(dramatic music)
- [Man] Do you often procrastinate on the things
that you don't want to do?
Like you sit down to do it,
then all of the sudden you feel hungry, or tired,
or you feel like your room needs to be cleaned up,
or maybe you say to yourself,
"Let me just watch the one YouTube video,"
or, "Let me scroll through Instagram
"for just a few more minutes."
And then, before you know it, it's midnight,
and you have done pretty much nothing.
Experiencing these kinds of thoughts and feelings
is totally normal,
but what differentiates the successful people
from the unsuccessful people
is how they approve these feeling.
And one of the ways successful people
do this is by developing a trait called self-discipline.
And I'm going to tell you exactly how you
can become self-disciplined by the sharing with you
a very personal story.
Over the past three years,
I've been traveling around the world
while making money online,
and I would only briefly come home to Canada
for the Christmas holidays.
There are many cool benefits to this type of lifestyle,
but one of the downsides, for me,
is not being able to see my friends and family
as much as I would like to.
During my first year of being away from home,
my grandmother's health started to diminish,
to point where she needed to be put into assisted living.
And I remember driving to that old folks home,
after about a year of very little contact,
not really knowing what to expect,
and when I got there, I saw her sitting in this chair,
and the first thing that I saw
was how wrinkled her skin had become.
And then I saw how gray her hair was,
and how skinny she had become.
And then, when I started to talk to her,
I could tell that her cognitive abilities
were starting to go.
I don't even think she really fully knew who I was.
And it wasn't easy for me to see her like that,
it's hard to see someone who you used to have fun,
or laugh with, get to the point where they need help
with their walking or eating,
or even just basic thinking.
I know this is all a natural part of life,
and I don't necessarily think it has to be all sad,
but when I was there looking at my grandma,
I couldn't help but feel distressed.
I imagined myself becoming old,
and sitting in the same chair that she way in,
and also needing help with all those basic things.
But the thing that truly made me feel distressed,
aside from seeing her from the way she was,
was just imagining myself being old,
and then, reflecting back on my life
and not being happy with what I'd did with it.
Or wishing that I had done something differently,
like working harder to start that business,
or working harder to get that body what I always wanted.
When I get to that later stage of life,
I want to be able to reflect back on everything
with a nice, calm, relaxed feeling of ...
(exhales) Those were some good times.
Did I do everything right?
No, but for the most part, I stayed true to myself,
I worked hard, and I lived life on my own terms.
And I think this is what most people want for their life.
They just want to be able to reflect back on everything
and feel good about it,
so then they can depart from this physical world in peace.
But the concept of getting to that old age
and not being happy with what I did with it
causes me a lot on anxiety
because I feel like I'm gifted with a healthy mind and body,
and that if I don't make the most of it,
then I'm doing a disservice to my human potential.
Because of this anxiety, I started to read books
on philosophy and spirituality, and often,
they would say that in order to live an optimal life,
you should operate from a place of peace and love,
and not from a place of fear and anxiety,
Which is interesting because most people on earth
operate from a place of fear and anxiety.
They choose a life partner
because they are scared of dying alone,
or they choose a career
because they are scared of not having stability.
And if it's not coming from a place of fear,
then it's usually coming from a place of lack,
where people want money, or girls, or cars
because they think that those are the things
that will make them feel happy and complete.
And because so many people are feeling fearful and anxious,
they need a way to cope with it.
And the way most people cope with it is through distraction.
We distract ourselves with our phones, our computers,
or entertainment, socializing, music, Netflix.
Pretty much anything can take the form of a distraction,
and all this distraction
leads us to not getting things done.
And then we watch YouTube videos telling us
how we should be more disciplined and motivated,
which, in a way, causes us to feel even more stressed out
and more anxious.
Just another thing that we are doing wrong.
A part of me wants to tell you
that you should be disciplined
because you should not want to wake up at the age of 80
and be filled with regret.
But it's probably unhealthy to operate from a place of fear.
But it's also unhealthy to operate from a place
of ignorance, thinking that we all will live forever,
and that having regrets when we're older is impossible.
I think the problem that a lot of people
have is that they think they need to become motivated first,
then they can work hard and chase their dreams.
But we have to realize, that motivation is just an emotion,
and all emotions are transient,
meaning they are always changing.
And you can never rely on something that is always changing
in order to get something done.
The things that we should rely on are principles,
and one of the main principles of life,
in my opinion at least, is that self-discipline
is a key ingredient to living the life you want to live,
and it's essential for success and freedom.
And I think the only healthy way
to truly become disciplined it to work on it
like it's a muscle.
Every time you start to hear that little excuse of,
"I'll do this later," or, "I'm tired,"
use that as an opportunity
to build your self-discipline muscle,
and if you really want it to grow,
you have to have to put it under a lot stress,
to the point of exhaustion.
There will never be a convenient time
to build your self-discipline muscle,.
By definition, self-discipline is something
that can only be developed when it's inconvenient.
And like any muscle, you need to give it time
to repair and recover,
which means you still need to have your leisure time,
or your time off.
So, don't listen to the people
who say that you have to work every second
of every day for the rest of your life,
because that's like the meaning of life,
which is the grind and the hustle.
Obviously, all that is important,
and it has it's place,
but it should not consume your entire life.
But that is just my opinion.
If you want to learn how I
personally became self-disciplined.,
click the video on the screen right now.
You won't regret it.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you soon.