Focus Part 2: Self-Discipline

To really be able to focus demands a lot of self-discipline. Remember that your outcome depends on YOU, not on the world around you. If you want something badly enough you WILL do everything in your power to get it.

Self-discipline in this context is basically only letting yourself do what you WANT to do at that precise moment in time to be able to reach your goals more quickly.

Remember that YOU are the boss of your actions. YOU are the one who is in control. So ultimately YOU decide what and when to do things you need to do to achieve your ultimate success.

Your ability to manage your actions is directly related to the level of success and happiness you will experience throughout your life. Managing your actions is commonly known as exercising self-discipline.

It's absolutely not about restricting your lifestyle, or punishing yourself. It's about being able to work with your thoughts, behaviour and actions in order to reach the goals that you wish to reach.

Not having self-discipline is one of the main reasons why we fail at what we want to do, both professionally and personally. Excuse-making often creates lack of self-discipline, so drop all your excuses and start keeping habits that in themselves will create the self-discipline you need. Make routines that you know you are capable of sticking to, and keep them.

How do you attain self-discipline? A few options could be regular exercise, better, healthier eating, even learning to spend less money. It could be something like deciding to learn something new every single day or just getting up an hour earlier than you normally would.

Having self-discipline will help you to complete the most boring and mundane of the tasks you are focusing on. Should you find yourself sitting and thinking thoughts like “Oh, I’ll just do this instead” or “I can do that some other time” when you are working on your goals then STOP, take a deep breath and remember your self-discipline.

You can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be and go where you want to go. All you need is confidence in yourself and the ability to focus.


Want to know the Five Steps to Getting Everything You Want in Life? Then you need to check out the new Successful Living Video Newsletter right here.

Focus: The Pathway to Prosperity

Focus is a scary word to most people. What can it do for us? How can it help us? Can we program ourselves to focus? Focus, confidence and self-discipline all work hand in hand with each other.

Learning to focus can help us in many ways. It can help us realise what we really want in life, it can help us make good and informed decisions. It can also help us to accept ourselves just the way we are, without feeling the need to condemn ourselves or put ourselves down in any way, shape or form.

Focus can help us gain confidence, power and happiness. Focus can also help us remain grounded and stay on track. Focus can change confusion into absolute knowledge and self-criticism into love for oneself.

Always be aware that you are able to focus on what you want, and to focus your thoughts on anything at all. Try it now by thinking about the dishes, now change your focus and think about your car. Switch focus again and think about a dog. It really is that easy to focus on whatever you want to focus on.

We all need to learn to set aside time to be used on the one thing we want or need to focus on. It’s not a matter of “taking the time” to focus, but more a matter of “making the time”. If we are willing to make the time, we will focus a lot better on whatever it is you want/need to do.

You ask me how I can possibly make time to focus with four demanding children, 3 dogs and a new house?

Easy, I can stay up for an extra hour when all the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, and MAKE the time to focus on what I’m doing with absolutely no distractions at all.

Oh, that’s right; you work too, so you’re too tired to stay up late. How about getting up half an hour early, before the madness at home begins? Before you go to bed, get everything ready for your early morning “focus time” so that you don’t have to run around looking for it when you’re half awake. Of course, this means you have to have a plan of action ready beforehand.

Decide when you are going to make time, and stick to it like glue. Don’t let ANYTHING take you away from that time. Make sure you have everything you need all in one place, a room, or even a corner of a room where you can sit in peace. Unplug the phone, turn off the television, and don’t even listen to quiet background music.

Whatever happens around you will distract you unless you learn how to focus. Sometimes it seems easier to just go along with these distractions than to focus on the end goal. Remember, if you let yourself go along with the distractions, you are losing sight of your goals. Sharpen your vision of what you want or you WILL be at the mercy of your environment.

When you want something you have to decide EXACTLY what it is you want. If you don’t know what you want, there’s no way on earth you’re going to be able to focus on it. So you want to pass that driving test that you’ve taken and failed umpteen times, or you want to pass that really important exam in school.

You might want to write a book, or build a website, run your own business, be a teacher or any number of different things. The main thing is you have to KNOW that’s what you want, and you have to set your aims high and demand yourself to focus on getting it.

Once you decide what you want, you have to decide WHY you want it. Visualize yourself in that brand new Mercedes or BMW, or in front of that school desk teaching the kids geography. The vision makes you feel good right? So that’s why you want it, it feels good to do what you want to do, be who you want to be and own what you want to own.

Visualization is a major part in being able to focus. If you can actually see yourself in the position you want to be in, then it’s so much easier to focus on the task of getting there.

Next thing you have to do is decide how you’re going to actually get what you want. What are you willing to sacrifice in the quest to get those great exam grades? What can you do without in order to start up your own business? How can you make your family life happier and more peaceful?

Sit back and close your eyes, imagining what it will be like to have what you want in life, and think long and hard about what you can give up so that you can get there.

Say you want a new sofa, but the only way you can get one is if you quit smoking. Envision the sofa, with you and your partner cuddling up on it. What colour is it? Is it big and fluffed up, or is it a small ultra-modern sofa? Focus on the sofa and want it badly enough, you WILL stop smoking so you can get it.

These are all small things and perfectly attainable with a little bit of focus, but what if you want bigger and better things than that? Well then you set goals for yourself. First overcome the exams, once that goal is reached go get that driving licence. Next you get a brand spanking new BMW.

Keep setting goals; as soon as you reach the first one, move on to the next, staying focused all the time on what it is you want.

Reaching that first goal will give you an incredible boost of confidence, which in turn will make it so much easier to get started on the next goal. The more goals you reach, the more confidence you will have in yourself and that will fuel the success of the next goal, and the next one after that, until there are endless possibilities for you.

Start off by writing down each and every goal you WANT to reach in your lifetime. Then write a daily plan for the goal you want to reach first. Write the plan before you go to bed at night, it gives your brain time to take it all in and work with it.

It’s amazing what the brain will do when we are sleeping. Also, writing the plan the night before helps free up that time during the next day so that you can purely sit and focus on the task at hand.

Make the plan a numbered list and cross each item off as you finish it. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you get through it this way. Once you’ve reached the outcome you want, move on to your next goal following the same pattern as before.

If you find your thoughts wandering in your “focus time” take a break, write down your thoughts and put them away somewhere for future reference. If you find there are multiple things you can do to attain your goals, figure out which of them is the one most likely to help you get there quickest.

Put the others on hold, they may come in useful when you’re aiming for that next goal.

If you lock your focus, and stick with it for as long as you have to, you WILL succeed. If you stick to one thing, one goal and focus on that, it's virtually impossible to not reap the rewards of your actions.


Want to know the Five Steps to Getting Everything You Want in Life? Then you need to check out the new Successful Living Video Newsletter right here.

Success Resides Within

Not all success can be counted in dollars; not all richness is measured by money.

"The great secret of success is to go through life as a person who never gets used up," said Albert Schweitzer.

Look within yourself for the ultimate inspiration, and follow the true feelings you discover. "One of my favorite methods is to whisper," said Alfred Hitchcock. "I've discovered the best work is done with sweet reason."

Act upon your own conscience -that guides; that judges your actions and signals your behavior. "Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking," wrote H.L. Mencken.

Accomplish what you desire; fulfill your inner yearnings. But don't compromise your deepest feelings.

"We do our best that we know how at the moment, and if it doesn't turn out, we modify it," said F.D. Roosevelt.

Follow the paths that life offers you and live the fullest existence you can.

Look at yourself and look at those who have succeeded throughout history. Do you have what it takes? Even if you have only a few of the qualities of the other great people, you can achieve your heart's desire.

Reach for the highest, then reach higher.

Accomplish your steps one by one on a daily basis, always moving forward, always making progress, even if only “part and parcel”. Encourage yourself.

Insist that you can succeed and affirm these thoughts daily.

Keep a sense of proportion and judge for yourself. Then keep busy at the tasks you've set out to accomplish. What's keeping you?

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration," said Albert Einstein.

Find inspiration wherever you can. Talk to people; read about people; learn your business or craft. Believe that you can do it and you will. The only way to dispel the doubt that you can do something is to finish it.

Always be the best you can be.

Never fall short from fatigue or lethargy.

Don't attempt to do anything that you can't give your all to.

There is no way to inner satisfaction without appealing to the higher self/ consciousness.

Search within and without to find the paths that are meant for you and follow them with conviction and a steady heart.

And, you will succeed to become as rich and full as you ever desired.

Harold Ickes wanted the "freedom to live one's life with the window of the soul open to new thoughts, new ideas and new aspirations."

And Woody Allen looked for a clear path. "If only God would give me some clear sign" he said. "Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank."

Finally, Sophie Tucker sums up everyone's worldly outlook: "I've been rich and I've been poor," she said. "Rich is better."


Want to know the Five Steps to Getting Everything You Want in Life? Then you need to check out the new Successful Living Video Newsletter right here.

Take Responsibility For Your Success

"The price of greatness is responsibility" wrote Winston Churchill. Are you willing to maintain that responsibility once you attain the success you desire?

"The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become," wrote Ashley Montague.

And the greatest tragedy is to become less than your full potential, using less than the abilities you have to work with.

Are you waiting for something to happen...merely a spectator in Life?

It is up to you to take the actions and be responsible for their consequences. "Our responsibility: every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty," wrote John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

 Inspire yourself.

 Read books that will spurn you to action.

 Talk to people who have the qualities you admire.

How would you like to lead your life? And make the changes necessary to be like that. "There is nothing permanent except change," wrote Heraclitus.

What changes do you want to make? What are you waiting for?


Want to know the Five Steps to Getting Everything You Want in Life? Then you need to check out the new Successful Living Video Newsletter right here.

Are You Planning the Steps to Your Accomplishments?

What actions will take you closer to your goals? Decide upon the steps and write them down. Review them until you feel comfortable with those steps.

Then repeat them at least once a day, crossing them off as you accomplish them.

"I believe there is no escape from the rule that we must do many, many little things to accomplish even just one big thing. This gives me patience when I need it most." - James Dupont.

The most rewarding accomplishments are those that take long to achieve and present difficulties.

It is only through these difficulties that a person can rise above the rest to be the unusual, the outspoken and the well-deserved. As if building a kit, follow your own instructions.

Decide your best courses of action and achieve their benefits.

Whether the steps are small or large, make them achievable and then do them.

Do not commit yourself to things that you never whole-heartedly intend to do.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there," said Will Rogers. Don't be paralyzed by inaction; rather act upon your own convictions.

Set yourself up for rewards.

Don't give yourself goals that have no feeling of satisfaction or no monetary rewards.

If you want to be an artist, be the best and learn from the best.

Don't dwell on imperfections or the awkwardness of unpolished skills.

If you go into business- reinvest.

"In business, the earning of profit is something more than an incident of success. It is an essential condition of success. Because the continued absence of profit itself spells failure" - Justice Brandeis.

Marchant wrote, "To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be different."
Think of ways to achieve the best; formulas to increase productivity or decrease overhead. Profit is your drive.

"Profitability is the sovereign criterion of the enterprise," wrote Peter Drucker. And, profitability is the core of any achievement - whether financial or artistic.

Once you achieve your goals, think of ways to benefit others.

"Money-getters are the benefactors of our race," said P.T. Barnum. "To them we are indebted for our institutions of learning, and of art, our academies, colleges and churches."

How can you benefit humankind and still keep enough to fulfill your own desires?


If you want to learn how to be the best you can be the Successful Living Video Newsletter and Four Pillars of Success coaching program can show you how. Even the most successful people who ever lived needed coaches and mentors to help when times were tough or for needed advice. Get on the fast track to success and start living the life of your dreams right now. Please visit the Four Pillars of Success and make 2007 your best year yet.

Going the Extra Mile: Video

Here's a great video about perseverance and going the extra mile. It's an excerpt from the movie "Facing the Giants." It's worth a look.





If you want to learn how to be the best you can be the Successful Living Video Newsletter and Four Pillars of Success coaching program can show you how. Even the most successful people who ever lived needed coaches and mentors to help when times were tough or for needed advice. Get on the fast track to success and start living the life of your dreams right now. Please visit the Four Pillars of Success and make 2007 your best year yet.