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Self-Discipline: The First Person You Lead Is You

The first and best victory is to conquer self – Plato

A man without decision of character can never be said to belong to himself…He belongs to whatever can make captive of him – Author John Foster

Former NFL Player, Jerry Rice exemplifies self-discipline better than any other. Come back from “career-ending” surgeries has been an amazing case study of tenacity and hard work.

No Matter how gifted a leader may be, their gifts will never reach their maximum potential without the application of self-discipline. It positions a leader to go to the highest level and is a key to leadership that lasts.

If you want to become a leader for whom self-discipline is an asset, here are five action points to follow.

Develop and Follow Your Priorities

Anyone who does what he must only when he is in the mood or when it is convenient is not going to be successful. Nor will people respect and follow him. It has been stated that to do important tasks, two things are need, a plan and not quite enough time. If you can determine what is really a priority and release yourself from everything else, it is a lot easier to follow through on what is important.

Make A Disciplined Lifestyle Your Goal

Self-discipline cannot be a one time event! It must be a lifestyle. Developing a routine and daily systems is the best way to accomplish this.

Challenge your Excuses

To develop a lifestyle of discipline, one of the first tasks must be to challenge and eliminate any tendency to make excuses. It has ben said that all of our faults are more pardonable than the methods we think up to hide them. If you have several reasons why you can’t be self-disciplined , realize they are really just a bunch of excuses – all of which need to be challenged if you want to be a leader that goes to the next level.

Remove Rewards Until The Job Is Done

Author Mike Delaney wrote, “Any business or industry that pays equal rewards for its goof-offs and its eager-beavers sooner or later will find itself with more goof-offs than eager-beavers.

Stay Focused On Results

Anytime that you concentrate on the difficulty of the work instead of its results and rewards, you are likely to become discouraged. Dwell on it too long and you are likely to develop self-pity instead of self-discipline. Author Jackson Brown Jr. wrote, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There is plenty of movement, but you never know if it is going to be forward, backward, sideways.

Take a long look at last weeks schedule. How much time did you devote to regular disciplined activities? Did you do anything to grow and improve yourself professionally? Did you engage in activity that promote good health? Did you save any income?

To improve your self-discipline, here are three things to do.

Sort out your priorities – Think about two or three areas of your life that are important to you. Write them down, along with the disciplines necessary to keep them growing and flourishing. Develop a plan to make the disciplines a daily or weekly part of your life.

List the reasons – Take the time to write out the benefits of practicing the disciplines you’ve listed. Then post the benefit someplace where you can see them daily. On the days that you don’t want to follow through – read the list of benefits!

Get rid of excuses – Write down every reason that might hinder your follow through. Read them out loud and then dismiss them as the excuses they are. Even if it seems legitimate, find a solution to overcome it. Do not leave any reasons for yourself to quite!

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!