Chapter 7
Discipline
If we are all looking for balance in our business and personal lives, which
we can achieve through control, the question now is how do we obtain control ?
Unfortunately, as far as I am aware the only way that one can gain control is
through hard work and dedication, otherwise known as discipline.
Another unfortunate fact of life is that people are born with different levels
of discipline. Again, unfortunately, the environment in which we grow up also
has a significant bearing on how disciplined we are. I once heard a wise person
say that hard work compensates for any natural ability. Translated, this means
that you can achieve whatever you want if you are prepared to work at it. What's
the hidden secret of all these self help guru's ? Basically, you need more
discipline. Pay me buckets of money and I'll show you how to get it easy. Well
I'm sorry to tell you that discipline is all about hard work and sacrifice.
Another wise person once said that to achieve anything worthwhile you will have
to sacrifice something. If you want to get better grades at school you are going
to have to sacrifice your time and study, if you want to get thin then you are
going to have to work out and burn calories, if you want to get rich then you
need to save. All simple, all obvious but it is surprising how many people seem
to ignore this. If I told you that I could guarantee a way that you'd be
independently rich in your retirement would you believe me ? It isn't rocket
science, it is something called compound interest. Basically, if you invest a
small amount of money over a long period of time ( that accumulates interest )
then you'll be rich beyond your wildest dreams. If it is that obvious why
doesn't everyone do it ? Simply because you need to make a regular sacrifice (
admittedly a small one ) on a regular basis. Very few people have the discipline
to do this. It far easier to blow the money on the here and now. End result ?
Little if any retirement savings because they just don't want to endure the
sacrifice of time. Most people are impatient, they want the money NOW.
The problem with discipline is that you need to keep at it, every day. That to
most people makes it untenable. The problem is that rather trying to achieve
small improvements in discipline they attempt try and achieve the impossible.
Let me ask you, if you are going to climb a ladder do you take running jump at
it and try and land on the highest rung you can ? No, probably not. Why ?
Because if you fail then chances are you'll fall all the way down to the ground
and probably do yourself an injury. Most rational people will tackle a ladder
one rung at a time. When they try to achieve ( or climb ), other goals why do
they go back to attempting to skip the start and jump as far ahead as they can ?
Again, impatience.
To achieve discipline takes work and time, unfortunately I can give you no easy
solution - because there isn't one. If you want to be more organized with you
time start simple and get a date book. Don't give it away after a week because
it is too hard, you need to keep at it. After a while, if you find that that
tool doesn't help go and find another one but keep at it. Like toning muscles by
going to the gym, the only way that you can improve your discipline is to keep
at it. The more that you keep it and practice the better you'll become, the
easier new challenges will be but it won't happen after one night. If you have
ever seen the return curve for compound interest you will note that the pay off
period ( were the curve starts growing exponentially ) only happens right at the
end. However, to get the returns you gotta put in the time beforehand. Sorry, no
shortcuts here.
Everyone has discipline, unfortunately everyone has different degrees of
discipline. The good news is that you can improve your discipline by doing
something simply - JUST STICKING with it. The other good news is that the more
you stick at the better you'll get. As another wise person once said “ the
journey of one thousand miles starts with the first step”. So what are you
waiting for - get started NOW and KEEP GOING !
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