To Win Forever, Embrace the Path of Self-Discipline

“Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly.”—Julie Andrew

The path of self-discipline is the surest way to build unshakable character. It is the path that creates and nurtures success of every kind. It is the bridge between dreams and accomplishments. It is a virtue anyone can count on—even if he/she is an amateur or an also-ran. The process of self-mastery is a proven and tested means to all enduring personal victories.

Self-discipline transformed Pete Carroll—who was largely disregarded at some point—into one of the most celebrated coaches of all time. After embracing the path, he earned himself a distinguished spot, as one of the only three football coaches who won both a Super Bowl and a College Football National Championship in the history of American sports—a raving feat for sure.

In his book, ‘Win Forever,’ he enlightens us that self-discipline goes beyond training for the game of football, that we can all strive to maximize our potentials in anything of value, that the path is about striving to be better today than we were yesterday. 

Now, to thinking men of ambition, Pete Carroll offers a line of thought: "to win forever, always compete." By that he meant we should always strive to be our best, even on our worst days of practice, of business and of living. He says it is about continuous and never ending improvement in every sphere of life; it is about progress in all areas that count.

Furthermore, in order to improve constantly, he contends that, champions decide to fall in love with the path and they choose to find joy in the journey. They choose to focus not on their opponents but on themselves. They rely on their strengths, their discipline, their habits, their strategies, their routines, and their rituals. And as a result, they can consistently deliver at the highest level of performance, even when circumstances would apparently make it easier for them not to. 

On this, permit me to quote Pete Carroll once more. He says: "It's about us getting ready to play. It's not about the other team. We'll beat ourselves before they beat us. That's always our approach." And that’s how to proactively embrace the path of formidable self-discipline: the only way to win forever.

However, relying on inspiration alone—the strategy of some players— is not as effective in the long run. Yes, sometimes it does work. In fact, it works superbly well whenever they have the passionate drive to pursue their goals and dreams.  But as soon as they become tired, meet an obstacle or get frustrated, everything falls to pieces. Therefore, they find it difficult to sustain their momentum.

To not embrace the path of consistent self-discipline is to be sporadic and less reliable; this notion easily turns winners into has-been. You win some days but you lose many days. However, enduring success is not earned this way.

How to Remain an Outstanding Winner

So, to be like the all-time greats, change your frame of mind to believing in the process. Embrace the path of self-mastery: decide to find joy in the grind. No matter how you feel or what you face, on any day, just keep grinding.  Make yourself fall in love with the journey of growth and self-discovery. This is the high way to glory: the way of the process.

It's what Pete Carroll relies on to join the class of the elite. It’s what makes Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all-time. And it's what Rhonda Rousey relies on to become “one of the defining athletes of 21^st century,” according to Wikipedia. Embracing the path of the process is the secret of unremitting motivation. It is the essence of indefatigability. 

Here is how Rhonda Rousey explains the concept further. She says:

“Most people focus on the wrong thing; they focus on the result, not the process. The process is the sacrifice; it's all the hard parts - the sweat, the pain, the tears, the losses. You make the sacrifices anyway. You learn to enjoy them, or at least embrace them. In the end, it is the sacrifices that must fulfill you.”

And the way to develop this powerful mentality is to make a habit of doing the right thing every time you have the impulse not to. Whenever you feel the urge to procrastinate or goof off, compel yourself to do the opposite of what ordinarily feels easy to do.

And as you order yourself to do this repeatedly, you will soon gain access to a realm of power that is unattained by most people: the incredible force of self-mastery. With it, there is no limit to what you can accomplish.

Meanwhile, the ability to continuously do the hard right comes from having full control over one’s emotions, appetites and inclinations. But this is only possible for the strong few who have long chosen to make self-discipline a permanent way of life.

 Right here, Anthony Robbins incites us to make this empowering decision by saying, “In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” If we harness the power of self-discipline to build an enabling habit of positive action, remarkable results will unfailingly find  us.

Basically, the path comes down to delaying gratification; the conscious process of choosing the pain of discipline over the ease of complacency, every time, all the time. This is what superstars thoroughly understand. They therefore decide to keep paying the price of growth, day in day out, even when they feel like easing up a bit.

To join their ranks, we must learn to embrace the path of self-discipline as a mode of living. And when we do, we shall win any gold medal that we truly deserve. 

However, we still need to realize above all else that, self-mastery is its own reward, as George Leonard, the author of Mastery, stated in his book: "The ultimate reward is not a gold medal but the path itself." 

This means that the greatest reward of self-discipline is neither the medals nor the money but the exceptional person we eventually become in the process of striving towards a higher level of consciousness throughout the days of our lives.

Ruthless Elimination: A valuable tactic of focus and productivity

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”– Dale Carnegie

In the world of value and results, mere busyness is never proximate to high productivity; doing a long list of average activities is a poor substitute for doing fewer but truly important tasks. 

Figuring out tall-worth tasks in an era of tumultuous noise requires sound deliberation and firm will. It requires a sense of purpose to protect one’s key goals against the forces of massive daily distractions.

And to do this, we must recognize that not all tasks are born equal. Some things matter far less in comparison to others. And the skill of Pareto principle of conscious prioritization is what we want to run through in this article. The principle states that the vital 20% of activities account for 80% of the results and rewards. 

To live our lives at the optimum level, we need to determine and focus only on those vital 20% of activities: the very few things that really matter. As the former U.S.A president, Theodore Roosevelt once remarked, “Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Now, it is our turn to focus hard at things that are really worth doing.

Narrowed Focus and Ruthless Elimination

The idea of ruthless elimination is what Steve Jobs used to transform Apple into what it is today. Like jobs, all super-successful people are masters at focusing on what is essential to the exclusion of all else. 

And Rory Vaden expresses this principle clearly in his book, ‘Take the Stairs.’ He counsels us that: “The most important skill for the next generation of knowledge worker is not learning what to do, but determining what not to do and focusing on key priorities.” 

In other words, it’s not what we do that drives our productivity, but what we deliberately choose not to do. Why? Because what we cease to do determines the time available for us to accomplish the things that are really important.

The strategy of ruthless elimination is a simple two-step process that can aid you to achieve far more by helping you leverage your time better. It is an effective approach used by many high achievers to get a whole lot done in a whole less time. 

See the steps as follows:

Step 1: Clarify what is essential to you. {Note: make certain that these are truly your supreme priorities.}

Step 2: Eliminate everything else. {You need to eliminate everything that is not truly important. Be proactive, be fierce and yes, be ruthless at this point.}

These two simple steps are powerful enough to make us superstars in anything we set our minds to. However, bringing it to life requires a good measure of self-discipline. 

You see, fabulous productive success boils down to being serious with the basics. Nothing earth-shattering, just identify the essential, and eliminate everything else.

Now, the big question is: how serious are we to putting simple strategy into practice in our lives? 

So, please don’t overlook this write-up because you already know everything it explains; yes, nothing is new here. But you should answer the following questions to improve your life going forward:

‘Am I doing this?’

‘Have I mastered it?’

‘Does my habit show that I am doing this?’

‘Do my results prove that I have mastered it?’

If you answer ‘no’ to any of those questions, then I guess you know where to begin.

Most people know what to do. However, the most successful people are those who do the most with the knowledge that they have. 

By using this knowledge to focus only on the things that really matter, we (you and I) can accomplish a lot with the very limited time that we have.

  

The Essential Quality of All Reliable Leaders

"Consistency is one of the biggest factors in leading to accomplishment and success."— Byron Pulsifer

Today, I have a simple quiz for you and it is this: what is the common fibre to the most successful companies in all sectors?

To help you out, this quality is not limited to the corporate world. It also establishes confidence in any relationship…brings about balance and security from dangerous extremes...replaces disorder and confusion with predictability and stability.

I hope by now you can make the right guess. Yes, the answer is consistency.

The importance of consistency cannot be overemphasized because it is the cornerstone of dependable reliability. Consistency says ‘you can always count on me, both in the sun and in the rain.’ Consistency means steadfastness at all times: yesterday, today and tomorrow; it is immune from impulsive changes and irrational swings; it keeps its promises, always. 

Undoubtedly, solid character is what enables true consistency. And those who positively embody this invaluable trait are among the best of mankind. They are reliable, faithful and dependable. You can trust them with any responsibility. 

Unremitting consistency is about a deliberate lifestyle of commitment, patience and perseverance. It shows up in the lives of selfless leaders who remain firm on the cause of justice for their fellow men against the devious forces of despotic rulers. It reveals itself in the verve of great artists who keep showing up for work, day after day, even with no direct compensation for the output of their toil. 

We see it in the life of a disciplined student who goes to the library, every evening after class, when their mates would choose to goof around with their precious time. It is the ‘it’ factor that compels an extra-ordinary employee to always show up early—even without the presence of the boss—and put in the work all day, instead of watching the clock.

On this powerful quality of strong character, Daniel Transon writes in his book, ‘The Leadership Challenge’ that: “Consistency is a key element, without which a leader is incapable of getting respect, success or even developing confidence in others.”

Consistency is an indispensable component of maturity. It is what makes the most successful people, companies, and nations different from all others. It is the one, single quality that enables them to show up and do their best, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year, in spite of the changing seasons, political upheavals, and unforeseen socioeconomic activities.

Consistency is the dominant virtue of all reliable leaders, at home, at work, in the school and the world. It is the quality that we not only need to learn but master more than any other trait. 

It is a jewel that deserves your special attention from here onward. Never forget that consistency creates habits, and good habits are the precursor of real success.

In a nutshell, consistency is… everything.

Independent Thought; the Main Leverage of Scientists, Inventors and Problem-solvers

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which probably the reason so few (people) engage in it.”—Henry Ford

The power of thought has been demonstrated again and again throughout human history. And now, it is being demonstrated more impressively in the present era of technological revolution, unlike what the past millennia of humankind had ever witnessed. 

In this article, we want to explore the power of independent thought, and how we can learn to improve our personal thinking ability to create practical solutions to everyday problems. 

By independent thought, I mean the use of our minds for sensible reflection to form an idea, propose a solution, and make a judgment that is based on sound reason and solid evidence as opposed to mere opinions based on emotions or prejudices. This may be simple enough to define but it can be quite difficult to see in practice. And that explains why there are very few original thinkers in the world. 

Thinking up an inventive solution to a puzzling problem takes a great deal of mental effort. It requires forming hypothesis, generating questions, and sticking to the questions until the most practical answer to the problem is reached. 

Be that as it may, it is within our capacity, if we are willing to try. So, let’s move on to how we can learn to think for ourselves, using an essential tool of the first principles.

Independent Thought and the First Principles

First Principles’ thinking is perhaps best way to think for oneself. It is an independent but powerful way of thinking and problem solving that can unleash creative possibilities from the foundational truths of the issues at hand.

First principle is said to be ‘the first basis for which a thing is known.’ This mode of thought doesn’t start with guesses. Rather, it starts with certainty; what is clear, what is known, and what has been proven. 

To apply this principle in real life, write down the complex problem on paper. And the next thing is to break it down into its most elementary parts. 

And to do this well, you will need a good application of the right questions to get to the core of the puzzle. For example: “Regarding this dilemma, what one thing am I absolutely sure of?” Then, apply your mental energies to generate creative possibilities from there, with the help of new, relevant questions.

This is the tool that enabled Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX  to cut through the haze of superficial analysis, and uncovered hidden opportunities that others missed. It is a potent way of thinking that you can use to reconstruct complicated problems into imaginative possibilities.

Finally, to develop innovative solutions to complex problems, you have to think constructively, you have to think differently, but most importantly, you have to think for yourself.