What kind of discipline do you have? Do you have the kind of discipline that takes you down the easy path, which brings up lots of regrets because you are missing out on so many opportunities in life? Or do you have the kind of discipline that takes you down the path of personal growth and sacrifice, which is painful, but opens up so many amazing opportunities for you in the future?

So far through my articles we have discussed many times about turning your vision into a reality, and creating the life you want for yourself in the future. Well, what is going to do this for you? DISCIPLINE.

1. Your Discipline

Discipline is what you need to turn your vision into a reality, to achieve your goals and to make your dreams come true. Discipline and personal growth go hand in hand. As you develop your discipline, your personal growth will increase.

When you know what you need to do and how to do it, you need to develop the discipline to do put into action what you now know you need to do.

To be YOUR BEST YOU and be the most highly effective leader and person you can be, you must do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. For you to do this, you need discipline, and discipline is telling yourself to do something, and then actually doing it.

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Discipline forces you to go the extra mile, to push yourself further than usual. When you push yourself further than usual, you are growing. Growth is all about going further and reaching places you’ve never been before.

Your vision is about going somewhere that you have never been, and the only way you’re going to get there is through discipline, through pushing yourself further, through growth.

2. Your Growth

When you know the steps to take towards your vision, and then you take them, you are converting your sacrifices into personal growth.

In my experience (including myself), most people want to finish school, college, and university, and get a job in their chosen field. For me when I was 16 years old, I left school and got an apprenticeship in engineering.

So did some of my friends, and my other friends went to college or university at 18 years old. Most people want to get out of any type of school or college learning and get on with their lives.

But what most people believe is that when school, college or university ends, then their need for learning ends. When in fact, that is the time the true learning begins because learning is a lifelong process, it doesn’t end when school ends.

The most successful people in the world, whether it is in business, sport, or a specialised job, these people never stop learning throughout their whole lives. The knowledge they acquire throughout their lives is specialised in their field, and what their true purpose in life is.

Unsuccessful people stop learning when they finish formal education (school, college, university), and they seem to drift through life without acquiring specialised knowledge they need to fulfil their true purpose.

To continue your learning and educating yourself when you have finished formal education requires discipline.

If you do this and acquire specialised knowledge that will help you achieve your vision and the future you want to create for yourself, then you will become a success. But do you have the discipline and the commitment for this?

When most people finish their formal education, it is rare for them to develop themselves any further after what they had just been taught. People would prefer to just have a comfortable life, drift, and not push themselves to reach their full potential.

Many people don’t know what their true purpose is in life, and they don’t want to. Why do they do this? The reason is because they don’t have the discipline for it. I know lots of people who haven’t picked up a book since they left school a long time ago.

3. Your Vision

It is a shame but that’s how it is with some people. So, for yourself who is doing the opposite, trying to be the best you, you can be, transforming yourself into the person you want to become, you will stand out. Your discipline is what will help you stand out.

However, you won’t stand out if you don’t develop your discipline every day. You need to do this so you can turn your vision into a reality. So, to do this, you need to be deliberate in developing your discipline, and take the right actions every day to enable to make your vision a reality.

Your vision will not become a reality if you don’t do anything. You will become a highly effective leader and person if you develop your discipline every day.

As you are developing your discipline, you are developing your mindset and character. You are growing every day, and if you keep living your purpose and passion you will be on the right track to making your vision a reality.

The best way for you to do this is by talking to and most of all listening to the people who have already been where you want to get to. The highly effective leaders and people who you want to be associated with.

Will one of them be available to mentor you and help you on your personal growth journey? Read books written by people who have been where you want to get to also.

A lot of people believe that when they reach a certain level in life or their career, then they have completed all the learning they need.

If you achieve a certain job position, receive a certain job title of “manager”, “director” or “CEO”, or you achieve a degree at a highly respected university, that is not it for your learning.

People with humility seek out more opportunities to grow and learn. They have developed the discipline to know that learning is a lifelong journey, and they love to continue learning. They understand that the more they learn, the more they grow, and the more they have to offer the world.

4. Your Character

It is our character that is the key to what we learn, how much we learn and how we learn. People who have humility are constantly seeking new knowledge so they can keep growing and share that knowledge with others. It is their discipline that gives them the desire to keep growing every day.

Discipline is the answer to continuous learning and growth. This is probably easy for you to understand as you read this chapter, but I can assure you it is not easy to do.

Your focus cannot be on what job you want to get, or what salary you want to earn. Your focus must be on how much you learn and becoming a more valuable person. Becoming a highly effective leader.

Your life goal must be continuous growth, and the way to achieve this goal is to break it up into short-term, smaller goals. These smaller goals will then feed into your life goal. You must growth oriented and not goal oriented. Goals are not lifelong, but growth is.

When people set a goal, it is fixed, and when they achieve it, they don’t continue to grow because they don’t believe they need to. As you continue to grow, you value will increase, your influence will increase, and most of all your learning will increase.

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Discipline is something you take action on every single day of your life. Discipline is not something you stick in the drawer and take out only when you can be bothered to.

If you want to continually increase your influence with your people and others, then you need to take the right disciplined actions every day.

The most important person you will every lead is…YOU! To lead yourself you need self-discipline and that is why you must take the necessary disciplined actions every single day of your life. Don’t strive to be better than somebody else, strive to be better than you were yesterday.

If you can influence yourself to be the best version of yourself every day, then your level of influence with others will constantly grow. If you can do this, then you are on the right path to becoming a highly effective leader and person.

Having the self-discipline to lead yourself every day, to be the best version of yourself every day can be painful. But it totally outweighs how painful you will regret not having self-discipline.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

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All the best,

Tom (Lead, Grow, Influence)