Failure is an inevitable part of life. No matter how much you try to avoid it, you’re bound to face it sooner or later. That’s why we must learn from every failure and not let them haunt us. Keeping that in mind, here are 3 life disciplines that will never fail you in life. Even when the going gets tough, these practices will help you stay grounded and keep pushing forward.
1. The Discipline of Service
There’s no better feeling than helping someone in-spite of your own needs. Whether it’s a friend or a complete stranger, just helping others out is a great way to feel fulfilled and see the world through a more positive lens. Even if you don’t end up getting anything back in return, just knowing that you made someone’s day a little brighter will make you feel great. The discipline of service causes an individual to gain a deeper sense of true success really means, which many successful role models have collectively stated, true success is all about finding happiness and fulfillment in what you do. If you're ever feeling like you're not successful or that your contributions to life, industry or community are not enough... try contributing to someone else and that feeling with quickly change.
2. The Discipline of Less
Many times we end up failing simply because we tried to do too much or because we had too high of expectations for ourselves. The overwhelming amount of 'things' that we do require so much focus, so much attention and so much of our energy, that it can be next to impossible to truly execute them successfully. When this feeling occurs, the discipline of less can usually step in and sort things out. Do you really need all those email accounts? (talking to myself by the way.) Several business ventures? (whoops again!) Attending all those meetings? Owning all those properties? As you can imagine, all of these commitments pull on us every single day or at the least take up a lot of room in mental storage space. The moment one of these responsibilities or commitments begin to fall, we start to feel like we're unsuccessful. Practice cutting the non-essentials out of your life. In the Book Essentialism by Greg Mckewon, he tells of the well know stovetop exercise:
If you had 4 stovetops all representing particular commitments in your life ( Family, Health, Career & Friends ) and you had to turn off one, which would it be? And if you had to turn off two?
Now of course, this exercise is not designed to make you choose between your family and your health, or your friends and your career, but it should help give you an idea of your priorities so you can better structure your day, your week, your goals and your life.
3. The Discipline of Self Development
When you’re just starting out in business or your career, you don’t have any experience to help you figure things out. That’s why you need to learn as much as you can during those early stages. Whether it’s from books, the internet, or other people, there’s always something new to learn. Moreover, when you’re just starting out, you don’t have any work experience or reputation to speak of. That means that people are more likely to give you advice and mentorship for free... TAKE IT! The discipline of self development in a nutshell is this: You must never stop learning. One if the most valuable and profitable investments I've ever made in my life was my monthly audible subscription. Every month I have access to thousands and thousands of books on topics that will straight up better my life. It's priceless. People pouring out their life experiences, thoughts, perspectives, tactics and wisdom in order to help others do better, get better, live better or see life in a better way. I have disciplined myself to A) (pay my subscription bill on time and B) soak up as much knowledge and information as I can on various topics that will help me to succeed and live an overall better life. I encourage you to do the same!
Service to others, focus on the essentials a.k.a less and never stop learning. 3 relatively simple techniques on paper but what really matters is what you do with this information. Being disciplined is all about pushing yourself to do what needs to be done, even on the worst days, even if you don't want to. Especially if you don't want to. Discipline and consistency are brothers.
Let these brothers work for you, or they might end up working against you.
Love you guys. Talk soon!
-Daniel