Posted by: Mike in Entrepreneurship on Apr 30, 2008
Before you resolve to accomplish your goals and summon your ambitions, conquer your fears and reach for your dreams, you must first resolve to master self discipline. This is one weak link you definitely cannot afford. Starting a business is not easy, it requires dedication and lots of ACTION. Self Discipline is simply put, doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, whether you like it or not. It is for this reason self discipline is required for starting a business, it will get you through all the difficult obstacles that will get in your way.
I may be able to provide insight into the various ways of thought that will allow you to gain true control of your mind, to be strong minded, intelligent, and wise. However without discipline it is for nothing. Self discipline will ensure your thoughts are translated to actions during the most difficult of times. As a muscle must be strengthened through pain, struggle and constant exercise, so to must self discipline be cultivated. This is what most people lack today, the discipline to translate their thoughts into actions consistently. Self discipline will only become stronger with use and by pushing your limits and accommodating additional responsibilities. Discipline will make you dependable, both for yourself and others, it will aid in building character by keeping you in the fight as difficult as it may be to ensure your goals are fulfilled. You may have a strong desire and passion and source of motivation however these will fluctuate from time to time as gratification from your business or other ventures are not always realized immediately, this is where you will rely on your self-discipline.
Speaking from experience, the Military Basic Training coarse for example uses a combination of fear, struggle and strict guidance to instill the discipline required to follow orders delegated to you in war time. They systematically break you down and get you to realize you are not an individual but a part of a bigger whole with a common objective, and if you are the weak link and fail to accomplish an objective everyone suffers for your failure just as it would happen in actual combat. You do not want to be the weak link so will strive to perform and strive to improve your discipline to perform as they instruct. It is this artificial struggle imposed upon by the drill sergeants that make you accustomed to making decisions and functioning in an environment that requires a high level of discipline. When you are in a stressful situation but required to think coherently to successful accomplish a task requires a lot of self discipline. You must learn to manage the stress to allow yourself to think critically and clearly about the task at hand in that environment. Failure to meet this level will result in severe punishment not only for you, but all in your team. It is a very manual, brute force way of instilling discipline.
There is another way however and that is to reaffirm what your priorities are, slowly and deliberately refuse to let your laziness and weakness of mind trump your decisions, keep focus and do not let external factors distract you from your original goals. A perfect example would be creating a budget. How many times have you created a budget that would have saved you thousands of dollars if followed, only to find at the end of the month you strayed from your budget and were left with very little money. You lacked the discipline to accomplish a well thought out plan that would have helped you save lots of money because you did not have the discipline to keep from spending. You must patiently, deliberately and methodically remind yourself why you decided not to spend the money, understand your laziness and weakness of mind is influencing your decision and is not what is really good for you. You must learn to have the patience to delay gratification so that it can compound and provide you even greater gratification later. Have the willpower to not be distracted by momentary distractions and desires. As Teddy Roosevelt quoted, “Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past”. Discipline requires you store up your efforts by and delay short term gratification so that you may make an easier life for yourself in the future.