The Power of Discipline
7 Ways It Can Change Your Life
By Brian Tracy
– Success is tons of discipline.
– Do what you should do when you should do it whether you feel like it or not.
– You can know all about any subject, but unless you discipline yourself to do what you’re supposed to do you will never succeed.
– With self-discipline you can rise above the average, but without self-discipline it doesn’t matter how many good qualities, background or finances that you have, you will never go above average.
1. Self-discipline and Goals
• If you do not know where you are going, you will not know how to get there.
• You will hit every target that you do not aim for.
• A goal that is not written down is like smoke, it just vanishes away.
• Set a deadline for your goal, a time when you want to achieve it. And then set steps needed to acquire that goal.
• Organize a list by both sequence and priority.
2. Self-discipline and Character
• Hold a higher expectation for yourself more than anyone else and be more lenient with everyone else.
• When you are under serious pressure is when your true character is revealed.
• Guard your integrity more than anything.
• Circumstances do not make a man, but they do reveal one.
3. Self-discipline and Time Management.
• If you do not conquer yourself, you will be conquered by self.
• Cannot manage time, you can only manage yourself.
• Time lost cannot be regained.
• You cannot save time, but you can spend it differently.
• Procrastination is the thief of life.
• You could tell the value that something has to you by how much time you spend doing it.
• It is only by looking how you spend your time will you and the others know what is important to you.
• The more you discipline yourself to use your time wisely, the happier you will feel the better quality of life you will live.
4. Self-discipline and Personal Health
• The five “P’s” of health health:
1. Proper weight
2. Proper diet – eat to live, don’t live to eat.
3. Proper exercise – this is important to your health and life. Exercise a minimum of three times a week.
4. Proper rest – most people do not rest enough, going to bed too late and not getting enough rest. You need brakes and vacations to recharge.
5. Proper attitude – The more optimistic that you are, the better your health is. An optimistic person has a better immune system, shielding against disease and sicknesses. And optimistic person bounces back quicker to sicknesses problems. Look for the good in every situation.
• Eat less and exercise more
. 5. Self-discipline and Money.
• The majority of financial problems is because of a lack of self-discipline and self control.
• You must rewire your brain to save
• Spend wisely instead of just spending money because you have it.
6. Self-discipline and Courage.
• Courage is not the lack of fear but controlling that fear.
• Everyone is afraid, but the courageous person will still do what needs to be done in spite of that fear.
• We can learn to do the opposite of fear.
• If you will imagine doing something, you could say “I can do it” instead of “I can’t do it” – every time you say “I can’t do it”, it will override fear and build your courage and boldness.
• There are two types of courage you don’t need it: courage to start (step out and launch) and courage of patients (to continue on until you have accomplished it).
The only way to defeat fear is to face it head-on.
• The companion of fear is worry.
7. Self-discipline and Responsibility.
• Accepting responsibility is one of the hardest things we can do.
• 85% of people never take responsibility for themselves; they blame, complain and criticize. People get burned by hot coffee and sue the restaurant, fall down because of negligence and sue someone else, etc. We cannot go through life blaming everyone else.
• It takes tremendous self-discipline to take responsibility for what happens instead of blaming others.
• The difference between success and failure is a choice. We must learn selfdiscipline to do what we should whether we feel like it or not.