“My purpose is to use my enthusiasm and persistence to motivate and support others to share their ideas freely and respectfully while working together peacefully for the betterment of all.”
-According to Arnold M. Patent’s Life Purpose Exercise
An excerpt from
The Power of Discipline
by Brian TracyWhy are some people more successful than others? Why do some people make more money, live happier lives and accomplish much more in the same number of years than the great majority?
I started out in life with few advantages. I did not graduate from high school. I worked at menial jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.
And then I began asking, “Why are some people more successful than others?” This question changed my life.
Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement. It seems that the reasons for these accomplishments have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every conceivable way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline. As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, “Success is tons of discipline.”
Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four.
A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit.
With plenty of room at my table, I immediately arose and invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant, but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.
It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had derived from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.
After we had chatted for awhile, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, “Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?”
He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, “The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago. He said, ‘Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.’”
He went on to say, “There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work.”
Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you, and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.
In the pages ahead I will describe seven areas of your life where the practice of self-discipline will be key to your success. These areas include goals, character, time management, personal health, money, courage and responsibility. It is my hope that you’ll find a few “nuggets” that will help make your dreams come true.
It’s been a very motivating day for me. It’s the start (well now the end) of the first work day of the first work week in the first month of 2012 and today was well spent. I would like to apologize for my incoherent thoughts. I am currently getting sick and if you are in tune with your body you can always tell when something isn’t up. I can actually feel my sore throat creep in to my chest and lungs and convert itself in to congestion and soon the coughing will start…blah. Anyway…
I’ve been building and working towards the best version of myself possible and that encompasses a lot of things. I want to be in the best shape possible and remain that way. I want to be successful in my business as a servant to others and an agent of change. I want to have the freedom that I long for and move towards the vision of the life I know that I should be living. I will have the things that I want. I have made these choices and decisions to ensure that I will work towards that future and accomplish that vision and make it reality.
For me Mondays used to be a day I despised. Manic, they were called. I see so many people that I know dread that first day of the week and why? Because they hate their job, aren’t doing what they love, don’t have what they want but aren’t motivated enough to do anything to change their current position, etc. etc. I started really despising the fact that looking at the start of the week with such negativity pretty much mapped out how the rest of the week was going to be. It would be rare to see someone actually happy to start their week. It became ridiculous to me. I flipped the script.
Motivation for me has always come pretty easy. I could motivate myself to do anything that I wanted but making the choice to do something and then sustaining the energy that I built up to continue and actually finish was and still is my problem. I have gotten much, much better at it thanks to my family and true friends and by also doing a lot of personal development and reading.
But I tell you now, don’t ever rely on someone else to motivate you. If you know something needs to be done, do it. Whatever it may be. That should be motivation enough. It’s got to come from within you and because it does come from within you, you fuel it. You decide when it runs out and I hope for you that it never does run out. That it simply evolves to the next best thing and soon enough you’ll be a torch for others.
Night. Kick some ASS tomorrow!
» January 3, 2012 × REBLOG + 18 notes
I’ve finally got my scheduling worked out so that I can get back in to some serious working out. I’ve pretty much got myself doing double workouts on Tues. and Thurs. because my schedule doesn’t have room for me to work out Mon. and Wed. Friday and the weekends is a different story though because I know I have the time there. It’s just those pesky Mon. and Wed. workouts.
Anyway, I’ve been doing well with my classes so I am getting my workouts in. I just want more. There are big things coming up in the next few weeks, months, and with the new year around the corner I have to be ready. This means some serious organization is in order for all aspects of my life including this one, which I’m seriously getting addicted to. Thanks Tumblr!!!
I promise I’m not trying to make this a fitness blog. That’s what I do for a living but there’s more to me than just fitness. I don’t want my posts to be just about fitness so again with this whole organization period I’m going to be including other posts pertaining to the non-fitness. And I don’t want to just “like” and “reblog” posts constantly, I mean who does that…(LOL)
Crap…it’s almost 2. I was supposed to be asleep over an hour ago. Anyway…F**K DELAYS! Organization continues.
» October 19, 2011 × REBLOG + 243 notes
