Our lives are affected by two major things: one is price, and the other is promise. And it’s not that easy to pay the price if you can’t see the promise.
I (Jim Rohn) think kids are having problems these days trying to pay the price because they can’t see the promise. But nobody would mind paying the price if they could have a clear view of tomorrow–next week, or next month, or next year. If we had the assurance that everything were going to work out, do you think we would hesitate to pay? The answer is no, but everybody hesitates if the future isn’t clear. So we’ve got to do two things to help our kids: help them see the promise and help them pay the price.
For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards. That’s one of life’s great arrangements. In fact, it’s an extension of that Biblical law that says that if you sow well, you will reap well.
Here’s a unique part of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. Not only does it suggest that we’ll all reap what we’ve sown, it also suggests that we’ll reap much more. Life is full of laws that both govern and explain behaviors, but this may well be the major law we need to understand: for every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards.
What a concept! If you render unique service, your reward will be multiplied. If you’re fair and honest and patient with others, your reward will be multiplied. If you give more than you expect to receive, your reward is more than you expect. But remember: the key word here, as you might well imagine, is discipline.
I (Jim Rohn) have got a good question for you. Is the best you can do all you can do? Strangely enough, the answer is no. Imagine dropping to the floor right now and doing as many push-ups as you possible can–and let’s say for some reason you haven’t been doing any push-ups lately, so the best you can do is five.
But is five all you can ever do? The answer is no. If you rest a little, you can do five more. And if you rest a little more, you can do five more. How did we get from five to fifteen? It’s a miracle!
If you continue that pattern, is it possible to get up to fifty push-ups? Of course! How do you go from five to fifty? It’s a miracle!
Let me (Jim Rohn) give you some keys to discipline. Start with the little things and work up to the big ones. The little things are minor things you can do to make your life better and make you feel better about yourself. Make a list of them. Life will give you some pretty big challenges, but unless you practice on the small ones and master those, you don’t have a chance on the major ones. A man strides out of his house to go straighten out the corporation, and he has not yet straightened out his garage. Who’s he kidding? So work on all the disciplines, small as well as large, that will improve the quality of your life.
And here is an important thought: everything affects everything else. Every lack of discipline affects every other discipline. Mistakenly, the man says, “This is the only area I failed.” It’s obvious that’s not true. Every failure, no matter how small, affects the rest of your performance.
Discipline is a constant awareness of the need for action paired with a conscious act to implement that action. If our awareness and our implementations occur at the same time, then we begin a valued sequence of disciplined activity.
But if considerable time passes between the moment of awareness and the time of our implementation, that is called procrastination, putting off until tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is almost the exact opposite of discipline.
The voice within us says, “Get it done.” Discipline then says, “Do it now, to the best of your ability.” Heed this voice always, and the habit will become instinctive.
What’s at the core of achieving the good life? It is not learning how to set goals. It is not learning how to better manage your time. It is not mastering the attributes of leadership.
Every day in a thousand different ways, we are trying to improve ourselves by learning how to do things. We spend a lifetime gathering knowledge–in classrooms, in textbooks, in experiences. And if knowledge is power, if knowledge is the forerunner to success, why do we fall short of our objectives? Why, in spite of all our knowledge and collected experiences, do we find ourselves aimlessly wandering? Settling for a life of existence rather than a life of substance?
There may be many answers to this question. Your answer may be different from that of everyone else you know. While there may be many answers to this question, the ultimate answer may be the absence of discipline in applying our knowledge. The key word is discipline, as in self-discipline.
If there is one magic word that stands out above all the rest, it is discipline. Discipline is the bridge between thought and accomplishment, between inspiration and achievement, between necessity and productivity. Remember, all good things are located upstream from us. The passing of time takes us adrift, and drifting only brings us the negative, the disappointment, and the failure.
Failure is not a cataclysmic event. It is not generally the result of one major incident, but rather of a long list of accumulated little failings. If your goal requires that you write ten letters today and you write only three, you are down seven letters. If you want to make five calls and only make one, you are down four calls. If your plan calls for saving ten dollars today and you save none, you are down ten dollars.
Unleash Your Best Work Every Day Todd Henry
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Embrace the importance of now and refuse to allow the lull of comfort, fear, familiarity, and ego to prevent you from taking action on your ambitions… The cost of inaction is vast. Don’t go to your grave with your best work inside of you. Choose To Die Empty. — Todd Henry
Introduction
We have only a certain amount of time available to us, and how we choose to spend our days is significant. There are things we would like to do and experiences we would like to have before we die, many of which are desires we’ve suppressed for months or even years. We feel the ticking of the clock, and the accompanying sense that we may be missing our opportunity to make a contribution to the world. However, we often ignore these impulses as a result of the relentless pragmatics of life and work.
