Discipline: The single most important quality to grow in your life for true success

We largely overlook the single most important aspect or quality that we can grow in our lives in order to ensure our success. This quality or aspect is Discipline. No matter what skills you have or how much knowledge you possess, if you do not cultivate a certain level of discipline you are most likely to come up short on any or all of your endeavors. Discipline pervades every aspect of our lives and we all know the feeling when we just cannot control ourselves and fail to use our wisdom to say "No" or to stick with something long enough to get the results we are looking for. Sticking with something has a lot to do with being persistent and is therefore related to discipline.

We often know what is good or better for us but we give in to our lust and desire leading to us feeling worse than before. What is worse is that we then punish ourselves for our failure with guilt and remorse. However, instead of learning and growing by practicing more discipline we simply go round and round in a perpetual state of being lead up and down never getting anywhere. We also succumb to our need for immediate gratification. That is we lack the persistence and discipline to carry out the task at hand for any length of time to ensure our future success.

Focus is a the cousin of Discipline in that it takes some amount of discipline to stay focused. If this is true, then it will be no wonder to understand why we find it so difficult to focus. Although, there may be other reasons we are not able to focus at any given time it would be wise to consider the amount of discipline that we are cultivating to help us achieve this goal. If we are honest about this, for many of us, the likelihood of cultivating discipline is very rare indeed.

Discipline is a lot like patience. It is something we could all use but we rarely take the time to practice it. Not to mention, listening. Like discipline and patience we simply do not put enough effort or emphasis on participating in life in this way. We simply lack discipline, patience and the ability to listen. Notice that in order to have patience or become a better listener it will require us to make ourselves more disciplined. The good news is that as you become more disciplined all the other qualitative aspects of yourself will grow with you as well.

Discipline is a foundational quality that is absolutely necessary to achieve all that is good and all that is great. Being persistent is a good quality in helping you endure the hardships and work needed to overcome obstacles and challenges along the way. As you continue to press forward you will grow in your capacity to become more disciplined and thereby become also more resilient towards achieving your goals or reaching success. As you can see there is much reward for the individual who takes the time to discipline themselves. Not only will you be able to achieve greater success but you will also be able to reap the benefits in shorter amounts of time as you become more masterful at being disciplined, patient, persistent and resilient.

You may be asking exactly how do you become more disciplined. In fact, many of you know how important this is but have "failed" at being more disciplined. Lets take a look at how we can practice and grow our discipline without having to work to hard at it. In fact, having to work hard is a great reason to not put the effort into being more disciplined. With that said, there is a simply way to grow in your discipline. It really all comes down to taking small steps. And taking small steps consistently.

The first step is just showing up when you are supposed to show up. The next step is to actively participate in whatever it is your are supposed to be doing. To maximize your results and get the most out of each moment we must learn to be attentive and learn from whatever we are participating in. If you just do this each and every time you show up success is almost inevitable. In fact, you may be surprised at just how easy it ease and how much you grow from applying yourself small yet consistent positive actions.

I asked my Master once how long it would take to get my Black Belt. My Master said "just show up when you are supposed to show up and the rest will take care of itself". Years later I was actually a Second Degree Black Belt and teaching at a new studio we opened up. The time flew by and it never even occurred to me until that moment how my Master was actually teaching me how to be in the moment. Not concerned with the future nor involved with figuring anything out. Just show up and trust that if you put the work in you will bear the fruit.

So no matter what you wish to accomplish, just set your mind to it and take a small step towards your goal and before you realize it you may well be on your way to greatness!