Back in 1988, Burt shook my hand. I remember it well. His hands were big enough to have been the Incredible Hulk’s and at that point in my life he was the wealthiest person I’d met – about $40 million.
During that meeting Burt drove home a message I’ve never forgotten…
I wanted to share it here to support you in your growth.
This message is important to you if you have reached a plateau in your business (or in life) or if you find you just don’t have enough time to do all that needs to get done. The article will give you some assurance about a vital area you may need to look at if you want to continue to grow.
Sage Advice From A Champ
What Burt spoke about was how small disciplines acted upon every day lead to great achievements in time. You probably know that, but as author and speaker and World Champion Athlete Dan Millman, likes to say, “Knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing.”
In many ways discipline feels like a negative. It can feel exhausting to have to use discipline. This is usually because in order to use self-discipline you have to apply some sort of personal force and control, or train your behaviour to get a desired result.
As someone who used to be over 287lbs I know the kind of discipline it takes to gain weight and become ill, sluggish and unmotivated. And as someone who is now close to 170lbs, I also know a lot about the disciplines of exercise and right food that bring health, vitality and motivation.
As an entrepreneur I’ve also learnt a lot about the disciplines of building a business too. And last month, I spent my spare hours really defining what self-discipline means for me as a character.
Probably the biggest single lesson I’ve learnt about discipline is that having it allows me to act from a place of principle rather than desire. It allows the highest part of me to control where I am going and I am less likely to act on a whim.
A Huge Pay-Off In business
Self-discipline in business creates order and if you have hit a plateau it may well be something to do with the way you do things.
If you work in an undisciplined way and give yourself an “out” of things, you unconsciously give yourself two possible paths that you then become torn between. This creates distraction, overwhelm and unnecessary complications. It’s like exercise, if you do it first thing in the day, it’s done. But if you postpone it until later, it lurks at the back of your mind, clogging up valuable psychic ram.
When you work from a place of discipline you just know you are going to do it, regardless of how you feel or what distractions look exciting.
The essence of self-discipline in business is to do the tasks that achieve your goal. You do the important thing, not the urgent thing. Often important things are actually just something we tell ourselves to do that keeps us where we are and keeps us away from the tasks where the real growth is hidden. Lack of time therefore can translate to lack of discipline.
Everything Has It’s Place And Time
So just how do you find discipline without it being negative and exhausting?
I believe the key to discipline is habit. Habits create a rhythm that gets stuff done.
I find it comforting to know that everything has it’s time and place. Here are some of my habits, in the hope you can adapt them to suit yourself:
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- Earlier this year as we were growing our business to the maximum number of clients, I made the first 90 minutes each day about the actions that would achieve that goal. Nothing encroached on that time.
- You know your team and your bills need paying every month. So, I put the time in my diary and do it. Remove the psychic ram of not doing those accounts. Find a way to gain pleasure in doing the task. For me the satisfaction comes through having completed the task and having paid – with gratitude – every person who contributed energy and effort.
- Filing needs doing so people can find things – even with computers and especially if you have team. So put a small time slot aside to file each week or month.
- You get a tonne of emails every day too. Some need replying, some just need reading, so put a chunk of time aside (say 30 minutes a week) and do all the reading in one go. That means you can just focus on the important emails.
- This month there are four launches happening through 7-Figure Back Office and without business disciplines in place we’d be all over the place. Having launched more times than we can remember now we have well defined processes and systems that help us to ensure nothing gets forgotten. We just need to work the process. What do you do over and over again in your business that just needs a process?
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Would you value a conversation with us about your business and how to grow it? We love helping people define strategy and then helping them implement with our team. We also love defining systems and processes too. To speak to us send an email to jo[@]7figurebackoffice.com or complete the form below
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