“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Do you need to know all the results of your actions in order to make the actions worthwhile?
What if you can never know how many lives your actions touched or who’s life is changed forever? Does that make the action less worthy in some way?
Of course not. Do the work, take the action, make a difference. Results matter, taking action matters more.
“Discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t want to do in order to get a result you really want to get.”
Andy Andrews
What is it that you want to accomplish? What is a result that you deeply desire? Exactly how much do you want it? Are you willing to do the work to achieve it? More importantly, are you willing to do the work after the excitement fades? When the effort is no longer fun and has become pure drudgery and sticking to it is really hard to do? That’s when real discipline comes in to play. Talk is cheap, action is cheap too, at least for the first few days. Then the real work starts.
Anyone can motivate themselves to take the first step in a journey. Even the first hundred steps might not be that hard. But what about the steps after that? What if you don’t know exactly how long the journey is going to take?
Discipline means sticking to your plan, doing the work, focusing on getting the next step in the journey right, not worrying about whether there are 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 more steps remaining. Doing the right work, the right way, right now, is all that matters. If you can do this, for the things that are truly important, you have discipline. If you can’t, then you can develop this powerful trait, by just doing it, day in, day out, one day at a time.
What is important enough to you to put forth this kind of effort, with no guarantee of success? Answer this question and you will uncover what it takes to unlock the power of discipline.
“Strong relationships are the foundation of great results.”
Dan Rockwell
The most successful relationships are based on mutual trust and respect. When you have this the outcomes can be simply incredible. But it takes intentional work to build good relationships. At times it might feel like that this work is counter to driving results, that the effort and energy is being misused instead of being put directly towards achieving your desired outcomes. But this is short sighted and conveys a lack of humility and a servant leader ethos.
Putting forth the energy to build strong relationships, and to truly know and understand those that you work and live with, is the key to driving great results in the future. When relationships are strong there is a high degree of trust and with trust comes the ability to create alignment and focus on what is really important. Without trust, there is no relationship.
Who are the most important people you should be investing in right now to build stronger relationships? How much time do you spend seeking to understand the goals of others so you can help them achieve their great results? What results are you seeking to achieve together? What is the one thing you can do today that is focused on strengthening a key relationship in your life?
