Why Discipline is so Important

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”

Where would the football player be without the drills and practice?

Where would the bodybuilder be without the diet and visits to the gym?

Where would the rock star be without the daily training and repetition?

Where would the doctor be without the daily studying of the human body?

Where would the entrepreneur be without the daily idea implementation?

Discipline is one of the most fundamental parts of our lives.

It is also one of the most neglected.

It takes a lot of hard work and daily action to obtain the things that we wish to have in life, yet few of us appear willing to put in the work required. Day after day we settle with the thought that we’ll get to it tomorrow and day after day we fail to ever get to “that thing I need to do” or “that thing I’ve always wanted to do.”

Working toward our goals requires more than just the drive to complete something – it also requires the understanding and willingness to work on something day after day to maintain that something.

Imagine it like exercising: when people begin exercising they usually have a goal in mind –be it bodyweight, weight that they’d like to life, or a figure they’d like to obtain. Obtaining this goal requires hard work and daily action. But what happens after you achieve that goal? If you stop working out and stop eating right, then you will eventually end up right back where you started. That’s why people who maintain their shape and desired weight understand that it isn’t the end goal, but the discipline of working out that allows them to stay in the shape they wish to stay.

Rather than imagining an end game, imagine a skill or habit that you wish to culture over your life. The consistently in-shape individual understands that he or she reaches milestones with a lifelong habit, but knows he or she is never really done working out.

Just as the writer knows that he or she creates books, blogs, or screenplays, yet will write every day in order to reach more milestones.

Those who develop the disciplines required to live the life they have always wanted stop seeing them as something they have to do every day and start seeing them as something they want to do every day.

Remember that we are human and that everyone who has ever achieved anything of any merit or worth did so by putting in their tens of thousands of hours to accomplish what he or she set out to achieve.

It doesn’t just take talent – it takes persistence and discipline.

Check out these steps that will help you get yourself disciplined.

Stop settling for less and start working on that “thing” you’ve always been meaning to do!