You cannot win the war against the world if you can’t win the war against your own mind.
Self-discipline is the center of all material success. That’s the way so many people are
today. They just let their feelings run their lives. They feel like getting upset, then
they’re upset. They feel like telling somebody off, they just tell ‘em off. They feel like
being lazy, they’re lazy. They feel like being depressed, then they go around all depressed.
But friends, we cannot just act on these emotional impulses and expect to have any kind of victory
in our lives. Feelings will lead us astray. Feelings can get us into trouble. And throughout
life, you’re gonna have plenty of opportunities to lose your temper, say things you regret.
You’re gonna get up some mornings and feel like being depressed, feel like going around
in a bad mood. At times you’ll get caught in traffic and feel like being impatient,
feel like getting upset. See the feelings are always gonna be there. But we’ve gotta
learn how to follow wisdom, and do what we know is right, and not just follow our feelings
around. But I read where there are 2 kinds of pain in life. One is the pain of discipline,
the other is the pain of regret. The pain of discipline weighs ounces, but the pain
of regret weighs tons. And if we live a lazy undisciplined life, and we just give in to
our feelings, and we act on these emotional impulses, we’re gonna make very poor choices
that we regret later on. We would be much better off to just discipline ourselves right
now so that later on, we don’t have to carry that heavy load of regret. Friends the pain
of discipline is minuscule compared to the pain of regret. Be proactive basically means
that your life is a product of your values not your feelings. That your life or the organisation’s
life is a product of your decisions not your conditions. The opposite of being proactive
is to be reactive. Which basically means that your life is a function of your feelings,
your moods, your impulses, other people’s treatment. You and I have the capacity to
choose our response. You see if you don’t have a vision of where you’re going, if
you don’t have a goal where you go, you drift around and you never end up anywhere.
It’s like you can have the best ship in the world, you can have the best airplane
in the world, if the pilot or the captain doesn’t know where to go, it would just
drift around. It would not end up anywhere or most likely in the wrong place. Don’t
be afraid to think outside the box. Don’t be afraid to fail big, to dream big. But remember,
dreams without goals are just dreams. And they ultimately fuel disappointment. So have
dreams but have goals. Life goals, yearly goals, monthly goals daily goals. And understand
that to achieve these goals you must apply discipline and consistency. Remember just
because you’re doing a lot more doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot more done. Don’t
confuse movement with progress. So people always ask me when they saw me in the gym
in the pumping iron days, they say why is it that you’re working out so hard, 5 hours
a day, 6 hours a day, and you have always a smile on your face. The others are working
out just as hard as you do and they look sour in the face. Why is that? And I told people
all the time I said because to me I’m shooting for a goal. In front of me is the Mr. Universe
title. So every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal, to make this goal,
this vision turn into reality. Every single set that I do, every repetition every weight
that I lift will get me a step closer to turn this goal into reality. I mean think about
it and I was just not visualising my exercise but I was really lifting the trophy over my
head. That’s what I was thinking about. And at the age of 20, at the age of 20 I went
to London and I won the Mr. Universe contest as the youngest Mr. Universe ever. And it
was because I had a goal. So let me tell you something visualising your goal and going
after it makes it fun. You gotta have a purpose no matter what you do in life. You got to
have a purpose. Have a vision. We have to realise that growth is not automatic. There
are many successful people but they haven’t reached half of their potential because they
stopped growing. There’s something called destination disease. That is when we reach
a certain goal, when we get our degree, when we get a certain position, when we get the
house paid off, we just kick back and put our mind in neutral and we coast off what
we’ve already learned. We may make a little progress here and there, but we’re really
not learning anything new. We’re really not growing. We’re not becoming better in
our careers, better in our personal lives. One of the reasons is the way we were trained.
As a little child we grow automatically. We get bigger, we develop physically, mentally.
We have parents, teachers, coaches that challenge us to grow. Early on, growth is automatic.
It’s just a part of our life. But the problem is, at one point, when we stop growing physically,
when we get outta school, that growth is no longer automatic. If we’re gonna continue
to grow, we have to take responsibility for our own growth. We have to have the attitude
how can I improve? What can I do to make me better? We have to stir up that desire to
learn. We should have a goal to grow in some way everyday. A goal to learn something new
every single day. We’re never supposed to stop learning. Today there are so many opportunities
to grow. With modern technology it’s easy to increase and expand our thinking. Don’t
get stuck in a rut. You shouldn’t be at the same place next year, in your career,
in your finances, in your relationships as you are right now. You should know more. If
you work in the field of sales, you need to read books on how to communicate more effectively.
People have gone where you’re trying to go, listen to what they have to say. Take
courses, go to seminars. There’s potential in you that has to be drawn out. And it drives
me crazy when people say they don’t have enough time to go to the gym for 45 minutes
a day and workout. Or to do something for 45 minutes to an hour a day to improve, if
it is physically improve, or if it is mentally improve. Imagine you read 1 hour a day about
history. How much you will learn after 365 hours in one year. Think about if you study
about the history of musicians, of composers, how much you would know. Imagine if you will
work on the business, and some business that you want to develop, everyday for an hour.
Imagine how further along you will go and get. I read where if a person will spend an
hour a day on a certain subject, after 3 years that person will be an expert on that subject.
You need to find the area of your greatest gifting. What you’re good at naturally,
and spend time increasing in that area. If you’ll stay focused and learn a little more
each day, a little more each year, before long, you’ll be one of the experts. You’ll
be a leader in your field. You need to develop your gifts to the point where your company
cannot make it without you. Or at least if you’re not there, things don’t run nearly
as smooth. Because if you’re out for a week, and nobody misses you, and sales are just
as good and all the work gets done, I need to sound the alarm right now. You’ve gotta
wake up and smell the coffee. If they don’t miss you, they may figure you’re not necessary.
You need to kick it into a new gear, produce more than you’ve been producing, take courses
to improve your skills. You gotta step it up a notch. Well Joel I have a kind of a low
level position. If I’m gone nobody would ever miss me. Well maybe so but make up your
mind that is not where you’re going to stay. Don’t build a house where you should have
a tent. That is not a permanent address. You’re not supposed to live there forever you’re
just passing through. Keep growing. Keep learning. Do more than you have to do. Overproduce.
Cream always rises to the top. You do your best each day and you’re going to get noticed.