STORY:
EverythingCounts!

Self-Discipline Counts - Helpful advice for a new millennium

By Gary Ryan Blair
Special to Everything2000

If you don't discipline yourself, you are sure to be disciplined by others. Every act of self-discipline moves you toward your goals, and every exception takes you off course.

We are all walking, talking power struggles: head vs. heart.intellect vs. emotion. Many leave the steering to their emotions and merely bring their intellects along for the ride. Your intellect or your emotions.which one is running the show in your life?

Contrary to popular belief, freedom does not arise from "letting it all hang out;" freedom is the result of a personal triumph over emotion. To experience true freedom, you must prove to yourself that you are the master of your own destiny. Never are you less free than when you are held hostage by your emotions. When emotions rule, enslavement, not freedom, follows.

Bad habits are the gravitational pull of your emotional life, and overcoming them is not easy. Change is challenging. Surrender is tempting, and it gets tastier with practice.

It takes less energy to remain disciplined than to regain it. Entropy moves in when self-discipline falls asleep. The only bad news about self-discipline is that it is so easy to give up. Every compromise greases the wheels for another compromise. Make a personal "no exceptions policy," and stick to it.

Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. Self-discipline requires you to connect today's actions to tomorrow's results. There's a season for sowing, a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you know which is which.

Winners prepare and anticipate behind closed doors. Lay the groundwork for success carefully: Effective preparation and self-discipline are closely allied. Do your homework. Since most people are rarely well prepared, you will often succeed by default. When opportunity presents itself, burst out of the starting gate, sprint to the finish line, and take home the prize.

Do what needs to be done. Quality living requires you to make difficult choices and sacrifices; it demands that you do the hard work first. You cannot arrive at true success without making the trip.

Self-discipline is a habit. It is not situational, but it is applied situation by situation. Anyone can be self-disciplined on occasion, but to get consistently positive results requires consistency. It is the day-in day-out practice of self-discipline that determines where you'll end up. After all, a lifetime is an accumulation of moments, days, weeks, months, and years. What you do during each moment counts and influences the degree to which you judge your life to be a success.

If you aspire to achieve your goals, you must be prepared to play every play as though the two-minute warning clock is running. Every move is significant. Every move counts!

Everyone struggles with self-discipline. The question is not "Do I." but "Where do I need to exercise greater self-discipline?" The discipline you establish today determines the successes you'll enjoy tomorrow.

The strenuous life tastes better. When it comes to self-discipline, a key driver of success, everything counts!

Credit Line: Gary Ryan Blair, "The GoalsGuy", is the author of the best selling book What Are Your Goals? He writes and speaks extensively on the subject of goal-setting. His "EverythingCounts" series will appear on Everything2000.com each Monday through January 2000.For more information visit www.GoalsGuy.com or call 1-877-GoalsGuy.

DATE: 11/22/99

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