If you want to be successful—as a leader, as a parent, as a member of society—you have to pay the price. You can be disciplined and pay on the front end, or you can take the seemingly easier path and pay on the back end. Unfortunately, if you play now and pay later, the payment’s much heavier. As I often say, hard work is the accumulation of the easy things you didn’t do when you should have.
How do you develop discipline? Here are four steps.
1. Set deadlines and priorities. Don’t make a list of everything you have to do and start working from the top. Prioritise your to-do list. Determine which projects you need to accomplish first and how much time you need to get them done. Then give yourself a deadline and get busy.
2. Challenge your excuses. I get so tired of whiny people telling me why they couldn’t, shouldn’t, didn’t and wouldn’t. Put the violin away and start taking a hard look at the so-called reasons you cite for not being able to get things done. As I like to say, it’s easier to go from failure to success than from excuses to success. As long as you’re making excuses, you’re never going to make it. Stay above the line!
3. Remove rewards until the job’s done. Marathon runners don’t stop for a break after each mile, and neither should you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t divide your work into manageable chunks or celebrate the achievement of intermediate goals.
4. Stay focused on results. Jackson Browne once said, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.” Staying focused on achieving results—with the priority items on your to-do list, I might add—will keep you from acting like an octopus on roller skates.
Make it a great week!