What I struggle with...

I was recently giving a talk, and during the Q&A at the end, a member of the audience asked me what I struggle with. This was a good question, and the person asking seemed taken aback when I reeled off a whole list of things.

Here is just one thing that I struggle with; there are, of course, many more, but today I will start with this.

Discipline… this is something that I have always struggled with. When I left what I call "the real working world," I was highly motivated to pursue my projects and looked forward to sitting down to do all the things that I now struggle with, mainly admin tasks. After a while, when you don’t have to be somewhere at a certain time and no one is going to ask you why you are not at your desk because it’s 9 a.m. and you should be there, it’s easy to let your routine slip. It starts slowly; you end up starting slightly later, you don’t dress as smartly as you used to, and gradually, over time, your standards slip. You justify it by telling yourself, “These are the perks of having my own business.” The slightest things would often distract me as well.

To be honest, this is what happened to me, and I realised a long time ago that I personally need discipline and routine to function effectively. Anyone with their own business will know that it’s all on you to do the things you know you should be doing. For me, it’s not that I didn’t want to do them; I just found discipline harder when it wasn’t enforced—i.e., when I had to be somewhere.

Over time, I have implemented a system where I do all my focused work, proactive emails, and creating (as opposed to consuming) in the morning. Everyone is different, but I found that doing four hours of focused work is pretty much as good as eight hours of non-focused work, where I’m being distracted and constantly getting up to do different things. No matter what happens in the afternoon, if I have had a focused morning, I feel like I have won the day to some extent. More often than not, that momentum from a morning of focused work carries into the rest of the day. Momentum should not be underestimated. “An object in motion tends to stay in motion.” It’s a quote I’m sure you’ve heard, but I believe it to be very true.

I have also noticed a pattern: almost all the significant things that have happened for me, which have moved my projects and career forward, resulted from taking some kind of action when I didn’t feel like doing it! Motivation comes and goes, so that is something I personally cannot rely on. A very successful person once said to me, “James, the universe does not care how you feel; it only cares about the action you take. It’s taking action that will move you toward your goals, and you don’t need to be clever to take action.”

Those words have stuck with me. So, although I still struggle with discipline, I have never forgotten them. I hope these words may be of some use to you!

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