Motivation Minute #9: You're Not Disciplined Enough

Today's motivation minute comes from the founder of eLearning Alchemy and creator of my favourite comics strip L&D Scene, Clint Clarkson.

If you’re struggling to find success in your life and career, there’s a pretty good chance that you lack discipline. Discipline is a word that isn’t used nearly enough. We talk of accountability, responsibility, and action orientation, but rarely do we talk about discipline.

To be clear, I’m not talking about discipline as a verb (i.e. to be disciplined) but the noun (i.e. to have discipline). Discipline is doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, as consistently as it needs to be done, even when you don’t want to do it. It’s discipline that creates our habits.

There are innumerable examples of “challenges” people face that can be easily overcome with discipline. Take young professionals who want to grow their career and move into leadership roles. It will take most of them far longer than needed to achieve this goal due to a lack of discipline. It takes discipline to:

• show up on time,
• always dress well,
• put in an honest effort every day,
• treat everyone with respect,
• foster good working relationships, and
• keep a positive attitude.

All these things are easy – and free – to do. Yet, if you look around, you’ll notice a lot of people aren’t doing them consistently. They don’t have the discipline. And, this short list is only a small sampling of the things we can at work to achieve success. Outside work we can eat healthy, exercise, meditate, socialize and – perhaps most importantly – get enough sleep! But, doing these things requires discipline.

The number one reason people say they can’t succeed at any endeavor is that they don’t have enough time. Unfortunately, that conversation usually progresses to a discussion about the latest Game of Thrones episode. I thought you didn’t have any time?

So, the next time you’re sitting in bed at 7PM watching Netflix, consider what you’re saying “No” to (e.g. reading a professional book) in order to say “Yes” to Netflix. As Darren Hardy, Publisher of Success Magazine and all-around superstar says:

“There is one thing that 99 percent of ‘failures’ and ‘successful‘ folks have in common — they all hate doing the same things. The difference is successful people do them anyway.”

P.S. For the record, I’m all caught up on Game of Thrones. But, I also went to the gym at 5:30AM this morning. Being disciplined isn’t about not having any enjoyment in your life. It’s about doing the things you need to do to get what you want out of life.

Motivation Minute is a new series to record everyday thought-provoking scribbles from our daily lives. To see more of Clint Clarkson's work visit www.elearningalchemy.com/comics