#087: 5 Ways Discipline Will Make You Rich [Podcast]

What if there was a way to cut through the fluff, the chaos, confusion, and just flat out fix your business? Well, there is.

Today,  I'll explain how you can stop worrying, start living, and learned to love discipline. By the time were done, you will have discovered:

• Why you do stuff you don't want to do, and don't do stuff you do want to do.
• How to stop that.
•  How to use your laptop's power cable to increase your productivity.
• The key to releasing power into the lives of others.
• And of course, five specific ways discipline will make you rich.

Announcements:

• Answer the reader's poll, and be blessed in return.
• I am updating my copywriting course… stay tuned for more details coming soon.
• The coming comment contest, and why you should start commenting now.

Conferences where I will be attending and/or speaking:

• NMX, Jan 4-6, 2014, Las Vegas, NV
• Strategic Influence Jan 14-16, 2014, Phoenix, AZ
• NAMS 11 February 7-9, 2014, Atlanta, GA
• Social Media Marketing World, March 26-28, 2014, San Diego, CA
• “Permission to Prosper” April 8-10, 2014, Spokane, WA

Tip Of The Week

How can your laptop's power cord increase your productivity? In the podcast audio, I reveal this arcane secret…

Spiritual Foundations

If what you are saying does not impart grace to the people listening,  it's better to be silent.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give cgrace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29

We can do terrible damage with what we say, or we can bring life. Speak only life, and watch what happens.

Feature Segment: 5 Ways Discipline Will Make You Rich

Wikipedia says “Discipline is a course of actions leading to a greater goal than the satisfaction of the immediate. A disciplined person is one that has established a goal and is willing to achieve that goal at the expense of his or her immediate comfort.”

Add this book to your list of must-reads: The Ultimate Sales Machine, by Chet Holmes.

If you haven’t read it, move it to the top of your list.

If you have read it and haven’t yet implemented every single strategy inside its covers, read it now. Again.

Probably my favorite passage from Chet’s masterful business work is one that most people read without understanding its import. In the early pages of the book, Chet points out that most people will read his book, agree with its precepts, and still not do them. He says this is the “reverse psychology” section of the book, in which he attempts to prod the reader into doing what needs to be done. In Chet’s words, “I’m goading you into applying a powerful force for creating success from what you’re going to learn… and that force, my friends, is pigheaded discipline and determination.”

Pigheaded discipline is the subject of this post for very good, and simple, reason. That reason being the fact that this is the most-lacked skill in over 90% of entrepreneurs. In my experience, what stands in our way, what holds us back from our potential, is usually not some external force (such as competition or marketplace conditions)-it is, rather, our own inability to say no to the things that distract us from our most profitable activities, and our continued inability to say yes only to those activities that produce the results we seek.

It is as if the world conspires against us to lead us down this path to destruction. Most of our peers, and certainly most of our employees, are happy to tell us what we should be spending our time on-and almost without fail their advice is dead wrong. It usually doesn’t come packaged as advice, by the way – it usually comes packaged as a meeting… a phone call… a personal plea… or some kind of interpersonal conflict. None of which are, perhaps, designed to take us off target- but all of which inevitably do.

Guard your heart carefully, eternal entrepreneur, and focus only on the things that expand the kingdom. Employ pigheaded discipline.

There are at least five ways cultivating more discipline will make you rich:

1. Discipline measures activity instead of intent.
2. Discipline measures results instead of reasons.
3. Discipline cultivates stewardship.
4. Discipline produces accurate thinking.
5. Discipline practices the Pareto principle.

What To Do Now

Here's how you put these five points to work right now, starting today.

1. Reverse engineer the daily activities needed to achieve your objectives, schedule them, and then do them.
2. Meticulously track the results you achieve, and continuously adjust your approach until you reach your objective.
3. Carefully examine your finances, your relationships, your health, your spiritual foundations. If there are any areas where you are not being a good steward, you already know what to do. Do it. Today.
4. Evaluate every area of discontent in your life, determine the cause, and decide what is required to fix it. See things as they are, then see them as you want them to be, then make them how you see them.
5. Ruthlessly eliminate activities and relationships that do not move you forward toward your objectives. Begin today, by making a list of at least 10 things to eliminate from your life.

If you enjoy the podcast, I would consider it a great favor if you subscribe (and leave a review) in iTunes. This helps new people discover the podcast. You can also find the podcast on Stitcher.

Question:  What have you learned from conferences that has changed your life for the better? Click here to leave your comments.