How Discipline Gets You Anything You Want

Let’s start this article in a graphic and intense fashion.

I am going to prove how discipline gets you anything you want.

Let’s say you “wanted” to do something new.

It can be anything: starting a website, taking dance lessons, eating better, etc.

For this example, let’s use starting a website.

Here’s the thing, you don’t know ANYTHING about starting a website.

You first thought is: “Where do I start?“

You go into Google and search for information that will help.

You read a few articles and watch a couple videos on YouTube.

It appears easier than you thought, and you decide to start building your website right then and there.

Your phone rings…

It’s your best friend calling to tell you they’re on the way to pick you up to hangout.

You have with two options:

1) Deny your friends offer and stay home building the website.

2) Accept your friends offer and tell yourself “I’ll just do this later”.

Can you start the website later?

Sure.

Will you?

Probably not.

A couple weeks later you decide to sit down and start the website, again.

In the background, you hear the TV playing your favorite show and it distracts you.

You walk away from the computer and end up watching two to three hours of TV.

This cycle repeats every time you sit down to start your website.

Something always distracts you.

Now let’s get to that graphic part I was talking about…

You have 24 hours to build a website in order to save your family who’s being held hostage.

Would you do it?

Would a phone call from friends to hangout or an episode of your favorite show stop you?

I’m sure you would have the website complete in way less than 24 hours.

Why? 

Because building a website is now a MUST.

You can’t afford to do it later.

Unfortunately, the family held hostage situation won’t be there to motivate you.

…and that’s good news regarding your family’s safety.

I hope that never happens to any one, but the example works to get my point across.

Without a NEED or STRONG MOTIVATION to start and complete something, there’s always a chance that you won’t feel like doing it or that something will distract you.

Sure, you might get a surge of motivation every now and then, but motivation is temporary.

You need discipline.

Discipline is making it a MUST to do something even if you feel like doing something else.

Discipline would be setting apart a specific amount of time every day to work on your website.

You’ll tell yourself something like:

“I will work a minimum of one hour on my website daily. I will put my phone on silent and eliminate any distractions.”

You would deny invitation from friends to hang out at 8 p.m. if you haven’t worked an hour on your website that specific day.

Disciple will get you anything you want.

Discipline will force you to keep working at something even when you’re not seeing results.

Discipline is the only way to constantly learn, grow and become successful at anything.

If you can log into my blog, you can learn how to do anything.

All skills in life are LEARNABLE.

In order to learn, you need to discipline yourself to study.

It’s really that simple.

In the book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell, explains that in order to achieve mastery in any field, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

How did he discover this?

He studied many successful people to see what commonalities they shared.

One study was based on violin students.

He focused on their habits as children, teens, and adults.

They were all asked the following question:

“Over the course of your entire career, ever since you first picked up the violin, how many hours have you practiced?

Just about every violinists responded that they began around age five.

Around age eight, the amount of time spent practicing began to differ among the violinist.

It was evident that they greatest violin performers averaged over 10,000 hours of practice by age 20.

The mediocre violinists averaged about 4,000 hours of practice by age 20.

What does this prove?

That natural talent is a myth and that practice is what’s important to succeed in anything.

You need to discipline yourself to practice.

How would your website look if you work on it an hour every day for a year?

Do you think you could you get a lot of work done in 365 hours?

Imagine if you worked two hours a day for year.

Make discipline a habit and you’ll succeed. 

I disciplined myself to work on this blog every day. 

I am AMAZED at how much I’ve done is such little time.

Would I be able to write, proofread, edit, and publish all my blog articles without discipline? 

NO.

It requires time, sacrifice, patience, and hard work.

Those qualities don’t come naturally, they are a result of discipline.

You now know how discipline gets you anything you want.

Push yourself, no one is going to do it for you.

– Alex