Instead of complaining about your circumstances, get busy creating new ones. You either suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
I used to call Joe a genius – everyone did. At school we all thought of him as an incredibly “gifted” guitarist and he’s since gone on to travel the world making a very good living at what he loves to do.
Joe and I became good friends toward the end of high school, and that’s when I learned the truth. I stayed over at his house one night and was awakened at 6am on a Sunday morning by the harmonious strum of his acoustic guitar. “What are you doing up?” I yawned. “It’s six in the morning.”
“I always start the day with two hours of practice and do two more hours in the afternoon or evening. If I didn’t I’d be hopeless,” Joe said.
At that moment it hit me: Joe was gifted, but this was a gift that had started out very small, perhaps even invisible to most people, but then he had added, built upon, and massively extended it. Joe had developed his gift through self-discipline.
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate self-discipline as an invisible magic. You can’t see, taste, or smell it, but its effects are unmistakable. It can transform overweight into slim, uninformed into expert, poor into rich, and misery into happiness. It’s the submerged part of the iceberg others don’t see when they see a person’s “genius.”
For example, celebrities have never been more visible in our culture. Famous athletes, talented actors and actresses, and incredible musicians are all over the media. But what we don’t see are the thousands of hours of super-focused work these people have put in behind the scenes to get to where they are.
It’s easy to feel that success comes easily – that it’s just a matter of luck, or an innate gift. But anyone who has achieved anything has done so because they’ve been able to control and direct their own inner strengths and actions to the extent that has enabled them to become super-skilled at what they do. And this kind of self-discipline, like a muscle, can be developed by all of us, including you.
This is one of many principles Angel and I cover in our brand new course, Getting Back to Happy. Getting Back to Happy is the go-to course for anyone serious about taking action to reclaim their happiness and realize their true potential from this moment forward.
From proven ways to foster stronger relationships, to actions engineered to help you let go of toxic behaviors, to scientifically proven methods of making progress on your personal and professional goals, the learning modules in this course will inspire and equip you to become your strongest, most effective self. (Find out more about the course HERE.)
But since you have to wait until November 4th to enroll in Getting Back to Happy, I want to share a sneak peek with you today guaranteed to help you build your self-discipline, so you can get more of the right things done and achieve more success in life. Set aside a few minutes and check it out. I promise, it will be worth your while.
The Two Secret Self-Discipline Tricks
If you liked this video, learn more about Getting Back to Happy here.
Your turn…
And of course, if you have any questions about Getting Back to Happy, or thoughts about this post/video, leave us a comment below and Angel and I will reply as soon as we can. Also, feel free to share your thoughts with other M&A community members too.
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