As I’m off this week (with laryngitis, if you’ve not read the other post from this week), I’ve been doing a lot of thinking… I definitely can’t be doing any singing, that’s for certain!
I was having a conversation with another coach recently and they commented on the importance of drive/discipline in achieving goals.
Makes sense right? The more driven you are, the more disciplined you are, the harder you’ll work, and the quicker you’ll arrive at your goals… right? right?
Well… kind of.
Where does discipline come from?
Where does drive come from? Can you really just summon it up at will? Or does it stem from something else? Can you ever truly just create it?
Whatever your answer, most people start every New Year with resolutions and they get all verbally worked up about how this is going to be *their* year, and that things will be different… yet for very few do things actually change. Was that really drive and determination? Seemed more like a flash in the pan.
Or for other people they will tell you that their dreams are to be super-successful at x, y or z. Or they will tell you that their drive and discipline is to achieve time with their family instead of working… yet it never truly transpires that way…
It just doesn’t add up…
Why does the above ever happen if discipline is something you can summon up, or have it stem from statements of intent?
In my honest opinion, drive and discipline stems from the same source:
CLARITY
A great entrepreneur once told me:
Be wary of people whose behaviour is not congruent with their alleged goals.
Why? Because these people are unclear on their true goals. If someone says they are all about X, yet their behaviour only seems to be stacking up to Y, which are you going to believe, their actions or their words?
However, for people whose words and actions are aligned, powerful things happen. Why is this?
Because they have clarity.
Such people whose words and actions match-up have bothered to take the time to be honest with themselves, and identify the things that truly matter to them. Not the things that people tell them they should want (big house, fancy car, 6-7 figure salary, 2.4 kids, etc), and not the things they think that will bring them approval from others (huge business, jet-setting lifestyle, etc), but the things they genuinely long for and know will bring them satisfaction. I’m not saying these things are bad, but a lot of people SAY they want them, and maybe even their actions seem to indicate that’s what they want, but it never arrives… they are not clear that’s what they want.
But once you identify what you TRULY care about with precision, once you completely identify what you VALUE, you gain clarity.
And once you have clarity, EVERYTHING changes. Because everything you do can only ever centre around that… because there is ZERO wiggle room on what matters to you. You know it. Your brain knows it. Your actions can’t help but flow out of this realisation. You just know that if you value X, Y and Z, then no action should ever be taken unless it unlocks X, Y or Z. It’s remarkably simple, yet remarkably powerful.
Drive and discipline to achieve your goals are merely a BY-PRODUCT of clarity. No longer does being disciplined feel like a chore, because it’s the natural outworking of clarity. No longer is drive hard to muster up, because you know beyond a shadow of a doubt where you are trying to get to, and that every action WILL add up to that.
The hardest part of all of this?
Ego.
To be honest with yourself about what you value and what you don’t means losing your ego. For some people it means admitting they don’t really want this or that, and for others it means owning up to the fact they feel like they’ve settled for less. It’s not easy, and it may even mean losing a few friends that are not compatible with the direction you want your life to go in… but it’s worth it to make the space for the right friends.
This is universally applicable.
This can be applied in every area of your life. From how you practice, to how you run your business, to how you run your day to day life. Whether you are applying this to your hobbies, or your own life goals before you’re 60, clarity will bring you all the drive and discipline you need in spades, because these are the natural by-product of clarity.
Give it a shot. Take some time out to identify what it is YOU really value, what you honestly care about, and you’ll be surprised what comes of it.