Turn Your Self-Delusion into Self-Discipline

“The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.”_Plato

When we fail to act in line with our principles, values and goals, we are not being true to ourselves. And to be incongruent is to live in disharmony.

We create internal conflict every time our actions don’t match with our professed intentions as the author of ‘Unshakable Character,’ Jim Rohn says: “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”

For most of us, this usually takes the form of giving in to distractions by doing what feels good at the moment, instead of doing the right things that we know deep down we really ought to do. 

Though we often want to justify our behaviors and convince ourselves we're still on track, but a deeper reflection would reveal the truth of our situation; we’re in romance with self-delusion.

Without question, our behaviors directly translate into our results. Even with best of intentions, to get ahead, we need to commit ourselves fully to self-discipline. Every true success is a product of responsibility, ownership and accountability. 

To believe in something, and refuse to act with purpose to ensure its realization is the sure path to cognitive dissonance; the direct consequence of self-delusion.

 

A Day Is a Slice of Life

A day is not just a tangible slice of our lives; it is also a miniature eternity.

If we goof away our time in one day and still think it doesn’t matter at all, then we are in a state of delusion. 

This is so for the simple reason that our entire lives are made up of a fixed number of days. Once a day slips away, the downward slope has been ignited.

Think about this: If we repeat our sub-optimal days, for the next five years, it is pretty easy to predict the direction of our lives; isn’t it?

Now, we need to be honest with ourselves and face the truth of our personal situations. We need to admit that we procrastinate a lot. 

We need to admit that we engage in low value activities at the expense of high value ones. And we need to admit that we rarely make the most of our days. 

It is only by being accountable enough to recognize our flaws can we begin to correct them. In the words of Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, “I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.” 

In order words, we should decide to turn self-deception into self-discipline by forcing ourselves to do the things we need to do, when we need to do them, whether we feel like it or not.

At the end of the day, the only person who can hold us accountable for anything is ourselves. And to turn out well in life, we must develop the mental honesty to take full responsibility for our results by thinking right and equally acting in accordance with our positive thoughts.

In conclusion:  we have to stop lying to ourselves by turning every suboptimal element of self-delusion into a building block of self-discipline, going forward.

Adhere to the Fundamentals

"The minute you get away from fundamentals, the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever (it is) you’re doing."_Michael Jordan

Fundamentals are the key.

In religion, the best devotees are the most fundamentally sound. In business, the best companies are the most fundamentally sound. In academics, the best students are the most fundamentally sound.

And of course, in sports, the best athletes are the most fundamentally sound. 

Here is what we need to grasp: laser focus on the fundamentals is the quality-trait of true masters in all walks of life; without a shred of doubt, lasting success of any kind requires an excellent command of the fundamentals. 

True achievements are the outcomes of consistency around the fundamentals!

The great ones may have some unique advantages than the average performers, but, perhaps, more than anything else, they must get a superb mastery of the fundamentals of their crafts as an Olympic gold medalist, Jesse Owens states in the following words: 

“In the end, it's extra effort that separates a winner from second place. But winning takes a lot more than that, too; it starts with complete command of the fundamentals.”

Of course, the specific practices and actions will be different for dervishes, executives, scholars, and athletes. However, all exceptional performers (without exception) have a firm grasp on the fundamentals in their lives.

So, in whatever game you are playing, if you really want to dependably perform at your very best, you need to establish strong fundamentals from now onwards. 

Once you figure out what your fundamentals are, get better at them, and see the trajectory of your game take a nimble turn in the positive direction. 

Finally, digest the key point of this article which is succinctly expressed in another insight from the basketball superstar, Michael Jordan as: “Get the fundamentals down (right) and the level of everything you do will rise.”

Revision is the Cornerstone of Excellence

“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.”_Albert Einstein 

In matters of excellence and creativity, the difference-maker has little to do with natural endowment but a lot to do with doing the work. And doing the work is not an event; it is a process: a process of toil and conscientious revision.

Excellence is not about what we do once in a while, it is about what we do, again and again, for a long period of time. This is what the theory of 10,000-Hour Rule unmistakably describes.  

That is, to become a master in any field, we need to keep at it for a minimum of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. In order words, every expert has spent about ten years of labour to improve and progress on the fundamentals of their craft.

Revision is the cornerstone of true excellence; it is the ultimate difference between average and extra-ordinary performance in all fields of endeavours. 

To use writing as an example here: know that amateur writers are the ones who manage to write their manuscripts once or twice, but literary masters are the ones who painstakingly re-write chapters, over and over on a granular level. 

An author of the satirical novel, ‘The Corrections,’ Jonathan Franzen boldly highlighted this point when he said: “The (elite) writer’s life is a life of revisions.”

Furthermore, let’s read what three notable modern writers have to say with regards to the concept of revision:

1} A Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School, Terry Tempest Williams says: 

“Through revision, I enter the realm of the unspeakable and find the words that have eluded me.”

2} A Russian novelist and poet, Vladimir Nabokov says: 

“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”

3} An American journalist and short-story writer, Ernest Hemingway says about one of his best works: 

“I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.”

If we can cultivate the grit to stay longer with creative challenges, we will give ourselves enough time to think and rethink until we can come up with something truly remarkable. 

It’s through sheer determination that the greats overcome the hurdles of discovery. And like them, if we are willing to patiently revise and refine our approach for as long as it takes, we will be surprised by the unlimited capacity of our minds. 

In the words of the British business magnate, Richard Branson: “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” 

You see, in the end, patient revision is the simple secret behind true mastery and enduring excellence.

The Power of Levers

“Success is actually a short race; a sprint (that is) fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over.”_Gary Keller

In our daily lives, some things don’t really matter. However, there are certain things that matter so much that they can make or break us in more ways than we think.

Today, we will have a look at one of those things of critical importance in our behaviours. 

If we act upon this simple truth, the rest of our lives shall be the best of our lives—no joke.

In case you are in a hurry to decipher what I want to write about, relax!

The central focus of my article here is: keystone habits. And to satisfy your curiosity, I will start with what the master of habit science, Charles Duhigg writes about in his best-selling book, ‘The Power of Habit,’ as follows:

“Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything. 

Keystone habits say that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right.

But instead relies on identifying a few key priorities and fashioning them into powerful levers.”

You see, a keystone habit is a single power habit that has the capacity to multiply in more than one area of our lives. 

For example, for many people exercise is a keystone habit that helps them think clearer, stay focused, eat smarter and sleep deeper. With one keystone habit thoroughly established, they find significant improvement in other key areas of their lives. 

Now, I implore you to figure-out the one key behaviour in your life with this kind of multiplying power. For you, it may be gratitude, prayer, quality sleep, morning meditation or daily planning. Whatever it is, just figure it out first.

Find Your Own Lever

To become the person we yearn to be, the kind of person who would naturally do what we can be proud of, the kind of person with the self-control to procrastinate less and act right for the most part of our day; the kind of person who can achieve anything he sets his minds to, a keystone habit is the one thing we cannot afford to be careless about because it is the subtle secret of many great people.  

Becoming the best version of ourselves is not as difficult as most people assume. But that is because they are not making use of the power of a good lever to help them live a better life. 

That is because they don’t really understand the power of keystone habits. Now that you know better, it is my hope that you will act far better than ever before.

You only need to find out what’s the right keystone habit for you. Again, it means a behavior that, once made into a habit, effortlessly puts other parts of your life in forward motion. Once you figure it out, and live by it every day, your life will never remain the same again. 

If you will make the strategic sacrifice to forge an impactful keystone habit in your life today, extra-ordinary results will appear in different areas of your life tomorrow.  

Keystone habits are the most powerful lever of self-discipline that is always at our disposal; they are the strongest behavioural foundation a human being can have.

Learn to Focus on the Hardest Thing First

“Intense concentration for hour after hour can bring out resources in people that they didn't know they had.”_Edwin Land

In this age of unlimited distractions, it is quite easy for anyone to spend a huge chunk of his or her days in sub-optimal engagements with little or no awareness. 

If we want to guard ourselves from that kind of limiting experience, we need to take a proactive step to save ourselves from the insidious pull of daily diversions. 

To achieve that, a simple strategy we can employ boils down to focusing on the hardest thing first, or as Brian Tracy would say, eating our ‘biggest frog first.’

And it means giving the best of our mental and physical energy to our biggest task of the day. After we accomplish that, we can then go a little easy on ourselves with how we apportion what’s left of our time, energy and attention to the rest of activities in the day.

Those preceding sentences align with the thinking of Steve Jobs who once hinted that if we adopt focus and simplicity on how we work, we can achieve something truly remarkable.

Simplicity and focus are all it takes to make the most our days. Complexity and distraction will always keep us away from performing at our dead-level best. 

We need to optimize our limited human resources by expending them on our most valuable priorities earlier in the day before the pull of distractions can get a chance to interfere with our personal effectiveness.

 

We need to eschew ‘busy being busy’ and instead be mono-maniacally focused on creating results that really matter.

Alas! It is amazing how effective one can be when he or she habitually focuses on the hardest thing first, everyday, before any distraction could ever get in the way.

Undoubtedly, it is much easier to do something great when interruptions don’t bid for our attention most of the time. The reason so few of us achieve what we are truly capable of is that we don’t adequately direct our focus; we rarely concentrate our mind on what really matters.

Finally, I challenge you—here and now— to start procrastinating on low value activities at the start of your days so can give maximum attention to the hardest things that can create breakthroughs in your life.