I never realized the importance of Discipline until I started working for myself. In high school i was fairly disciplined, but university life was just totally different. To be safe let me just say I was not a great student, I knew it all but never wanted to apply it. I could pull decent grades without really putting in the time so I never bothered. I was always doing Outstanding jobs at my work placements so I never really cared about cultivating discipline until I got out of University.
With time I realized how important it is to be up early and plan your day and execute flawlessly. Why the emphasis is on work habits in school rather than the actual material we are studying. So being infamous for late nights and afternoon wake ups I realized its time to change things and cultivate discipline. I was sure that like all things in life slowly I will develop it if I make an effort.
So it started with early to bed and early to rise. The first 2-3 months were awful(in weekdays because I had to work, I managed to get up just in time to rush my way through the morning,making no plans for the day whatsoever), so end of day I was always having this feeling that I could do better, be better and enjoy better if I can plan my day. Again I had goals and all in place but I never organized myself to break montly goals to daily goals. It just seemed like too much work and in the moment of things it does not seem like a big deal because I always use to tell myself I have my monthly goals, so I am on track. And spur of moment watching movies or night outs was still a big part of my life style.
But as end of month used to approach I always could see that I need more time if I wish to do that in 2 days. I did not have any checks in place to ensure the goals or tasks are completed in time. I needed a better system, so I decided to have weekly checks to look over my progress and realign my tasks for the coming week as need be. This made a tremendous difference. But it had a downside, I was feeling burnt out. My schedule was so jam packed that I had to watch my time like a hawk. If I spent 10 minutes talking to a friend in the gym or got stuck in traffic or some task took extra time, my whole day fell apart. And the pressure of that could be felt on the next day and so on. Eventually things piled up and being human instead of sorting it out, i took the easy way and let it slide and did not care much about it. But you know what that did to me over time, it affected my morale. I was trying to be at all the places, without seeing how effectively I was spending my time or how efficient I was.
A read a quote which said if you want to see what is important to a person, see how he spends his time and money. I was spending neither in the direction to what was important to me. So in 3 months I decided this is not working, I have to re-organize and re-align something has to change. So I put things on my schedule with more gaps, so that I have time for un-foreseen events. This worked out well for me.
Now I had more time, all my projects and desires were on my schedule. I had a realistic map which I could follow. Now with discipline in schedule, it was time for mental discipline to follow the plan. Needless to say this was the hardest part.
If you are a night person, sleeping early is just not possible. This was the biggest battle, but one which I had to win, to win the big war. I still cannot say if I have won that battle, the fight is still on. The other thing was discipline in my work ethic, which came into play when I started working for myself. To work 8 hour days, in the comfort of your home...tough !! You need burning hot passion, undeterred focus and bull dog determination....to sale through why and why not's, to keep going even when there is no team to help you, to keep pushing because you believe in yourself and know it will be worth it.
It all comes down to discipline...clearing your head, controlling your thoughts, figuring out what is important and to focus on that, to create a vision and keep following it beleieving that it is the right thing...and doing that 24x7...that is tough !!
Now I shall never ask myself why upper managemert in companies gets the big bucks?
With time I realized how important it is to be up early and plan your day and execute flawlessly. Why the emphasis is on work habits in school rather than the actual material we are studying. So being infamous for late nights and afternoon wake ups I realized its time to change things and cultivate discipline. I was sure that like all things in life slowly I will develop it if I make an effort.
So it started with early to bed and early to rise. The first 2-3 months were awful(in weekdays because I had to work, I managed to get up just in time to rush my way through the morning,making no plans for the day whatsoever), so end of day I was always having this feeling that I could do better, be better and enjoy better if I can plan my day. Again I had goals and all in place but I never organized myself to break montly goals to daily goals. It just seemed like too much work and in the moment of things it does not seem like a big deal because I always use to tell myself I have my monthly goals, so I am on track. And spur of moment watching movies or night outs was still a big part of my life style.
But as end of month used to approach I always could see that I need more time if I wish to do that in 2 days. I did not have any checks in place to ensure the goals or tasks are completed in time. I needed a better system, so I decided to have weekly checks to look over my progress and realign my tasks for the coming week as need be. This made a tremendous difference. But it had a downside, I was feeling burnt out. My schedule was so jam packed that I had to watch my time like a hawk. If I spent 10 minutes talking to a friend in the gym or got stuck in traffic or some task took extra time, my whole day fell apart. And the pressure of that could be felt on the next day and so on. Eventually things piled up and being human instead of sorting it out, i took the easy way and let it slide and did not care much about it. But you know what that did to me over time, it affected my morale. I was trying to be at all the places, without seeing how effectively I was spending my time or how efficient I was.
A read a quote which said if you want to see what is important to a person, see how he spends his time and money. I was spending neither in the direction to what was important to me. So in 3 months I decided this is not working, I have to re-organize and re-align something has to change. So I put things on my schedule with more gaps, so that I have time for un-foreseen events. This worked out well for me.
Now I had more time, all my projects and desires were on my schedule. I had a realistic map which I could follow. Now with discipline in schedule, it was time for mental discipline to follow the plan. Needless to say this was the hardest part.
If you are a night person, sleeping early is just not possible. This was the biggest battle, but one which I had to win, to win the big war. I still cannot say if I have won that battle, the fight is still on. The other thing was discipline in my work ethic, which came into play when I started working for myself. To work 8 hour days, in the comfort of your home...tough !! You need burning hot passion, undeterred focus and bull dog determination....to sale through why and why not's, to keep going even when there is no team to help you, to keep pushing because you believe in yourself and know it will be worth it.
It all comes down to discipline...clearing your head, controlling your thoughts, figuring out what is important and to focus on that, to create a vision and keep following it beleieving that it is the right thing...and doing that 24x7...that is tough !!
Now I shall never ask myself why upper managemert in companies gets the big bucks?
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