We always like to think that we have a better life, enjoy a higher salary, and have a very healthy body, but we usually only stop at thinking about it.
Expectations require action to reach. As it says in No Excuses, success doesn’t require the power of a lucky star, a rich family legacy or being born with a golden spoon in your mouth – just learn and stick to self-discipline.
The author of this book, Boone Tracy, is America’s premier authority on personal growth, having provided consulting services to more than 1,000 companies, as well as a best-selling author whose books and training materials have been translated into 36 languages and distributed in 54 countries.
Boone Tracy is the beneficiary of self-discipline. Because of self-discipline, he has become an excellent sales and management personnel from an ordinary young man, and has run his training, consulting, speaking, writing and recording business with great success.
If you have dreams and goals and want to become better than ever, then this book couldn’t be better for you.
Self-discipline is the iron rule of success.
Stop making excuses, success is all about you.
Taking responsibility for yourself is a prerequisite for self-discipline
Have you ever met someone who attributes everything externally?
Not doing well in school? Blame it on the teacher, blame it on the school climate. Didn’t get a promotion or a raise? Blame the company, blame the boss. Not enough family harmony? Blame your partner, blame the children ……
Frankly speaking, Zixin has seen a lot of such people.
But why is it that when someone has a bad day, they blame everyone else for their problems?
The authors say it’s because people often do things the way of least resistance. Under the influence of this thinking, the simplest and stupidest behavior is to blame others for everything that goes wrong, no matter for what reason or when.
But such people often find that their lives are often out of control.
Because there is a direct link between taking responsibility and the control we have over our lives, the less we take on, the less control we have over our lives.
If we want to have a smoother road in life, we need to learn self-control first, control our own emotions, behavior, and be 100% responsible for everything we do.
Don’t make excuses, don’t complain, don’t blame anyone or anything, say “I’m in charge” and take action.
Only in this way can you grow from a “child” to an “adult”.
This reminds me of Kazuo Inamori, a famous Japanese entrepreneur.
When Kazuo Inamori first entered society, he joined a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. When he learned of the company’s dire situation, he wanted to jump ship quickly.
However, he was never able to do so because of various reasons such as his family’s disapproval.
He also complained about his family and the company, but soon he changed his mindset and decided to take responsibility for his own life.
He stayed with the company, worked hard, and finally turned the company into a profitable one.
You see, when you have the courage to take responsibility, you will find that life will change a little bit.
When you can take full responsibility for your life, you can control your thoughts and emotions very well.
The more responsibility you take, the more control you have over your life.
Time management to make self-discipline less difficult
A few years ago, Wanda’s boss Wang Jianlin’s schedule of flying to three cities in two countries in one day sparked a hot debate.
We all realized that “the most terrible thing in this world is that people who are richer than you work harder than you” is true!
In fact, rich people don’t just work harder, they are also better at time management.
The authors believe that the level of time management directly affects the quality of a person’s life.
The more you know how to manage time, the more self-disciplined you will be.
But time management is a big subject, where do we start?
The authors suggest that we apply the ABCDE rule to time management.
The ABCDE rule is to do things divided into five levels of ABCDE.
A stands for “must do”, failure to complete will have serious consequences; B stands for “should do”, failure to complete will have some impact; C stands for “can be done or not”; D is C stands for “can be done or not”; D is “can not be done”; E is “do not need to do”, this thing does not help to achieve the goal.
After clarifying these five levels, we can list all the things we want to do throughout the day, and label these things with the corresponding code.
After the classification, according to the principle that class B work can never be ranked in front of class A work to do, start doing things.
But be careful, once you start doing important work, you must devote yourself to it and give 100% of your time and energy to do it well.
Zimmerman thinks of the Japanese drama “I’m Going to Get Off Work on Time,” where the heroine, Yuki Higashiyama, wants to get off work on time, even if it goes against the Japanese culture of overtime.
To do this, she makes a daily worksheet in advance and prioritizes her work according to its level of importance. Then when she goes to work, she focuses on her work.
Once off work, she enjoys her own little life, going out for Chinese food, beer and hot springs.
With good time management, it doesn’t just make your time manageable, it also makes your life more relaxed.
A clear goal is the cornerstone of self-discipline
In reality, we often fall into the predicament of “imagination is rich, but the reality is very bone-skinny”.
We also expect ourselves to become self-disciplined, but often stop at the same place, delayed action.
The author feels that this is due to the fact that we do not set clear goals for ourselves.
Like an invisible rake that cannot be hit, without a goal, we don’t even know which way to go, so how can we possibly arrive at a wonderful faraway place?
Therefore, we need to take the time to think about what we really want, set clear goals, and follow them every day. This will ensure our success more than any single effort.
But while the word “goal” is easy to say, it’s not so easy to find a goal that really fits you.
In his book, the author mentions a “brainstorming method”, which he says is so useful in achieving goals that many people have become rich because of it.
This method is also very simple.
Take out a blank sheet of paper, write out your main goal in the form of a question at the top, and then list at least 20 answers that you can think of.
For example, if your goal is to make money. Then you could write “What can I do to make a million dollars in 5 years?” Then list 20 answers.
As you write the answers, you’ll find that the first three or five answers are easy to write. The next ones will become harder and harder.
However, you will also have to persevere until you have written all 20 answers.
When you’re done, you should probably look at them, pick one out, and act on it right away.
Whether or not you can have a clear goal makes all the difference in your life trajectory.
A friend of Zixin’s has published a book at a young age.
When people learned about this, they were surprised because her circle was far from publishing books.
But she said that she just had this goal, and then she set up several programs to implement this goal, and she implemented the first program, and then she succeeded.
As you can see, difficulties are most enormous when we have no goal and no action.
When we have a goal and take action, difficulties will not come like a mountain.
The word “self-discipline” is hidden in a healthy body.
The first is to learn to coax yourself into exercising more easily.
Before you exercise, we can think about what your ideal body shape looks like, then find pictures of them and change the avatar to yours.
You can also put your workout clothes next to your bed every night before you go to sleep so that you can put them on and workout first thing in the morning. Without waiting to wake up, you’ll already be running around the neighborhood in your workout clothes and sneakers.
The second great tip is to reward yourself after the action.
When you exercise well, you have to treat yourself, but pay attention to the way you reward yourself, not with a food binge, but you can reward yourself with something other than food.
For example, buy yourself a dress and wear it when you are thin; or go out on vacation with your family and have a good time.
The importance of self-discipline for health cannot be overstated, Zimmerman would like to say.
Just like the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami who gained significant weight and gradually lost his physical strength due to his long hours of writing at the desk.
For the sake of his health, he began to try running.
At first, it was very difficult for him to run, and with each step, he felt that his breathing was getting heavier and heavier.
However, through self-motivation, he told himself over and over again, “I’m running because I don’t want to run today, so I’m running”, and he persevered.
Since the fall of 1982, Haruki Murakami has been running 60 kilometers a week. No matter how full the schedule, how bad the weather, he almost never stop.
His body became healthier as a result, and he even quit smoking.
Murakami Haruki said that when self-discipline becomes an instinctive habit, you will enjoy it.
Go ahead and take action, and soon you will realize the gift of self-discipline in your life.
Churchill said, In the first 25 years of my life I longed for freedom; in the next 25 years I longed for self-discipline; and in the last 25 years I realized that self-discipline is freedom.
Deeply thought.
If you want to become a better version of yourself, you have to have self-discipline to back it up.
Being clear about your goals, disciplined enough, and never giving up is how you make a difference.
Don’t make excuses, don’t complain, don’t envy others, start first.
Self-discipline is just a matter of starting and then sticking to it