"Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out."_Stephen Covey
In this short article, I want to combine two interrelated concepts that can each be a title of a complete book, the first being self-mastery and the second, goal attainment.
Ultimately, lasting success is largely about self-mastery. By this, I mean that the people who are firmly in control of themselves, their attitudes, choices and actions can set and attain any goals in life with relative ease.
But people who are low in the scale of self-mastery would encounter the most turbulent struggles in the pursuit of their dreams. They are the ones who rely on motivation and mere tactics to get through a lot of their days.
However, elite masters of self-discipline understand the ultimate truth: Living a good life, creating repeatable successes and attaining big goals requires far more than a few hacks and tactics. It requires a cohesive approach to managing oneself.
This cohesive approach is holistic in nature. That is, it is all-inclusive; it affects the key daily habits of right living like nutrition, sleep, exercise among many other things.
Like the masters, once we get a hold on these critical daily habits of self-mastery, we'll unlock an entirely new (and nearly effortless) way of working and winning in our personal and professional lives.
Therefore, if you are having problem with achieving any goal, know that you don’t need to busy yourself with the latest tactics on goal setting, all you have to do is this: improve your daily self-discipline, especially in areas like nutrition, exercise and sleep.
In the words of an American prolific author, Jim George:
“Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first things and second things.”
Finally, if you desire to win over your goals, first rule over yourself.
