What incredible success would you have, if you really meant what you said about your goals or wanting to make changes?
If you set yourself up to win, changed your habits and environment, had specific goals and timelines and committed fully to discipline each day rather than motivation, your success would be almost inevitable.
So what’s stopping you from setting yourself up to win?
Start your year with discipline. Do the things you need to do regardless of motivation. Even if you don’t want to do something, do it anyway. That is what we call discipline. It’s hard at first, but it will get you the results.
If you are not achieving your goals, reread the title of this post six times. Motivation is a feeling and often it is fleeting. People might say that they feel motivated or didn’t feel motivated. Even those with a big Why to do something can feel unmotivated at times.
What you really need to build is some discipline in your life. This means that even when you lack motivation, don’t feel like it or want to take a break, your discipline will kick in and you’ll do it.
Few people would want to leave their comfy, warm, dry bed at 05:40am to go for a 10km run in the dark, cold and wet. If you leave the option to motivation, you might just give it a pass and go back to sleep. However, if you’ve developed discipline, that habit of doing things you’ve committed to will happen.
Discipline does not require ‘feeling like it’. Discipline means you push through despite not feeling like it.
Plan what you need to do and use your discipline to carry you through.
If you are not achieving, you lack discipline not motivation.
What do you do when you can’t seem to focus? What is your remedy from wandering, scrolling, staring or getting distracted in some way?
This evening has seemed to be one of those times. Despite getting some things done, I did not get as many done as I could have. There were a few things on my mind, for starters. Then I got caught in an interesting scroll on Instagram for 10 minutes.
Writing out my to do list for tomorrow kept taking longer as I remembered many things that have slipped by me over the last week. While it is productive to do the list, sometimes the time taken to do it feels like wasted effort. It feels like I could have done one of the things rather than write a bunch down.
Then there was the wandering around the house to find the children and remind them it is bedtime. The third time round the house was starting to seem more like an exercise session with a stair-master. And since each round involved passing through the kitchen, there was the compulsory look in the fridge and cupboard for more food I wasn’t even hungry for.
Don’t get me started on replying to international and local text messages. I know better. Though I am also trying to reply more quickly rather than forget and take 2-3 days. Oh, the precarious balance.
Uh-oh, I’m getting distracted.
Discipline sounds so strict. It has echoes of an unwavering sergeant major accepting nothing but your best. She asks you to choose discipline or disaster.
I have seen this in my personal life. If I am not disciplined about something, it can turn into a disaster. Now disaster is a relative term here as there are many stops on the road to disaster, but I think you understand what I mean.
Take the early morning alarm scenario. If you are disciplined, you can wake up on the first go. Then you can get ready as planned and and be where you should be on time. Alternatively, you can hit the snooze button a few times and then find yourself late for the rest of the day. This is sometimes the beginning of many disasters.
If your sports team is not good about their discipline, they may not build up sufficient strength and stamina before a match. This lack of discipline could result in a disaster. This could be a terrible score or perhaps some unnecessary injuries.
Of course, with a bit of discipline, you can find some amazing results. You don’t have to be perfect, but consistency helps.
Choose discipline or disaster. The former has more upsides.
Are you a pain now or pain later person? I know it can be a constant debate in my head. The question always remains, ‘When do you take the hit?’.
Should you cut back on your lifestyle for a few years now to live gloriously the rest of your life? Or should you keep it up and find that 60 comes and goes and you keep chugging along until 70 or 80 years old. It’s your choice. Which will you choose?
It is hard to tell which to do. And it often depends on your mood and the situation. I don’t believe anyone likes to give up the excitement of the now for the potential good later. But if we do not do that, we can find ourselves perpetually working. And that doesn’t sound brilliant either.
I believe sometimes you need to take the hit early on so you can thrive later. The conundrum is that if you get the timing off, there is little you can do about it.
So take it on faith and dial back the lifestyle for a few years while you build your wealth. You will be so glad you did. You may even discover how amazing your life is without all the extras in your life.
When do you take the hit?
Distractions are your challenge. They may be from friends, work colleagues, children, illness, phone calls, post etc. Plan your day out. Allow some contingency time for distractions. Though it is best to limit your distractions to as few as possible. None is even better.
Take a piece of paper and write out your day. From the minute you intend to wake up until the minute you intend to go to sleep. Write it out in 15 minute intervals. Unless one activity is going to take up a longer period of time. Then write that amount of time. For example:
06:00 – 06:15 Wake up. 6 Minute miracle morning. Change for run.
06:15 – 06:30 Stretch. Loo break. Put on trainers, headphones and prepare apps.
06:30 – 07:00 Run. Listen to X podcast/audiobook/YouTube channel
Allow for ten minute breaks. Sometimes these will be used to relax. Other times they will act as catch up zones. These help get you back on track when a distraction has put you behind by five or 10 minutes.
Allow for one full hour in your day for unforeseen events. These could be phone calls you have to take from a child, parent, boss, tax inspector or a person dropping by your desk or home.
Plan your day out before you go to bed. Track how close your plan is to reality. It’s fascinating.
There are four months remaining until New Year’s Eve and we ring in 2021. That really means we have 3 months to accelerate to the finish. For a lot of people, December is filled with shopping, parties, family, preparations, holidays, school events, Christmas and New Year’s itself.
Given all of those events in December, very little else gets done. So if you are trying to make things happen with a business, strengthen a new habit or finish a project, aim to finish by 30 November.
That gives you 13 weeks to get it all sorted before December descends on us. That is plenty of time to do many things. That is roughly 65 weekdays and 26 weekend days. 91 days altogether. The other 245 days are gone.
However, you need to be focused now. Every minute needs to count. There is no longer any time to assume you can get started later or do it later. You may even have to sacrifice a little! You may need to give up on some of the scrolling, watching and time with friends.
This is your last chance to win back 2020. Make it a great year, despite the unforeseen challenges that Covid brought to everyone. You can accelerate to the finish over the next 91 days and make this year a resounding success.
Plan the details, focus on the outcome and take disciplined action. Go!
I’m not sure many people consciously consider the traits they look for in friends or associates. What do you look for in other people? Are there five or six must have items on your list? Perhaps, like many people, your friendship circle is simply a collection of people you got along with well at some point.
We tend to veer towards groups with people who have similar interests like cars, property, music, surfing or bridge. And usually people bump along meeting others in that group until they find someone who they click with.
Is there a more efficient way to go about this? Speed dating fascinates me for this reason. On the surface it seems rather cold and unromantic. But it has an undeniable efficiency. Whether you have a list of ‘must haves’ or not, people tend to know within a few minutes whether the person has ‘heck yes’ potential or not.
And, if they don’t have the potential, simply catch and release. There are other fish in the sea. Of course the sooner you find those other fish, the sooner you will find additional joy.
The tough part comes when you find someone you enjoy hanging around with but they are not good for your future. Do you have the strength and discipline to cut them loose?
Become clear on what you want in a person you spend time with. Like a holiday, job, spouse, business partner or doctor, you’re going to spend important time there/together. You might as well set some specific and high criteria.
Having a goal and moving toward it is great. Even more so when you are making progress. Similarly, it is quite important to track your progress and review it.
When things are going well it makes you feel good seeing the progress. More importantly, perhaps, is seeing where and when you are not making progress. If you are looking to understand why you aren’t getting the results you wanted, this daily tracking and review can be quite instructive.
Several years ago I wanted to tone up and that meant dropping about 20 pounds. I had never paid attention to my weight prior to that as I had always been quite active and had a reasonably healthy diet.
It was a fascinating game of figuring out what worked and what didn’t. I was in a hurry as I didn’t want to spend 6 months, or more, on this project.
I had my views on what worked and didn’t. At the start, I read some books to get a broader perspective and see what else I could learn. After all, slimming is 99% in the head.
I simply had to move more and eat less. Keeping yourself in a calorie deficit can be a challenge. Like so many things though, once you get into it, it seems easier than you had expected. Gamifying the whole process also helped to work wonders.
When you track your progress and review it, you get into the detail. You understand the nuance and how to get the winning edge. This tracking and review doesn’t make it easier, but you can understand how to get the results quicker. I really enjoyed that part of the whole process.
You can, and should, do this with all of your goals, not just weight-related. Tracking takes a little bit more effort, but the payoff is excellent. Good luck!!
