No Excuses! - The Power of Self-Discipline Part 8

The best news is that when you begin reading personal or professional development literature, listening to audio programs in your car, taking additional courses, and upgrading your skills in the evenings and on the weekends rather than watching television, you soon get into the habit of continuous learning. In no time at all, it will become automatic and easy for you to learn, grow, and upgrade your skills every day and every week.

The average adult watches about five hours of television each day. For some people, it is seven or eight hours. They turn on the television first thing in the morning and watch it until they leave for work. They turn it back on as soon as they get home from work. They then watch television until 11 or 12 o'clock at night, going to bed without enough time to get a good night's sleep. They then get up in the morning, drink coffee, and watch television for as long as they can before they go off to work once more.

You Can Be Rich or Poor: It's Your Decision.

Your television set can make you rich or poor. If you watch it all the time, it will make you poor. Psychologists have shown that the more television you watch, the lower are your levels of energy and self-esteem. At an unconscious level, you don't like or respect yourself as much if you sit there hour after hour watching television. People who watch too much television also gain weight and become physically unfit from sitting around too much.

Your television can also make you rich-but only if you turn it off. When you turn off your television, you free up time that you can then use to invest in becoming a better, smarter, and more competent person. When you leave your television off when you are with your family, you will find yourself talking, sharing, communicating, and laughing more often. When you leave your television off for extended periods of time, you break the habit of watching television-and you will hardly miss it at all. Your television can be an excellent servant, but it's a terrible master. The choice is yours.

Increase Your Income 1,000 Percent.

There is a simple seven-step formula you can use in order to increase your productivity, performance, output, and income by 1,000 percent over the next ten years. It works for everyone who tries it. It is simple: First, answer this question: Is it possible for you to increase your overall productivity, performance, and output by 1/10 of 1 percent (1/1000th) in an entire working day? Your answer will probably be "yes." If you were to manage your time a little better, and work on more valuable tasks, you would quite easily increase your output by 1/1000th in a day.

Having done this for the first day, could you increase your output by 1/10 of 1 percent the second day? And the answer, of course, is "yes."

Having increased your performance by 1/10 of 1 percent on Monday and Tuesday, could you continue to do it for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday? And again, the answer is "yes."

One Half of 1 Percent Per Week.

One tenth of 1 percent times five days per week equals one half of 1 percent per week. Is it possible for a normal, intelligent, hard-working individual to increase his or her output by one half of 1 percent (1/200th) in a single week? Of course it is!

Having done this for the first week, could you keep up the same pace of personal improvement the second week? Of course you could!

Could you get one one-thousandth of 1 percent better five days a week for an entire month? If you could, this means that you would be one half of 1 percent better per week multiplied times four, or 2 percent more productive in an entire month.

There are thirteen four-week months in a year (4 13 = 52). Having become 2 percent better in a month, could you repeat that in the second month? In the third month? The fourth month? And so on?

26 Percent Better Each Year.

Of course you could! By working on yourself a little bit each day-learning new skills, getting better at your key tasks, setting priorities, and focusing on higher-value activities-you can become 26 percent more productive over the course of an entire year.

Having achieved this goal for the first year, could you do it for the second year, and then the third? Could you keep it up for ten years? And the answer, of course, is yes. And the best news is that when you continue to work on yourself, it becomes easier and easier for you to get better and better as the weeks and months go by.

By the Law of Acc.u.mulation, or the Law of Incremental Improvement, by the end of twelve months, you would be 26 percent better. If you continued to improve at 26 percent per year, by the end of ten years, with compounding, you would be 1,004 percent more productive. Your income would increase at the same rate. This formula works-if you do.

Seven Steps to the Top.

Here are the seven steps in the 1,000 percent formula: Step 1: Arise Two Hours Before Your First Appointment, or before you have to be at work. Invest the first hour in yourself by reading something educational, motivational, or spiritual. As Henry Ward Beecher once said, "The first hour is the rudder of the day."

When you get up and invest the first hour in yourself, you set yourself up mentally to have an excellent day. You will be more positive, alert, creative, and productive all day long when you start your day by investing the first hour in yourself.

If you read in your field one hour per day, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week will translate into about fifty books per year. Since the average adult reads less than one nonfiction book per year, if you were to read fifty books in your field each year, do you think that would give you an edge in your profession? Do you think that it would move you ahead of virtually everyone else in your business? Of course it would!

If you read fifty books per year for ten years, this would be 500 books that would help you improve your productivity, performance, and income. At the very least, you would need a bigger house just to hold your books. And you would be able to afford it!

Reading one hour per day in your field will make you a national authority in three to five years. This alone can give you your 1,000 percent increase over the course of your career.

Step 2: Rewrite Your Goals, Every Day. Get a spiral notebook and rewrite your major goals in the present tense every morning before you start out, without looking back at what you wrote the previous day. This writing and rewriting is the process of programming instructions into the guidance mechanism of your mind.

When you rewrite your ten goals each morning, you will continually see and think of opportunities to achieve those goals all day long. You will become more focused, channeled, and directed. You will be more purposeful and determined. And you will achieve your goals much faster than if they were merely wishes floating around in the back of your mind.

Writing and rewriting your goals each day can give you your 1,000 percent increase in income over ten years.

Step 3: Plan Every Day in Advance. Make a list, and set priorities on your work before you start off. Your ability to set priorities and to choose the most important thing that you can be doing at every moment is the key to organizing your life and doubling your productivity. (We will talk in detail about time management techniques in Chapter 12.) Working on your top priorities can increase your income by 1,000 percent over ten years, and it is probably impossible to achieve without it.

Step 4: Discipline Yourself to Concentrate Single-Mindedly on One Thing. Choose the most important thing that you can do each day. Then, start on it first thing and then work on it until it is 100 percent complete. Your ability to focus and concentrate, when you develop and hone it into a habit, all by itself, will enable you to double your productivity, performance, and output in the next month-and it will give you your 1,000 percent increase over ten years.

Step 5: Listen to Educational Audio Programs in Your Car. The average businessperson who drives spends 500- 1000 hours per year behind the wheel of a car. When you turn your car into a "university on wheels" or a "mobile cla.s.sroom," you get the educational equivalent of one to two full-time university semesters as you drive around.

Many people have gone from rags to riches by simply listening to educational audio programs in their cars as they drive from place to place. You could do the same. This alone could give you your 1000 percent increase.

Step 6: Ask Two Magic Questions After Every Call or Event. First, ask yourself, "What did I do right?" Then, ask yourself, "What would I do differently?"

The first question, "What did I do right?" forces you to think through and recall all the correct things that you did in that last meeting, presentation, or event, even if it was not successful. Write them down.

The second question, "What would I do differently?" forces you to think through all the different ways you could improve your performance in a similar situation. Write these ideas down as well.

In both cases, by reviewing your performance, by thinking about what you did right and what you would do differently, you program yourself to perform even better the next time. This is one of the fastest and most powerful exercises in personal growth and development I have ever discovered. This process dramatically speeds up the rate at which you move into the top 20 percent.

Step 7: Treat Every Person You Meet Like a Million-Dollar Customer. Treat each person you meet and work with, both at home and in the office, as though he or she is the most important person in the world. When you treat people as if they are valuable and important, they will return the favor by treating you as if you are valuable and important as well. They will want to be a.s.sociated with you, work for you, buy from you, and introduce you to their friends.

You begin treating people like million-dollar customers by starting at home, with the members of your family. Remember, they are the most important people in your life. So when you start your day well, first thing in the morning, by making the members of your family feel important and telling them that you love them, you will be more positive, relaxed, and happier for the rest of the day.

Fully 85 percent of your success will be determined by how much people like and respect you, especially in business and sales. Never miss an opportunity to treat people well.

When you practice these seven steps each day for a month, you will see changes and improvements in your life, work, and income that will astonish you. After a month of regular practice, you will have formed a new habit of continuous personal improvement that can carry you onward and upward for the rest of your life.

Be the Best!

Lifelong personal development and the commitment to personal excellence require tremendous dedication, discipline, and willpower. The greatest payoff is that every time you learn and apply something new, your brain releases endorphins, which make you feel happier and more excited about your future.

Every time you learn and apply something new, you will have a greater sense of personal power. Your self-esteem, self-respect, and personal pride will increase. You will feel very much in control of your earning ability, which is one of the most important parts of your life.

In the next chapter, we'll talk about the importance of courage, of overcoming the fears and doubts that hold most people back. It is often the case that we know what we need to do, but we lack the courage to take the risks that accompany trying anything new. Instead, we make excuses for inaction.

Action Exercises:.

1. Make a decision today to invest in yourself and getting better, as if your future depends on it-because it does.

2. Identify the most important skills you have that determine the quality and quant.i.ty of results you get at your work, and make a plan to get better in each one.

3. If you could wave a magic wand and become absolutely excellent in any one skill, which one skill would have the greatest impact on your earning ability? Whatever your answer, set that skill as a goal, make a plan, and work on it every day.

4. Set excellent performance in your work as a goal, and then determine exactly what you will need to do every day to join the top 20 percent or better in your field.

5. Look ahead three to five years and determine the new knowledge and skills you will need in order to lead your field in the future. Then start acquiring them today.

6. Select the top person in your field, the one you admire most, and use him or her as a role model for your own development.

7. Commit yourself today to lifelong learning, and never let a day go by without getting better in some area.

Chapter 6.

Self-Discipline and Courage.

"Courage is not absence of fear; it is control of fear, mastery of fear."

-MARK TWAIN.

You need large amounts of self-discipline to deal courageously with all the fear-inducing events of your life. This is probably why Churchill said, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend."

The fact is that everyone is afraid-and usually of many things. This is normal and natural. Often, fear is necessary to preserve life, prevent injury, and guard against financial mistakes.

So if everyone is afraid, what is the difference between the brave person and the coward? The only difference is that the brave person disciplines himself to confront, deal with, and act in spite of the fear. In contrast, the coward allows himself to be dominated and controlled by the fear. Someone once said that-with regard to warfare, although it applies to any situation-"The difference between the hero and the coward is that the hero sticks in there five minutes longer."

Fears Can Be Unlearned.

Fortunately, all fears are learned; no one is born with fears. Fears can therefore be unlearned by practicing self-discipline repeatedly with regard to fear until it goes away.

The most common fears that we experience, which often sabotage all hope for success, are the fears of failure, poverty, and loss of money. These fears cause people to avoid risk of any kind and to reject opportunity when it is presented to them. They are so afraid of failure that they are almost paralyzed when it comes to taking any chances at all.

There are many other fears that interfere with our happiness. People fear the loss of love or the loss of their jobs and their financial security. People fear embarra.s.sment or ridicule. People fear rejection and criticism of any kind. People fear the loss of respect or esteem of others. These and many other fears hold us back throughout life.

Fear Paralyzes Action.

The most common reaction in a fear situation is the att.i.tude of, "I can't!" This is the fear of failure and loss that stops us from taking action. It is experienced physically, starting in the solar plexus. When people are really afraid, their mouth and throat go dry, their heart starts pounding. Sometimes they breathe shallowly and their stomach churns. Often they feel like getting up and running to the bathroom.

These are all physical manifestations of the inhibitive negative habit pattern, which we all experience from time to time. Whenever a person is in the grip of fear, he feels like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. This fear paralyzes action. It often shuts down the brain and causes the individual to revert to the "fight-or-flight" reaction. Fear is a terrible emotion that undermines our happiness and can hold us back throughout our lives.

Do the Opposite.

Aristotle described courage as the "Golden Mean" between the extremes of cowardice and impetuousness. He taught that "to develop a quality that you lack, act as if you already had that quality in every situation where it is called for." In modern terms, however, we say, "Fake it until you make it."

You can actually change your behavior by affirming, visualizing, and acting as if you already have the quality you desire. By affirming, by repeating the words, "I can do it!" emphatically whenever you feel afraid for any reason, you can cancel the feeling of "I can't."

Every time you repeat the words "I can do it!" with conviction, you override your fear and increase your confidence. By repeating this affirmation over and over again, you can eventually build your courage and confidence to the point where you are unafraid.