Self-Discipline really encompasses nearly everything in life. Do you
remember in school when you were given 30 days to write a term paper? Did you
start it that first night?
Most of us
didn't. Instead, we thought about it every night. "Got to get moving on that
ratty project. But I've got almost a whole month left--it can wait." As time
goes by, worry about getting a failing grade looms larger in our minds. At first
the pain of starting the term paper is greater than our concern about the
failing grade, so after a week we still haven't started. Two weeks go by. What
are we doing every night before we go to sleep? Worrying about that F. "I better
start. Tomorrow I'll get moving on it."
A week
before the term paper is due, the F is getting larger--but it's still not quite
large enough to offset the pain of working at preventing it. All of a sudden
there are only three days left before it's due, and at last the F looms larger
than the pain of working on the term paper. So we start.
As you lay
it out you begin feeling some enthusiasm. "This isn't bad. I may get an A if I
do this and do that." When you walk in with your paper you're happy, but you
wasted 27 days worrying about starting. In other words, you operated at a
deficit emotionally for 27 days when you could have been in the profit column
the whole time. Move into the emotional profit column right now; starting today,
get your priority tasks and actions handled promptly. Plan your actions, then
act on your plans. Apply this determination to every area of your life and it
will make an enormous difference in your income, growth rate in business as well
as your satisfaction and growth rate personally.
The portrait
of a man who was being called the Whiz Kid on Wall Street appeared on the cover
of a national magazine many years ago. He was one of the first to put a
conglomerate together, and some of the federal laws affecting business in the
early 70's came about because of the trends that his creativity set off. At the
time he was 42, he was running one of the largest industrial combines in the
country, the conglomerate he had built himself. So the magazine had assigned a
journalist and a team of researchers to do an in-depth report on this
entrepreneur.
One of the
researchers went to the small city the dynamic executive had left 15 years
earlier. A few items turned up there about an alcoholic with the same name who
had been sleeping on park benches at that time. The researcher passed this
information along, and as the journalist was concluding his interview with the
Wall Street powerhouse in his plush office, the journalist laughed and said,
"Believe it or not, a man with your exact name was sleeping on park benches and
getting ousted by the police when you lived in your home town. I guess the poor
guy was a real wino. Isn't that something?"
The
president looked up and smiled. "That was me," he said.
The reporter
was flabbergasted. "This can't be. You're kidding."
The
president of the conglomerate leaned back in his leather chair and shook his
head. "I'm not kidding. The wino sleeping off drinks on park benches was
me."
The
journalist stared at him for a moment and realized that the man was telling the
truth. He also realized that now he had a whole new story. When his apologies
were waved aside, he said, "I have to ask, what made you
change?"
Listen to
what he said because so many people fit this mold: "When I was sleeping under
newspapers in the park 15 years ago, I knew that someday I would do what I'm
doing now. I was just waiting until I was ready to start."
Do you know
how many people are like that? "Well, next year's my year. I'm going to get to
work then. You just wait and see--right after the first of the year I'm gonna
start shaping up." But of course the time to get going never quite comes for
most people. They have good intentions, but are lacking the two most vital
components of any good deed: the motivation to begin and a strategic plan to
keep them moving forward.
You see, by
not beginning, you're not risking failure, but you're also confining yourself to
the level of success you currently have. If you're happy with that, fine. If
not, make that plan and get fired up!
If your potential for
greater success is nagging at you, don't wait. Time is flying by so fast. Start
today to achieve the greatness you know is within
you.