We’ve been studying DISCIPLINE this month as our Success Habit for October. One of the things we’ve discovered is that ‘discipline’ is really just another word for HABIT or RITUAL because what we mean by discipline is basically ‘how you take care of things’ – yourself, your money, your tasks and responsibilities on the job.
CREATE A FORM OF STRUCTURE
Earlier this year in our Admin Mastermind, together we read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. He really helped us to understand and practice that ‘tiny changes can lead to remarkable results’. His Habit Tracker integrates good ideas with discipline. It’s a way to see your progress for yourself! Habit tracking is creating a form of structure.
This is a counter-intuitive concept BUT structure equals freedom. Once you design a path to your goal, you realize that many of what appear to be choices are actually just distractions. The focus on your goal along with the discipline to stick to your habits cuts out a lot of the noise and chaos that is trying to derail you, hence, the discipline is your friend and ally.
An analogy I find helpful is to relate discipline to the ‘lines on the highway’. They keep us on track and in our lane to safely and expeditiously reach our destination. Without them, there would be chaos, accidents, and getting lost not knowing where we went wrong, but not liking where we ended up! Discipline invites us to walk a more narrow path, but one that is designed to lead us directly to our goals.
KEEP YOUR WORD
Don Miguel Ruiz introduced the importance of INTEGRITY in his book The Four Agreements – Always Keep Your Word. This is another way to look at discipline – simply do what you said you would do. Here we have the power in a promise. Making a promise, or a commitment fuses us to stay with it, not give up, even when we don’t feel like, or lose faith that it’s going to turn out well.
How dedicated are we really to achieving our goals? We say we want it, but how does that show up? The choice is in the moment. When you are faced with making a choice, ask yourself “will this choice get me closer to my goal or farther away?” The donut versus the protein bar; the walk versus sitting on the couch watching something on Netflix; the coffee versus the water throughout the day. For salespeople who want to take listings, how many contacts have you made today, this week? What do you do when you don’t want to make calls and talk with people? You lean into your discipline.
A wise and experienced person once taught me this powerful affirmation: “Discipline, I love the results!”
*Photo by Lindsay Henwood on Unsplash