My original thought/title for this blog was “Discipline Requires Sacrifice”. This thought caused me wonder if this is why people don’t have or exhibit discipline. In general, people don’t want to give up anything. We have been told we can have/do anything we want. Sacrifice isn’t mentioned. We aren’t always told we have to work for what we want. (See the blogs You Can Do Whatever You Want)
Why try if we are going to fail? Only do it if you are going to succeed, right? Oh, the monkey mind is vicious. (Check out the book on Amazon by clicking on the picture) Why put in the effort? Time? Energy? Those are precious resources. Failure. That “F” word has cause many to stop trying. (Why Women Have to be Right?) Why waste the resources if we are going to fail anyway?
Discipline is not hard. It is a matter of making little choices. Each time. One step at a time. The most important step is the next one.
Determining what you want – what you REALLY want… isn’t this where we get stuck? To get unstuck, do something. Anything!! Make a conscious decision to act. Even if it is wrong. At least you will know that last action was wrong. You won’t be stuck.
The journey up the mountain is not a straight line
We are not perfect. Reaching our goals is rarely a straight line. We have a series of curves. Maybe that last decision/action was wrong as compared to our goal. Turn left a little. (Maybe a lot) Head back to the path. Now you have over-shot the path. Do a new action to the right. Just keep acting with your goal in mind.
Enjoy the journey. Just keep making decisions, followed by actions. Take the time to evaluate. Confirm the goal. Learn what actions are necessary to achieve the goal. Learn from the mistake made. Make a decision. Take action. Evaluate the results. Learn the lesson. Compare to desired outcome. Decide. Take Action. Evaluate. Learn. Compare.
Funny. Don’t we use a similar process at work with Project Management or Continuous Improvement thinking? Plan. Do. Check. Act. Rinse and repeat, right? We get a team of people together. Brain storm. Get to work. We think like this in the office. Why not do the same at home?
Decide. Take Action. Evaluate. Learn. Compare.
Simple. Yes it really is. Go for it!. This is discipline. Once you know what you want, go for it. Make the choices that gets you there. Just keep going.
Here is the Nerd Version!
