Discipline? Got it?

[GordonJ]

Discipline is the result of desire and habit. It takes 28 to 35 days, according to many experts, to establish the base of a habit. Continuous activity for a month gives one a good start in developing a habit, but it is only the start.

I see a lack of discipline as being at or near the top of reasons why people don't either fulfill their potential, or don't achieve their goals.

Punishment is often used to train someone to adhere to their schedule.

Is an unfulfilled, unhappy life knowing you could have been so much more than what you are, not punishment enough?

Let's look at ways to develop discipline, and I see two general ways this is done, the BOOTCAMP or the immersive way. Military training cuts to the chase, you do as you are told or else you are put out.

This is when you shut the doors, lock the windows and stay on task until completed. An example, back in 1997 or 98, Melvin Powers introduced me to Charles Prosper, who told me he locked himself away for a week, and learned html, so he could build web sites.

I literally took Charles' advice, and for 7 days, I didn't go anywhere and spent 18 hours a day working on html, and wrapping my head around the ways of the Internet, even though I came to the www, fairly experienced with online knowledge, having participated in the old Usenet and communication channels as they were in the 80's.

But html was a new thing, the code was different and it took time to get to understand it. I have taken this BOOTCAMP, or total immersion with many different things, especially software, because I do best with limited distraction and forced focus.

The other model, on gaining discipline, is small amounts of dedicated time to the task, so someone else, might have spent an hour a day to learn html and spent 90 days, building the habit of study as they go along.

Writers often establish discipline via routine, my mornings are governed by my reading schedule and writing time. And has been for pert near 50 years.

Where lack of discipline jumps up and bites you in the butt is when an OPPORTUNITY presents itself and you are unprepared for it, because you fidddle farted away precious time you could have been learning _________

Or doing ____________ whatever.

One "secret" of discipline is to build in goof off time, or blocks of time where you have fun, do what you want. This time of the year, many people who know better, become food a holidayics...they eat the cookies, all the great candies and cakes of the season, gain a few pounds and falsely think they will lose it in the New Year.

If you have discipline, you reward yourself with a holiday treat now and again, you just get in the habit of not overeating or stuffing your face.

Do you have challenges with discipline? Do you have routines and rituals you have consciously chosen?

What tricks or tools do you use to stay disciplined?

Gordon

[unpinkpanther]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Discipline is the result of desire and habit. It takes 28 to 35 days, according to many experts, to establish the base of a habit. Continuous activity for a month gives one a good start in developing a habit, but it is only the start.

Gordon

Gordon,

Thank you for this post.

A key challenge in building habits is knowing the RIGHT habit to build.

We are bombarded with so much advice on the "success habits" we're supposed to have.

In fact, just this morning, I saw a headline that promised to reveal the 132 secrets of achievers!

Quite a bit of time is spent sieving through all the fluff/false promises to find the FUNDAMENTALS to focus on

Thanks again

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by unpinkpanther

Gordon,

Thank you for this post.

A key challenge in building habits is knowing the RIGHT habit to build.

We are bombarded with so much advice on the "success habits" we're supposed to have.

In fact, just this morning, I saw a headline that promised to reveal the 132 secrets of achievers!

Quite a bit of time is spent sieving through all the fluff/false promises to find the FUNDAMENTALS to focus on

Thanks again

First thing, success is a subjective idea. How do you measure it? Your yardstick is going to be differnet from mine and different from everyone.

Are "acheivers" successful? Take awards, like the Oscars or Emmies. Total high school King and Queen of the Prom sort of thing, with maybe the technical awards where only peers get to voice their opinion being OK, but in Art, if you accept the kudos, you agree to the criticisms too.

Although I don't like Woody Allen and boycott his movies, I do like his take on the Academy Awards, totally useless, pablam for the masses. Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein are both high achievers, but, would you say they are successful? Again, goes back to your opinion and view point.

Matt Lauer, one of the higest paid (very successful, eh?) TV personalities ever, a success by almost all yardsticks, right? Unless you use the Creep O Meter, although he successfully ranks high on that too.

So there really aren't any right habits, until you clearly define what success means to you.

I am a simpleton, reducing things down to the number of fingers on one hand.

A habit of health. Which means understanding what goes into the mouth is important, and what comes out of it, even more important.

Habits of successful health; diet, exercise, breathing...could easily, and often do, get waylaid by genetics, what you were born with, and although your habits may be those of health, like Jim Fixx, the guy who wrote the books on running, dropped dead of a heart attack but appearing to be in great health.

So, you take into account what you came into the world with.

A habit of thought, a habit of place, a habit of relationships, a habit of finances, a habit of spirit...there, instead of 132, or 27...those are the 5 habits which most likely take one to success.

The body and mind are not seperate, what affects one effects the other, and all of this has been on the SQ1 for two decades now.

When you have clearly chosen to be aware of and participate in the RESPONSIBILITY of your own life, I don't believe the habits one develops are all that confusing or overwhelming. Are they?

Gordon

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by GordonJ

What tricks or tools do you use to stay disciplined?

Hi Gordon,

Good topic!

I find that sometimes I have "psychological blocks" to doing things... I know I can do it, but it seems impossible to make myself do it...

I've recently been re-reading Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics, and I think he's right... A negative self-image can be a "blocker" to achievement. Including to self-discipline!

How? It's hard to do something that goes against your own self-image...

So if you see yourself as a lazy-bones... It may be hard to work hard. If you see yourself as a bad writer... It may be hard to write anything. If you see yourself as a bad speaker... It may be hard to get up and give a speech.

Therefore, for many people, what may be needed is a change in their own self-image...

How do you change your own self-image? The brief version (from Maxwell Maltz) is to use your imagination... And imagine yourself as how you want to be. And do it repeatedly, on a regular basis, over a sustained period of time (e.g. daily, at least for a few weeks). We do know that when you see something repeatedly (e.g. advertising, or political messages), you're more likely to believe it's true. I imagine it's the same with this process... The more you repeatedly see this positive image of yourself, over a period of time, the more likely you'll believe it's true.

It's different from other similar "visualizations" that you often see written about, because this is focusing primarily on your own self-image, rather than focusing on external things, like external achievements...

If anyone is interested, I also found the following link...

https://archive.org/details/TheNewPs...yMaxwellMaltz1

Best wishes,

Dien

P.S. There is a toll position lesson here, too. Dan Kennedy and a bunch of others acquired the rights to "Psycho Cybernetics," and put out a new updated version. Maxwell Maltz passed away in 1975... I found it a bit disconcerting finding "him" (in the updated version) making comparisons with using internet search engines, when they didn't exist until around 20 years after he passed away...! But that's only because I know the history...

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Gordon,

Good topic!

I find that sometimes I have "psychological blocks" to doing things... I know I can do it, but it seems impossible to make myself do it...

I've recently been re-reading Maxwell Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics, and I think he's right... A negative self-image can be a "blocker" to achievement. Including to self-discipline!

How? It's hard to do something that goes against your own self-image...

So if you see yourself as a lazy-bones... It may be hard to work hard. If you see yourself as a bad writer... It may be hard to write anything. If you see yourself as a bad speaker... It may be hard to get up and give a speech.

Therefore, for many people, what may be needed is a change in their own self-image...

How do you change your own self-image? The brief version (from Maxwell Maltz) is to use your imagination... And imagine yourself as how you want to be. And do it repeatedly, on a regular basis, over a sustained period of time (e.g. daily, at least for a few weeks). We do know that when you see something repeatedly (e.g. advertising, or political messages), you're more likely to believe it's true. I imagine it's the same with this process... The more you repeatedly see this positive image of yourself, over a period of time, the more likely you'll believe it's true.

It's different from other similar "visualizations" that you often see written about, because this is focusing primarily on your own self-image, rather than focusing on external things, like external achievements...

If anyone is interested, I also found the following link...

https://archive.org/details/TheNewPs...yMaxwellMaltz1

Best wishes,

Dien

P.S. There is a toll position lesson here, too. Dan Kennedy and a bunch of others acquired the rights to "Psycho Cybernetics," and put out a new updated version. Maxwell Maltz passed away in 1975... I found it a bit disconcerting finding "him" (in the updated version) making comparisons with using internet search engines, when they didn't exist until around 20 years after he passed away...! But that's only because I know the history...

Thanks for this Dien, maybe Maltz was speaking to Kennedy, et al from the grave? HA!

This is my opinion, but the best and most productive way to get maximum results from self talk, is illustrated in the CREED. Reading the CREED four times a day, for the first 30 days take you away from an internal self...to an external self where you are doing for others, and one is not in conflict with the self image.

By the way, the SQ1 shows where and how that Self Image was developed and how, and is one reason why I teach about the 12 year old living inside of us and making our adult decisions too often.

You take the self talk out of the shadows of your subconscious mind, where it is constantly whirring away with noise...and you add CONSCIOUS awareness, like what happens when you read the CREED.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/gjbiz/creedpromo.pdf

So, a lazy bones will get off the couch if it is on fire, right? Or, if a friend, family or even a pet were in danger, there would be no hesitation in the action. Laziness is physical inactivity and mental distraction, but when the mind is refocused on action which benefits other people, the inertia is overcome.

A person who feels under or uneducated, would refrain from expressing his opinions when in the presence of those he deemed more educated, the self image acts as a governor, which is the basic premise of PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, the reason why people who had cosmetic surgery still felt and ACTED the same as they did before the surgery.

The way to over ride these governors is to unblock them, and the way to overcome one's unproductive self image is...

to get out of SELF. Bring it to the conscious mind, turn the background noise down, and use the self talk of helping other people, of giving that which you do have, and not focusing on what you lack or don't have...it powers up activity and lets one bypass his self image.

The problem of imagining an event as already completed (a Maltz biggee), is there are many people who accept this, the goal accomplished, and it strips away the motivation. When the imagination is combined with conscious awareness then it adds to it, visualizing making foul line shots in basketball is aided by being on the court and not leaving until you make 20 in a row.

Like putting, I visualized the ball going into the hole, and often did it from my easy chair, but I also put in the 10,000 hours on the green making 3 foot putts for hours on end, which made my imaginative success, even more so.

Some times, just a thought, something like, "I can do better than this" turns an average student just coasting along unfocused into a very focused student who goes after and gets his Ph.D., for example.

Shine the light on the dark corners of the subconscious mind, and those negative little cockroaches of thought scurry away.

Again, my opinion, the best self talk one can do is to talk about how they are going to help other people and how to pursue the action to do so.

Gordon