several states away for home and living on campus opened the doors for some of my wildest moments. This included attending every party advertised on and off campus, over sleeping on mornings when I had early classes, and blowing off course related study groups. It was no surprise that my grades began to take a beating and professors started to lose confidence in my abilities. After facing academic probation and risking my tuition investment, I mustered up the consciousness to take an objective look at my previous decisions.

For the first time in my life I understood that every decisio
I made had consequences and that if I wanted to graduate from college I had to become more disciplined and responsible. Once I started to practice this discipline my awareness increased dramatically and I was able to intelligently make better decisions regarding my time management. My friends would come to my dorm room and say, “yo Ramone, let’s hit this Omega party tonight! It’s gonna be sick!” Now I had the discipline and self-esteem to respond back, “Nah I’m good son. Got this paper due on Monday and I need to focus. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow”. Needless to say that when I became more disciplined my grades shot up and not only did I retrieve respect of my professors, I also graduated with dean’s list honors.

Now that I’m an adult with a wife and toddler my aptitude of discipline is even more important at this stage in my personal and professional lives. As a Life Coach, Adjunct professor, and self-esteem writer my ability to focus is needed to sufficiently balance the goal of growing my brand and business with maintaining quality family time. I will honestly admit that it is not always easy however it is not incredibly difficult either. Here are a few strategies:

1. Plan: Take the time to create a calendar and list the dates and times of your activities from waking up and 5:00am for gym time to taking your daughter to the park, to dinner with wife to writing articles/books and grading papers.

2. Organize: organize your days and weeks around you existing plans. Use your email calendar and smart phones to keep you focused on completing the task at hand and setting up for the next item. However, try to remain flexible because anything can happen and pull away your attention. Just deal with the urgent item, recover, and get back to start.

3. Basic Discipline: This is specifically aimed at getting work done. If you are working on your spreadsheets to evaluate your client base, typically you would only need one or two windows open on your computer. Do not simultaneously open your email, Facebook page, or twitter accounts unless they are part of the tools you need to work with. Unfortunately these can be huge distractions that undoubtedly slow down your work progress. In fact in extreme cases people have been fired from their jobs because their productivity was so adversely affected by social media.

In essence, disciplined behavior is directly related to the law of consequential thinking. In order to produce the most desired outcome, perform the action steps needed to move in this direction. The opposite effect of this law is true as well.

Discipline is a skill which means by nature anyone can learn and improve on it. Avoid thinking that you’re missing out on some other activity. Short term pleasure distractions used to avoid completing important task are only temporary delusions. At some point and time if you want to lose weight, start a business, or perform better on your job, discipline has to be an integral part of your automatic behavior.