THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

I know, I know.  That’s such an ICKY word.  We are frankly conditioned to equate “discipline” with boredom, drudgery, pain, and pretty much everything we don’t like.  The real secret is in learning how to make discipline easy, enjoyable, and even downright fun.  

Most of us were taught early to avoid tasks and chores that our parents wanted us to do.  That’s all that happened.  We learned that if a parent’s voice was nagging, we should double down on our efforts to avoid responding.  It got us what we wanted (self-directed activity) for a few more minutes.  That conditioned response has simply carried over to teachers, bosses, and eventually the voice of our own “internal parent” who continually expresses disappointment in our lack of discipline.  So what do we do?  Avoid, of course. And then feel worse because we KNOW that life would actually be easier, simpler, and even happier if we exercised that bit of discipline.  The struggle is real, people.  I see it all the time.  

Richard Bandler famously quipped that he did not have trouble getting people INTO trance, but that he often had difficulty getting them OUT of the trances they were in; the ones where they made bad decisions.  So why do people stay in those unwanted states, thinking unpleasant thoughts and having unwanted experiences as a result? Habit.  In other words:  Discipline.  

If I say the word “discipline” and you immediately think “ewwww,” that’s a GREAT thing!  Because now we can examine what it is you believe about that word (that’s YOUR trance state right there) and begin to challenge those ideas. What if there was an immediate reward for your discipline?  In just the same way that you eat every day (discipline) and feel better in a half dozen ways (reward).  And now what if that discipline involved only 5 minutes of your day?  Less time than you spend eating, and you do THAT every day.  You are already “disciplined” to think repetitive thoughts of self-deprecation, engage in decisions and behaviors that interfere with your desires, and a whole host of “habits” (disciplines) that keep you stuck in ruts you don’t want to be in.  What if there was an EASY way to simply move in a different direction, and all you had to do was show up?  

Here is my guarantee to YOU:  I know how to make discipline easy and self-perpetuating.  If you commit to the DISCIPLINE, you will get the results.  No one can go inside your head and have your experiences for you.  It’s your head, it’s your trance, and it’s your experience.  But if you do just one simple thing every day, without fail, your experiences WILL change. They have to.  Nothing is ever un-learned, and the new experiences you have during these disciplined exercises will not be – cannot be – unlearned.  Cumulatively, they will change your entire life, enabling you to apply those same principles and habits to EVERY area where you are not having the experience you want.  

Richard Bandler said another important thing, and it was a very true thing: “Brains aren’t designed to get results; they go in directions.  If you know how the brain works, you can set your own directions.  If you don’t, someone else will.”