We have been exploring the seven steps to accelerating business growth. The first four steps are clarity of direction, communication, having a plan, and intense focus. Step five is discipline. The power of discipline is that it unlocks results; no sustained business growth is achieved without discipline.
For some people, the word discipline has a negative connotation, but we have to get past that idea. Discipline means staying at it every day. It’s a commitment to focus on what we need to accomplish each day and those priorities.
It’s simple but true: Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. They’re persistent. It’s sort of like going to the gym. I don’t like getting up in the morning and going to the gym, but I do it. Successful people may not like it, but they’re disciplined to do it every day. World-class athletes and musicians don’t dabble around the edges. They’re intensely focused and they’re disciplined to work at it every single day.
EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:
I used to fly an airplane for the company I worked for; I flew for 22 years. When you’re flying an airplane and you decide you want to go a different direction, then you set the new course setting and turn the yoke. The yoke is like the steering wheel in your car; but I learned quickly that if I didn’t keep the pressure on the yoke, the airplane would naturally spin back and go the direction it was going previously because of momentum.
It’s similar for us as people and for businesses. If we don’t keep the pressure on that yoke and keep pushing forward in the direction we want to go, we will go back to the direction we had been going. That’s human nature. It’s hard to break that momentum, and that’s what makes discipline necessary. We have to keep the pressure on and be intensely focused every single day.
Successful people are consistent in their practice of applying discipline to their daily lives. Tony Robbins says, “Repetition is the mother of all skill,” and that means repeating it over and over and being intentional about the habits that we form. If we’re not intentional about the habits that we form, our habits will form us. We have to decide what is it going to take to be successful and then be intensely focused on that in a disciplined way. The genius of the most successful people in the world is rooted in discipline.
You can create the business and the life of your choosing, but you have to have the courage to step up to the plate and say, “This is what I want.” To download your own reference copy, fill out the form below. You’ll receive a PDF of this episode of Seven Steps to Accelerated Business Growth and continued access to information that will help you grow and prosper.
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