Time for a Little Discipline
Dear Friend,
I received the following email recently and because it has to do with
a greatly misunderstood topic, I want to cover it now. Enjoy!
Dear Matt,
Some questions: Is your article - In Discipline Lies Freedom - online
somewhere? Do you think discipline is the most important ability to succeed in
whatever you do? Do you have any advice for how you train discipline,
maybe a workout program for training discipline? In another article you
wrote about getting things done, plan your things to do in the morning
and write them down, mark out the important. Is this article online, and
do you use any planner or just a piece of paper or what?
Best Regards
Bill Johansson
Martial artist from Sweden
M.F.: Bill, great questions. I don't know if that article is online or not?
I'll have to look through another computer and see where it is. If I find
it I'll put it up.
Is discipline the most important quality for success? Well, I can't say it's
always numero uno - but I will say it usually ranks right up there in the
top five. Most importantly, though, we're talking about SELF-discipline - not
just discipline. Self-Discipline is the key that turns average people into raging
successes. It isn't talent. If it were I'd have never won a national, much less
a world title and I most certainly would not be a successful writer or
businessman.
As Mark Twain said, "Talent is useless without training, thank God."
Well, what is training? It is one part "education" and another part "application."
Application is nothing more than having the mental focus and self-discipline to
persevere and do what needs to be done, even when you feel like doing
around.
Of course, there is also a balancing act. Sometimes the best thing is a
break or slight twist from your routine. For example, I go to China each
year with my family. In some ways this is "vacation time." But in many
other ways it isn't. I'm still working while I'm there - just not as much as
when I'm here in the States.
Do I have any advice for how you train discipline, maybe a workout program
for training discipline?
Yes, I have an idea on how to train discipline. It's called getting up off your
arse and doing something everyday that moves you in the direction of a
single goal. That's it. Do ONE THING per day that moves you in the right
direction - and soon the one thing will be two, then three, then four, etc.
Most people have ideas of what they want - but what do they actually DO
to make the idea become a reality. Most do nothing. You can quickly move to
the head of the class if you'll start doing one thing each day.
Regarding my own way of planning out goals as well as my day, that's
something I cover in my Magnetic Mind Power program.
For now, suffice to say that I don't use day timers or planners or any of
that stuff that makes you appear organized "for others" - when the truth
is, you ain't.
I just use simple 3x5 cards. I write out my goals. I write out my plans for
each day. Then I look at them in the morning and get started.
At times, I don't need to use any of these tools, though, because after a
couple days of using the cards I'm so tranced out you couldn't keep me
from what I'm set on doing if you tied me down. The magnetic pull toward
what I want is so powerful that I cannot do anything but what I've set my
mind on.
At this point, discipline is no longer just discipline. It's who you are as a
person. If you imagine the person you want to become until that mental image
locks in and becomes a mega-powerful vibration guiding you to what you
want, you'll know the meaning of the phrase "In discipline lies freedom."
If you have enough discipline to imagine what you want - and if you
have enough discipline to "do something" to achieve what you want - you become
what you want.
And through your daily acts and imaginings you not only become
what you want - but at the same time you're no longer a slave to
every whim and caprice that comes down the pike.
Well, my friend, that's all for now.
Kick butt - take names!
P.S. Don't forget about my best-selling Combat Conditioning book and videos,
available.
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