Most people know what to do – they just don’t do what they know.
This is why so many fail to achieve success with their business, with their weight loss program, with quitting smoking – just about anything that requires discipline.
And there’s the rub: achievement requires discipline.
Even discipline is not the magic ingredient of achievement, however; because disciple requires strength if it is to be sustained.
Strength cannot be faked. This is where people get stuck.
As Warren Buffet said, “When the tide goes out it’s easy to see who was skinny dipping.”
In life, the “tide goes out” whenever we start pushing against resistance. Pushing against a heavy weight is how we build strength in our muscles, and we build that strength by pushing against the weight on a regular basis. If we have not been meeting resistance on a regular, consciously created and purposely planned basis – we won’t be able to move the weight when it’s crucial to do so.
When it comes to achievement, the same principles apply.
Achievement flows from discipline, which requires strength.
Here’s the part that makes this all seem a mystery to most: strength on the outside only comes after you develop strength on the inside.
Mental strength comes first; take every thought captive and make each one serve your purpose.
This is the genesis of achievement.
This reminds me of Arnold's (the "Governator") best movie: Pumping Iron. The single greatest reason an immigrant, with little English to boot, becomes a world-renowned bodybuilder, author, speaker, box office hero, coach to Special Olympics, Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness (under Bush Sr.), then Governor of Cali is because of his mental discipline.
That's why Pumping Iron is his best movie. You actually get to witness first-hand his mental discipline which led to his outstanding success in all these arenas. When I met Arnold the first time in 1991, I was struck by his presence. Not just physically but his command of himself and the room. One of the few celebrities I've met with THAT kind of energy and power.
Discipline however wasn't enough. He also had a very clear vision of where he wanted to go in ALL those arenas, LONG before ever attaining it. I'm talking decades earlier. I remember him saying, "I've already seen it. I'm already there! Now, I just have to go through the motions to have it."
Know what you want. Press, push, develop strength, maintain the mental attitude, toughness, yes, discipline, to get anything you want. Thanks for the reminder Ray!
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