The Secret to Self-Discipline

The Secret to Self-Discipline Today’s work environment has been
dubbed everything from the Age
of Distraction and the Age of Inattention
to The Multitasking Generation.
The bottom line is this: regardless of your
job title, we are all trying to accomplish
increasingly more with increasingly less
resources—whether those resources are
money, time, focus, or energy. How can we
achieve success—however you define it—
given these constraints?
I study successful people for a living, and I believe the answer can be boiled down to one
word: self-discipline. It’s not a breakthrough idea, and it’s certainly not popular. It’s an
old-school way of thinking that has unfortunately fallen out of vogue, but and one that can
yield measurable results when applied to the challenges of working in modern business.
Self-discipline can take many forms: the discipline to tackle problems head-on, to manage and
protect your schedule, or to stop avoiding the major projects by filling your time with easier
tasks. It can also mean simply saying “no” to certain things, in order to free up valuable time
and mental space to focus on the things that truly matter.
We can all look at our own situations and identify places where better self-discipline could help
us improve the way we work and live. But it doesn’t sound easy, and it sure doesn’t sound fun.
So, what have these uber-successful, self-disciplined people figured out that we haven’t?
I’ve worked with these people one-on-one, and I can assure you they don’t enjoy self-discipline
any more than the rest of us. It’s not that they find it easier to do things that most people
don’t like doing; it’s that they think differently about it. Self-discipline is not about chores, or
punishment, or doing things the hardest way possible. It’s simply about doing the hard things
you know you should do, even when you don’t feel like doing them—and then doing them
as early on as possible, to boot.
To help others develop the habit of self-discipline, I offer seven principles—truths that, in our
work at Southwestern Consulting, we’ve gleaned from successful people around the world.
Self-disciplined ultra performers are distinct in the ways they think and evaluate choices. They use
a different set of criteria than most people when they make decisions, and it is their decision
making process—not sheer iron will—that enables them to choose a path that is different from
most. They often choose to “Take the Stairs” while the rest of us stand around looking for an
escalator. These principles of self-discipline worked for them, they worked for me, and they will
work for you.