The Five Pillars of Self-Discipline

The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and
Persistence. If you take the first letter of each word, you get the acrony !A WHIP" # a
convenient way to ree$er the, since any people associate self-discipline with
whipping theselves into shape.
%ach day of the series, I&ll e'plore one of these pillars, e'plaining why it&s iportant and
how to develop it. (ut first a general overview).
What Is Self-Discipline?
*elf-discipline is the a$ility to get yourself to take action regardless of your eotional
state.
Without self-discipline that intention won&t $ecoe anifest. (ut with sufficient self-
discipline, it&s a done deal. The pinnacle of self-discipline is when you reach the point that
when you ake a conscious decision+ it&s virtually guaranteed you&ll follow through on it.
*elf-discipline is one of any personal developent tools availa$le to you. ,f course it is
not a panacea. -evertheless, the pro$les which self-discipline can solve are iportant,
and while there are other ways to solve these pro$les, self-discipline a$solutely shreds
the. It can wipe out procrastination, disorder, and ignorance. Within the doain of
pro$les it can solve, self-discipline is siply unatched. .oreover, it $ecoes a
powerful teaate when co$ined with other tools like passion, goal-setting, and
planning.
Building Self-Discipline
.y philosophy of how to $uild self-discipline is $est e'plained $y an analogy. *elf-discipline
is like a uscle. The ore you train it, the stronger you $ecoe. The less you train it, the
weaker you $ecoe.
/ust as everyone has different uscular strength, we all possess different levels of self-
discipline. %veryone has soe # if you can hold your $reath a few seconds, you have
soe self-discipline. (ut not everyone has developed their discipline to the sae degree.
/ust as it takes uscle to $uild uscle, it takes self-discipline to $uild self-discipline.
The way to $uild self-discipline is analogous to using progressive weight training to $uild
uscle. This eans lifting weights that are close to your liit. -ote that when you weight
train, you lift weights that are within your a$ility to lift. 0ou push your uscles until they
fail, and then you rest.
*iilarly, the $asic ethod to $uild self-discipline is to tackle challenges that you can
successfully accoplish $ut which are near your liit. This doesn&t ean trying soething
and failing at it every day, nor does it ean staying within your cofort 1one. 0ou will gain
no strength trying to lift a weight that you cannot $udge, nor will you gain strength lifting
weights that are too light for you. 0ou ust start with weights2challenges that are within
your current a$ility to lift $ut which are near your liit.
Progressive training eans that once you succeed, you increase the challenge. If you keep
working out with the sae weights, you won&t get any stronger. *iilarly, if you fail to
challenge yourself in life, you won&t gain any ore self-discipline.
/ust as ost people have very weak uscles copared to how strong they could $ecoe
with training, ost people are very weak in their level of self-discipline.
Its a mistake to try to push yourself too hard when trying to build self-discipline. If you
try to transform your entire life overnight by setting dozens of new goals for yourself and
expecting yourself to follow through consistently starting the very next day, youre almost
certain to fail. This is like a person going to the gy for the first tie ever and packing
344 pounds on the $ench press. 0ou will only look silly.
If you can only lift 54 l$s, you can only lift 54 l$s. There&s no shae in starting where you
are. I recall when I $egan working with a personal trainer several years ago, on y first
attept at doing a $ar$ell shoulder press, I could only lift a 6-l$ $ar with no weight on it.
.y shoulders were very weak $ecause I&d never trained the. (ut within a few onths I
was up to 74 l$s.
*iilarly, if youre very undisciplined right now, you can still use what little discipline you
have to build more. The ore disciplined you $ecoe, the easier life gets. 8hallenges that
were once ipossi$le for you will eventually see like child&s play. As you get stronger,
the sae weights will see lighter and lighter.
9on&t copare yourself to other people. It won&t help. 0ou&ll only find what you e'pect to
find. If you think you&re weak, everyone else will see stronger. If you think you&re strong,
everyone else will see weaker. There&s no point in doing this. *iply look at where you
are now, and ai to get $etter as you go forward.
:et&s consider an e'aple.
*uppose you want to develop the a$ility to do ; solid hours of work each day, since you
know it will ake a real difference in your career. I was listening to an audio progra this
orning that <uoted a study saying the average office worker spends 36= of their tie in
idle sociali1ing, not to ention other vices that chew up ore than >4= of work tie with
unproductive non-work. *o there&s plenty of roo for iproveent.
Perhaps you try to work a solid ;-hour day without succu$ing to distractions, and you
can only do it once. The ne't day you fail utterly. That&s ,?. 0ou did one rep of ; hours.
Two is too uch for you. *o cut $ack a $it. What duration would allow you to successfully
do > reps @i.e. a whole weekAB 8ould you work with concentration for one hour a day, five
days in a rowB If you can&t do that, cut $ack to 34 inutes or whatever you can do. If you
succeed @or if you feel that would $e too easyA, then increase the challenge @i.e. the
resistanceA.
,nce you&ve astered a week at one level, take it up a notch the ne't week. And continue
with this progressive training until you&ve reached your goal.
While analogies like this are never perfect, I&ve gotten a lot of ileage out of this one. (y
raising the $ar Cust a little each week, you stay within your capa$ilities and grow stronger
over tie. But when doing weight training, the actual work you do doesnt mean anything.
heres no intrinsic benefit in lifting a weight up and down ! the benefit comes from the
muscle growth. "owever, when building self-discipline, you also get the benefit of the
work youve done along the way, so thats even better. Its great when your training
produces something of value #$% makes you stronger.
Throughout this week we&ll dive ore deeply into the five pillars of self-discipline. If you
have any <uestions on the su$Cect of self-discipline @either specific or generalA that you&d
like to see addressed, feel free to post the as coents, and I&ll do y $est to
incorporate the along the way.
Self-Discipline: Acceptance
June 6th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
%ail
The first of the five pillars of self-discipline is acceptance. Acceptance eans that you
perceive reality accurately and consciously acknowledge what you perceive.
This ay sound siple and o$vious, $ut in practice it&s e'treely difficult. If you
e'perience chronic difficulties in a particular area of your life, there&s a strong chance that
the root of the pro$le is a failure to accept reality as it is.
Why is acceptance a pillar of self-disciplineB The ost $asic istake people ake with
respect to self-discipline is a failure to accurately perceive and accept their present
situation. Dee$er the analogy $etween self-discipline and weight training
fro yesterday&s postB If you&re going to succeed at weight training, the first step is to
figure out what weights you can already lift. How strong are you right nowB Entil you
figure out where you stand right now, you cannot adopt a sensi$le training progra.
If you haven&t consciously acknowledged where you stand right now in ters of your level
of self-discipline, it&s highly unlikely that you&re going to iprove at all in this area.
Iagine a would-$e $ody$uilder who has no idea how uch weight s2he can lift and
ar$itrarily adopts a training routine. It&s virtually certain that the chosen weights will $e
either too heavy or too light. If the weights are too heavy, the trainee won&t $e a$le to lift
the at all and thus will e'perience no uscle growth. And if the weights are too light, the
trainee will lift the easily $ut won&t $uild any uscle in doing so.
*iilarly, if you want to increase your self-discipline, you ust know where you stand
right now. How strong is your discipline at this oentB Which challenges are easy for
you, and which are virtually ipossi$le for youB
Here&s a list of challenges to get you thinking a$out where you stand right now @in no
particular orderA:
9o you shower2$athe every dayB
9o you get up at the sae tie every orningB Including weekendsB
Are you overweightB
9o you have any addictions @caffeine, nicotine, sugar, etc.A you&d like to $reak $ut
haven&tB
Is your eail in$o' epty right nowB
Is your office neat and well organi1edB
Is your hoe neat and well organi1edB
How uch tie do you waste in a typical dayB ,n a weekendB
If you ake a proise to soeone, what&s the percentage chance you&ll keep itB
If you ake a proise to yourself, what&s the percentage chance you&ll keep itB
8ould you fast for one dayB
How well organi1ed is your coputer&s hard driveB
How often do you e'erciseB
What&s the greatest physical challenge you&ve ever faced, and how long ago was itB
How any hours of focused work do you coplete in a typical workdayB
How any ites on your to do list are older than F4 daysB
9o you have clear, written goalsB 9o you have written plans to achieve theB
If you lost your Co$, how uch tie would you spend each day looking for a new
one, and how long would you aintain that level of effortB
How uch TG do you currently watchB 8ould you give up TG for 34 daysB
How do you look right nowB What does your appearance say a$out your level of
discipline @clothes, grooing, etcAB
9o you priarily select foods to eat $ased on health considerations or on
taste2satietyB
When was the last tie you consciously adopted a positive new ha$itB
9iscontinued a $ad ha$itB
Are you in de$tB 9o you consider this de$t an investent or a istakeB
9id you decide in advance to $e reading this $log right now, or did it Cust happenB
8an you tell e what you&ll $e doing toorrowB -e't weekendB
,n a scale of 5-54, how would you rate your overall level of self-disciplineB
What ore could you accoplish if you could answer that last <uestion with a F or
54B
/ust as there are different uscle groups which you train with different e'ercises, there
are different areas of self-discipline: disciplined sleep, disciplined diet, disciplined work
ha$its, disciplined counication, etc. It takes different e'ercises to $uild discipline in
each area.
.y advice is to identify an area where your discipline is weakest, assess where you stand
right now, acknowledge and accept your starting point, and design a training progra for
yourself to iprove in this area. *tart out with soe easy e'ercises you know you can do,
and gradually progress to greater challenges.
Progressive training works with self-discipline Cust as it does with $uilding uscle. Hor
e'aple, if you can $arely get out of $ed at 54a, are you likely to succeed at waking up
at >a every orningB Pro$a$ly not. (ut could you aster getting up at F:I>aB Gery
likely. And once you&ve done that, could you progress to F:34 or F:5>B *ure. When I
started getting up at >a consistently, I had already done it several ties for a few days
in a row, and y noral wake-up tie was 7-7:34a, so that ne't step was challenging
$ut achieva$le for e partly $ecause I was already within range of it.
Without acceptance you get either ignorance or denial. With ignorance you siply don&t
know how disciplined you are # you&ve pro$a$ly never even thought a$out it. 0ou don&t
know that you don&t know. 0ou&ll only have a fu11y notion of what you can and can&t do.
0ou&ll e'perience soe easy successes and soe disal failures, $ut you&re ore likely to
$lae the task or $lae yourself instead of siply acknowledging that the !weight" was
too heavy for you and that you need to $ecoe stronger.
When you&re in a state of denial a$out your level of discipline, you&re locked into a false
view of reality. 0ou&re either overly pessiistic or optiistic a$out your capa$ilities. And
like the trainee who doesn&t know his2her own strength, you won&t get uch $etter
$ecause it&s unlikely you&ll $e a$le to hit the proper training 1one $y accident. ,n the
pessiistic side, you&ll only pick up easy weights and avoid the heavy ones which you
could actually lift and which would ake you stronger. And on the optiistic side, you&ll
keep trying to lift weights that are too heavy for you and failing, and afterwards you ay
either $eat yourself up or resolve to try harder, neither of which will ake you stronger.
I have personally reaped treendous $enefits fro pursuing the path of self-discipline.
When I was J4 years old, I lived in a sall studio apartent, and y sleep hours were
soething like Ia to 5p. .y diet included lots of fast food and Cunk food. I didn&t
e'ercise e'cept for soeties taking long walks. Ketting the ail seeed like a significant
accoplishent each day, and the highlight of y day was hanging out with friends. At
the end of a onth, I couldn&t really think of any salient events that occurred during the
onth. I had no Co$, no car, no incoe, no goals, no plans, and no real future. All I felt I
had was a lot of pro$les that weren&t getting any $etter. I had no sense that I could
control y path through life. I would siply wait for things to happen and then react to
the.
(ut eventually I faced the reality that trying to wait out y life wasn&t working. If I was
going to get anywhere, I was going to have to do soething a$out it. And initially this
eant tackling a lot of difficult challenges, $ut I overcae the and grew a lot stronger in
a short period of tie.
Hast forward fourteen years, and it&s like night and day. I get up at >a each orning. I
e'ercise si' days a week. I eat a purely vegan diet with lots of fresh vegeta$les. .y hoe
office is well organi1ed. .y physical in$o' and y eail in$o' are $oth epty. I& arried
with two kids and live in a nice house. A $inder sits on y desk with y written goals and
detailed plans to achieve the, and several of y J44> goals have already $een
accoplished. I&ve never $een ore clear a$out what I wanted, and I& doing what I love.
I know I& aking a difference.
-one of this Cust happened. It was intentional. And it certainly didn&t happen overnight. It
took a lot of years of hard work. It&s still hard work, $ut I&ve $ecoe a lot stronger such
that things that would have $een insurounta$le for e at age J4 are easy today, which
eans I can tackle $igger challenges and therefore achieve even $etter results. If I had
tried to do everything I& doing now when I was J4, I would have failed utterly. J4-year
old *teve wouldn&t have $een a$le to handle it, not even for one day. (ut for 3I-year old
*teve, it&s easy. And what&s really e'citing for e is to think of what I;-year old *teve will
$e a$le to accoplish) relative to y life path of course, not anyone else&s.
I A. telling you this to ipress you, not with e $ut with yourself. I want you to $e
ipressed $y what you can accoplish over the ne't >-54 years if you progressively $uild
your self-discipline. It will not $e easy, $ut it will $e worth it. The first step is to openly
accept where you are right now, whether you feel good a$out it or not. *urrender yourself
to what you have to work with # ay$e it isn&t fair, $ut it is what it is. And you won&t get
any stronger until you accept where you are right now.
Self-Discipline: Willpower
June 7th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
%ail
he difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack
of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
- Gince :o$ardi
Willpower # such a dirty word these days. How any coercials have you seen that
attept to position their products as a su$stitute for willpowerB They $egin $y telling you
that willpower doesn&t work and then attept to sell you soething !fast and easy" like a
diet pill or soe wacky e'ercise e<uipent. ,ften they&ll even guarantee ipossi$le
results in a draatically short period of tie # that&s a safe $et $ecause people who lack
willpower pro$a$ly won&t take the tie to return these useless products.
(ut guess what) willpower does work. (ut in order to take full advantage of it, you ust
learn what it can and cannot do. People who say willpower doesn&t work are trying to use it
in a way that&s $eyond its capa$ilities.
What Is Willpower?
Willpower is your a$ility to set a course of action and say, !%ngageL"
Willpower provides an intensely powerful yet teporary $oost. Think of it as a one-shot
thruster. It $urns out <uickly, $ut if directed intelligently, it can provide the $urst you need
to overcoe inertia and create oentu.
Willpower is the spearhead of self-discipline. To use a World War II analogy, willpower
would $e 9-9ay, the -orandy Invasion. It was the gigantic $attle that turned the tide of
the war and got things oving in a new direction, even though it took another year to
reach G% 9ay @Gictory in %uropeA. To ake that kind of effort every day of the war would
have $een ipossi$le.
Willpower is a concentration of force. 0ou gather up all your energy and ake a assive
thrust forward. 0ou attack your pro$les strategically at their weakest points until they
crack, allowing you enough roo to aneuver deeper into their territory and finish the
off.
The application of willpower includes the following steps:
5. 8hoose your o$Cective
J. 8reate a plan of attack
3. %'ecute the plan
With willpower you may tae your time implementing steps ! and "# $ut when
you get to step %# you&ve got to hit it hard and fast'
9on&t try to tackle your pro$les and challenges in such a way that a high level of
willpower is re<uired every day. Willpower is unsustaina$le. If you attept to use it for too
long, you&ll $urn out. It re<uires a level of energy that you can aintain only for a short
period of tie) in ost cases the fuel is spent within a atter of days.
(se Willpower to )reate Self-Sustaining *omentum
*o if willpower can only $e used in short, powerful $ursts, then what&s the $est way to
apply itB How do you keep fro slipping $ack into old patterns once the teporary
willpower $last is overB
The $est way to use willpower is to esta$lish a $eachhead, such that further progress can
$e ade with far less effort than is re<uired of the initial thrust. Dee$er 9-9ay # once
the Allies had esta$lished a $eachhead, the road ahead was uch easier for the. It was
still challenging to $e sure, especially with the close <uarters fighting aong hedge rows in
Hrance $efore the Dhino Tanks $egan plowing through the, $ut it was a lot easier than
trying to aintain the focus, energy, and coordination of a full scale $each invasion every
single day for another year.
*o the proper use of willpower is to esta$lish that $eachhead # to peranently change
the territory itself such that it&s easier to continue oving on. Ese willpower to reduce the
ongoing need for such a high level of sustained force.
+n ,-ample
:et&s put all of the a$ove together into a concrete e'aple.
*uppose your o$Cective is to lose J4 pounds. 0ou attept to go on a diet. It takes
willpower, and you do ,? with it the first week. (ut within a few weeks you&ve fallen $ack
into old ha$its and gained all the weight $ack. 0ou try again with different diets, $ut the
result is still the sae. 0ou can&t sustain oentu for long enough to reach your goal
weight.
That&s to $e e'pected though $ecause willpower is teporary. It&s for sprints, not
arathons. Willpower re<uires conscious focus, and conscious focus is very draining # it
cannot $e aintained for long. *oething will eventually distract you.
Here&s how to tackle that sae goal with the proper application of willpower. 0ou accept
that you can only apply a short $urst of willpower) ay$e a few days at $est. After that
it&s gone. *o you&d $etter use that willpower to alter the territory around you in such a way
that aintaining oentu won&t $e as hard as $uilding it in the first place. 0ou need to
use your willpower to esta$lish a $eachhead on the shores of your goal.
*o you sit down and ake a plan. This doesn&t re<uire uch energy, and you can spread
the work out over any days.
0ou identify all the various targets you&ll need to strike if you want to have a chance of
success. Hirst, all the Cunk food needs to leave your kitchen, including anything you have a
tendency to overeat, and you need to replace it with foods that will help you lose weight,
like fruits and veggies. *econdly, you know you&ll $e tepted to get fast food if you coe
hoe hungry and don&t have anything ready to eat, so you decide to pre-cook a week&s
worth of food in advance each weekend. That way you always have soething in the
refrigerator. 0ou set aside a $lock of several hours each weekend to $uy groceries and
cook all your food for the week. Plus you get a decent cook$ook of healthy recipes. 0ou
learn a$out Weight Watchers, and find out where the closest one is to you, so you can go
to the first eeting and sign-up. *etup a weight chart and post it on your $athroo wall.
Ket a decent scale that can easure weight and $ody fat =. .ake a list of saple eals
@> $reakfasts, > lunches, and > dinnersA, and post it on your refrigerator. And so on). At
this point all of this goes into the written plan.
Then you e'ecute # hard and fast. 0ou can pro$a$ly ipleent the whole plan in one day.
Attend your first Weight Watchers eeting and get all the aterials. Purge the unhealthy
food fro the kitchen. (uy the new groceries, the new cook$ook, and the new scale. Post
the weight chart and the saple eals list. *elect recipes and cook a $atch of food for the
week. WhewL
(y the end of the day, you&ve used your willpower not to diet directly $ut to esta$lish the
conditions that will ake your diet easier to follow. When you wake up the ne't orning,
you&ll find your environent draatically changed in accordance with your plan. 0our
fridge will $e stocked with plenty of pre-cooked healthy food for you to eat. There won&t $e
any Cunkie pro$le foods in your hoe. 0ou&ll $e a e$er of Weight Watchers and will
have weekly eetings to attend. 0ou&ll have a regular $lock of tie set aside for grocery
shopping and food prep. It will still re<uire soe discipline to follow your diet, $ut you&ve
already changed things so uch that it won&t $e nearly as difficult as it would $e without
these changes.
Here are soe previous $log entries that will give you even ore ideas for odifying your
environent:
%nvironental Deinforce of 0our Koals
Are 0our Hriends an %levator or a 8ageB
0our Personal Accounta$ility *yste
9on&t use willpower to attack your $iggest pro$le directly. Ese willpower to attack the
environental and social o$stacles that perpetuate the pro$le. %sta$lish a $eachhead
first, and then fortify your position @i.e. turn it into a ha$it, such as $y doing a 34-9ay
8hallengeA. Ha$it puts action on autopilot, such that very little willpower is re<uired for
ongoing progress, allowing you to practically coast towards your goal.
Self-Discipline: Hard Work
June 8th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
%ail
he big secret in life is that there is no big secret. &hatever your goal, you can get there if
youre willing to work.
- ,prah Winfrey
Hard work # yet another dirty word
.ard Wor Defined
.y definition of hard work is that which challenges you.
And why is challenge iportantB Why not Cust do what&s easiestB
.ost people will do what&s easiest and avoid hard work # and that&s precisely why you
should do the opposite. The superficial opportunities of life will $e attacked $y hordes of
people seeking what&s easy. The uch tougher challenges will usually see a lot less
copetition and a lot ore opportunity.
There&s an African gold ine two iles deep. It cost tens of illions of dollars to construct,
$ut it&s one of the ost lucrative gold ines ever. These iners tackled a very challenging
pro$le with a lot of hard work, $ut ultiately it&s paying off.
I ree$er when I was developing the P8 gae 9weep in 5FFF, I spent four onths full-
tie working to create a design doc that was only five pages long. It was a logic pu11le
gae, and I found it e'treely challenging to get the design Cust right. After the design
was done, everything else took only two ore onths # prograing, artwork, usic,
sound effects, writing the installer, and launching the gae.
I spent all this tie intentionally working on design $ecause at the tie, I $elieved this
was where I could get the copetitive edge I needed. I knew I couldn&t copete on the
$asis of the gae&s technical attri$utes. (efore I started on the gae, I surveyed the
copetition and found a lot of gaes that I considered !low hanging fruit." .ost of the
arket was flooded with clones of older gaes, the kind of stuff that&s easiest to ake.
And ost of y early gaes were short on design as well, ostly ai-and-shoot arcade
gaes.
It was uch, uch harder to design an original gae with uni<ue gaeplay. (ut it paid off
handsoely. 9weep won the *hareware Industry Award in J444, and an iproved version
of the gae @9weep KoldA won that sae award the following year. As a result of the
success of that gae, I was interviewed $y a reporter for the $ew 'ork imes, and y
interview along with a nice photo appeared in the /une 53, J445 edition @$usiness sectionA.
Hirst released on /une 5, 5FFF, 9weep is now $eginning its 6th year of sales. It can&t
copete with today&s technology. It couldn&t copete on technology when it was first
released. (ut it still copetes well on design with the $est of the other copetitors in its
field. I discovered there are a lot of players who prefer a well-designed gae with dated
graphics than a shallow light show with the latest technology. The long-ter success of
this gae $rought hoe the lesson that hard work does pay.
There&s no way 9weep would have $een a$le to hold out this long if I had taken the easy
way out during the design phase. I dug for gold two iles deep, so it was uch harder for
anyone else to unseat the gae fro its position in the arket. In order to do that, they&d
have to outdig e, and very few people are willing to do that $ecause creative gae
design is e'cruciatingly difficult. %veryone says they have a cool gae idea, $ut to actually
turn it into soething worka$le, fun, and innovative is very hard work. When I look at
other gaes that are successful over a period of >M years, I consistently see a willingness
to take on hard work that others aren&t willing to tackle. And yet today the arket is even
ore overcrowded with cloned drivel than when I started.
*trong challenge is coonly connected with strong results. *ure you can get lucky every
once in a while and find an easy path to success. (ut will you $e a$le to aintain that
success, or is it Cust a flukeB Will you $e a$le to repeat itB ,nce other people learn how
you did it, will you find yourself overloaded with copetitionB
When you discipline yourself to do what is hard, you gain access to a real of results that
are denied everyone else. The willingness to do what is difficult is like having a key to a
special private treasure roo.
he nice thing about hard work is that its universal. It doesnt matter what industry youre
in ! hard work can be used to achieve positive long-term results regardless of the
specifics.
I& using this sae philosophy in $uilding this personal developent $usiness. I do a lot
of things that are hard. I try to address topics that other people don&t and $ypass the low
hanging fruit. I strive to e'plore topics deeply and search for the gold. I do lots of reading
and research. I write lengthy articles and give y $est ideas away for free, so I&
constantly forced to $etter y $est. I launched this $usiness in ,cto$er of last year and
have $een working on it full tie for essentially no pay.
.eanwhile I& working hard in Toastasters to $uild y speaking skills @y one-year
anniversary was /une JndA. I $elong to two different clu$s and attend 7-6 eetings per
onth. I $ecae a clu$ officer a$out a onth after Coining, and I was Cust elected to a
second officer position. I&ve given any speeches, all of the for free. I&ve copeted in
every speech contest since I&ve Coined. If I had put all this tie into y gaes $usiness,
I&d have a lot ore oney right now. It&s a lot of hard work, and I&ve pro$a$ly got at least
another year of training $efore I& ready to go pro. (ut I& willing to pay the price
whatever it takes. I& not going to take the easy path to a shallow position where I will
only coe crashing $ack down again. I won&t get up on a stage and spout a $unch of fluffy
self-help sound $ites that still garner applause and a paycheck $ut which don&t ultiately
help anyone. If it takes years, it takes years.
I& taking the sae approach to writing y $ook. It&s a lot of hard work. (ut I want this to
$e the kind of $ook that people will still $e reading 54 years fro now. Writing a $ook like
this is at least 54' harder than the kinds of $ooks I see doinating the psychology section
of $ookstores today. (ut ost of those $ooks will $e off the shelves in a year, and few
people will even ree$er the.
Hard work pays off. When soeone tells you otherwise, $eware the sales pitch for
soething !fast and easy" that&s a$out to coe ne't. The greater your capacity for hard
work, the ore rewards fall within your grasp. The deeper you can dig, the ore treasure
you can potentially find.
(eing healthy is hard work. Hinding and aintaining a successful relationship is hard work.
Daising kids is hard work. Ketting organi1ed is hard work. *etting goals, aking plans to
achieve the, and staying on track is hard work. %ven $eing happy is hard work @true
happiness that coes fro high self-estee, not the fake kind that coes fro denial and
escapisA.
Hard work goes hand-in-hand with acceptance. ,ne of the things you ust accept are
those areas of your life that won&t succu$ to anything less than hard work. Perhaps
you&ve had no luck finding a fulfilling relationship. .ay$e the only way it&s going to happen
is if you accept you&re going to have to do what you&ve $een avoiding. Perhaps you want to
lose weight. .ay$e it&s tie to accept that the path to your goal re<uires disciplined diet
and e'ercise @$oth hard workA. Perhaps you want to increase your incoe. .ay$e you
should accept that the only way it will happen is with a lot of hard work.
0our life will reach a whole new level when you stop avoiding and fearing hard work and
siply surrender to it. .ake it your ally instead of your eney. It&s a potent tool to have
on your side.
Self-Discipline: Industry
June 9th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
%ail
Industry is working hard. In contrast to hard work, $eing industrious doesn&t necessarily
ean doing work that&s challenging or difficult. It siply eans putting in the tie. 0ou
can $e industrious doing easy work or hard work.
Iagine you have a $a$y. 0ou&ll spend a lot of tie changing diapers. (ut that isn&t really
hard work # it&s Cust a atter of doing it over and over any ties each day.
In life there are any tasks that aren&t necessarily difficult, $ut they collectively re<uire a
significant tie investent. If you don&t discipline yourself to stay on top of the, they
can ake a $ig ess of your life. /ust think of all the little things you need to do:
shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, ta'es, paying $ills, hoe aintenance, childcare,
etc. And this is Cust for hoe # if you include work the list grows even longer. These
things ay not reach your A-list for iportance, $ut they still need to $e done.
*elf-discipline re<uires that you develop the capacity to put in the tie where it&s needed.
A lot of esses are created when we refuse to put in the tie to do what needs to $e done
# and to do it correctly. *uch esses range fro a essy desk or cluttered eail in$o' all
the way down to an %nron or Worldco. (ig ess or sall ess # take your pick. %ither
way a significant contri$uting factor is the refusal to do what needs to $e done.
*oeties it&s clear what needs to $e done. *oeties it isn&t clear at all. (ut ignoring
the ess won&t help no atter what. If you don&t know what needs to $e done, the first
step is to figure it out. This ay re<uire you to seek out inforation and educate yourself.
In order to launch this $log last year, I had to figure out how to do it. I took tie to
educate yself $y reading other $logs and evaluating various $logging tools. It wasn&t
difficult for e, $ut it re<uired a significant tie investent.
*oeties we allow little annoyances to linger a $it too long. In /anuary y wife and I
$ought a new house. (ut it was only last weekend we finally unpacked the last $o'. We did
ost of the unpacking in the first few weeks after the ove, $ut a couple $o'es were
shoved into a corner, and neither one of us wanted to unpack the. WhyB We didn&t know
where to put the stuff they contained. It seeed siplest to Cust ignore the pro$le and
hope the $o'es would agically unpack theselves. Hinally we got the unpacked last
weekend and took care of a few other hoe repairs that had $een on the $ack $urner as
well.
It wasn&t difficult or costly to do these things. It was siply a atter of tie to get the
done. It didn&t re<uire uch skill or $rainpower. All we had to do was Cust accept that they
needed to $e done, take a few inutes to figure out how to do the, and then do the.
Put in the Time
There are any pro$les in life where the solution is largely a $rainless tie investent.
If your eail in$o' is overloaded, this is not a challenging pro$le. (elieve e # there
are $igger challenges in life than handling old correspondence. I guarantee you have the
$rainpower to handle it. Ketting your eail in$o' to epty is purely a atter of tie.
.ay$e it will take you several hours to do it. If it&s worth several hours to get it done, then
put in the tie. .ay$e enCoy soe rela'ing usic as you do. ,therwise Cust hit (trl-
#followed $y %elete, and $e done with it.
How any pro$les do you have on your to do list right now that can $e solved with the
siple application of industryB *oeties you don&t need to $e particularly creative or
clever a$out it # a $rute force solution will do. (ut it&s easy to get stuck in a pattern of
wishing that a $rute force solution wasn&t necessary. It&s tedious. It&s $oring. It&s not that
iportant anyway. And yet it still needs to $e done.
(y all eans if you can find a way to avoid a tie-consuing solution and find a faster or
$etter way to $ypass or eliinate the pro$le, take advantage of it. 9elegate it, delete it
# do whatever you can to reove the tie $urden. (ut if you know it&s soething that
won&t get done e'cept via your personal tie investent, like the ornery $o'es in y
hoe that refused to self-unpack, then Cust accept it and get it off your plate. 9on&t
coplain. 9on&t whine. /ust do it.
Develop /our Personal Productivity
9isciplining yourself to $e industrious allows you to s<uee1e ore value out of your tie.
Tie is a constant, $ut your personal productivity is not. *oe people will use the hours of
their day far ore efficiently than others. It&s aa1ing that people will spend e'tra oney
to $uy a faster coputer or a fuel efficient car, $ut they&ll $arely pay any attention to their
personal capacity. 0our personal productivity will do a lot ore for you than a coputer or
a car in the long run. Kive an industrious prograer a 54-year old coputer, and s2he&ll
get uch ore done with it over the course of a year than a la1y prograer with state
of the art technology.
9espite all the technology and gadgets we have availa$le that can potentially ake us
ore efficient, your personal productivity is still your greatest $ottleneck. 9on&t look to
technology to ake you ore productive. If you don&t consider yourself productive without
technology, you won&t $e productive with it # it will only serve to ask your $ad ha$its.
(ut if you&re already industrious without technology, it can help you $ecoe even ore so.
Think of technology as a force ultiplier # it ultiplies what you already are.
If you want to ake $etter use of your tie, I recoend you $egin with the approach in
this article:
Triple 0our Personal Productivity
The $asic idea $ehind the article is to first easure your current level of productivity @the
article e'plains how to do this via tie loggingA, easure your current !efficiency ratio,"
and then gradually rap it up.
I first wrote that article in J444, and I&ve continually coe $ack to this ethod again and
again, at least once every si' onths. It akes e consciously aware of e'actly how I use
y tie. I last applied it a few onths ago, tracking y tie usage over a period of
several days, and I was surprised to find that there was little roo for iproveent. It
took e five years since writing that article to reach this point, $ut I finally feel I& using
y tie efficiently. I still have unproductive days now and then, $ut they&re the e'ception.
.ost of the tie I look $ack on y days and think, !I really got a lot done today. It would
$e hard to have done it any $etter."
Hive years ago I knew what I needed to do. It took e that long to $uild the strength and
discipline to $e a$le to do it on a consistent $asis. THI* WA* -,T %A*0L
When you pursue the path of developing your personal productivity, it ay cause you
soe days of hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, $ut it does eventually pay off. I think any
people are attracted to the idea of $ecoing ore productive out of $asic coon sense.
It doesn&t take uch $rainpower to figure out that if you use your tie ore efficiently,
you&ll coplete ore tasks, and therefore you&ll accuulate results faster. Personal
productivity allows you to create enough space in your life to do all the things you feel you
should $e doing: eat healthy, e'ercise, work hard, deepen relationships, have a wonderful
social life, and ake a difference. ,therwise, soething has to give. Without a high level
of personal productivity, you&ll likely have to give up soething that&s iportant to you.
0ou have conflicts $etween health and work, work and faily, faily and friends. Industry
can give you the a$ility to enCoy all of these things, so you don&t have to choose work over
faily or vice versa. 0ou can have $oth.
,f course industry is only one tool aong any. It will allow you to coplete your work
efficiently, $ut it won&t tell you what work to do in the first place. Industry is a low level
tool. Working hard doesn&t necessarily ean working sart. (ut this weakness of industry
doesn&t reove its powerful place in your personal developent tool$o'. ,nce you&ve
decided on a course of action and see your plans laid out in front of you, nothing can do
the Co$ as well as industry. In the long run your results will coe fro your actions, and
industry is all a$out action.
Self-Discipline: Persistence
June 10th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
Email
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more
common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost
a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On has solved and alwa!s will
solve the problems of the human race.
- Calvin Coolidge
Persistence is the fifth and final illar of self-disciline!
What Is Persistence?
Persistence is the ability to maintain action regardless of your feelings! "ou ress on even
#hen you feel li$e %uitting!
&hen you #or$ on any big goal, your motivation #ill #a' and #ane li$e #aves hitting the
shore! Sometimes you(ll feel motivated) sometimes you #on(t! *ut it(s not your motivation
that #ill roduce results + it(s your action! Persistence allo#s you to $ee ta$ing action
even #hen you don(t feel motivated to do so, and therefore you $ee accumulating results!
Persistence #ill ultimately rovide its o#n motivation! ,f you simly $ee ta$ing action,
you(ll eventually get results, and results can be very motivating! -or e'amle, you may
become a lot more enthusiastic about dieting and e'ercising once you(ve lost those first 10
ounds and feel your clothes fitting more loosely!
When to Give p
Should you al#ays ersist and never give u. Certainly not! Sometimes giving u is clearly
the best otion!
/ave you ever heard of a comany called 0raf-1-2ata. &hat about 3icrosoft. *oth
comanies #ere started by *ill 4ates and Paul 5llen! 0raf-1-2ata #as the first comany
they started, bac$ in 1672! "ou can read the story of 0raf-1-2atahere! 4ates and 5llen ran
it for several years before thro#ing in the to#el! 0hey gave u! 1f course they did a little
better #ith 3icrosoft!
,f they hadn(t given u on 0raf-1-2ata, then #e #ouldn(t have such rich collections
of 3icrosoft and *ill 4ates 8o$es today!
So ho# do you $no# #hen to ress on vs! #hen to give u.
,s your lan still correct. ,f not, udate the lan! ,s your goal still correct. ,f not, udate or
abandon your goal! 0here(s no honor in clinging to a goal that no longer insires you!
Persistence is not stubbornness!
0his #as a articularly difficult lesson for me to learn! , had al#ays believed one should
never give u, that once you set a goal, you should hang on to the bitter end! 0he catain
goes do#n #ith the shi and all that! ,f , ever failed to finish a ro8ect , started, ,(d feel
very guilty about it!
Eventually , figured out that this is 8ust nonsense!
,f you(re gro#ing at all as a human being, then you(re going to be a different erson each
year than you #ere the revious year! 5nd if you consciously ursue ersonal develoment,
then the changes #ill often be dramatic and raid! "ou can(t guarantee that the goals you
set today #ill still be ones you(ll #ant to achieve a year from no#!
3y first business #as 2e'terity Soft#are! , started it in 1669, fresh out of college! *ut after
running it for more than a decade, , #as ready for something ne#! , still run 2e'terity on
the side, but it(s not my full-time focus anymore! ,t ta$es me only about an hour or t#o a
#ee$ to maintain it, artly because , designed it to be as automated as ossible and to
rovide me #ith a assive income! ,t #as successful to the e'tent , #anted it to be! , could
have continued to gro# it much larger, but , $ne# , didn(t #ant to send the rest of my life
ma$ing comuter games! Creating my o#n game comany #as my dream at age 22, and
after ublishing a coule do:en games, , feel , accomlished that goal! 22-year old Steve is
very satisfied! *ut today , have different dreams!
2id , give u on 2e'terity. "ou could say that, but it #ould be more accurate to say that ,
#as infected by a ne# vision of something that #as far more imortant to me! /ad ,
stubbornly ersisted #ith 2e'terity, this site #ould never have e'isted! ,(d be #or$ing on a
ne# game instead of my first boo$!
,n order to ma$e room for ne# goals, #e have to delete or comlete old ones! 5nd
sometimes ne# goals are so comelling and insiring that there(s no time to comlete old
ones + they have to be abandoned half-finished! ,(ve al#ays found it uncomfortable to do
this, but , $no# it(s necessary! 0he hard art is consciously deciding to delete an old
ro8ect, $no#ing it #ill never be finished! , have a file full of game ideas and some
rototyes for ne# games that #ill never see the light of day! Consciously deciding that
those ro8ects had to be abandoned #as really hard for me! ,t too$ me a long time to come
to gris #ith it! *ut it #as necessary for my o#n gro#th to be able to do this!
, still had to solve the roblem of setting goals that might become obsolete in a year due to
my o#n ersonal gro#th! /o# did , solve this roblem. , cheated! , figured out the only #ay
, could set long-term goals that #ould stic$ #ould be if they #ere aligned #ith my o#n
rocess of gro#th! 0he ursuit of ersonal gro#th has long been a stable constant for me,
even though it(s arado'ically in flu' at the same time! So instead of trying to set fi'ed
goals as , did #ith my games business, , began setting broader more dynamic goals that
#ere aligned #ith my o#n gro#th! 0his ne# business allo#s me to ursue my ersonal
gro#th full-out and to share #hat , learn #ith others! So gro#th itself is the goal, both for
myself and others! 0his creates a symbiotic relationshi, #hereby heling others feeds bac$
into my o#n gro#th, #hich in turn generates ne# ideas for heling others! 5nyone #ho(s
been reading this site since last year has robably seen that effect in action!
0he direct and conscious ursuit of ersonal gro#th is the only tye of mission that #ould
#or$ for me! ,f , made it my mission to master real estate investing, for e'amle, ,(d
robably become bored #ith it after a fe# years! Since , #ant to $ee gro#ing indefinitely,
, have to maintain a certain level of challenge and $ee raising the bar ever higher! , can(t
let things get too dull and ris$ falling into a attern of comlacency!
0he value of ersistence comes not from stubbornly clinging to the ast! ,t comes from a
vision of the future that(s so comelling you #ould give almost anything to ma$e it real!
0he vision , have of my future no# is far greater than the one , had for 2e'terity! 0o be
able to hel eole gro# and to solve their most difficult roblems is far more insiring to
me than entertaining eole! 0hese values started oo:ing out of me as , ran 2e'terity
because , favored logic u::le games that challenged eole to thin$, often assing u the
oortunity to ublish games , felt #ould ma$e money but #hich #ouldn(t rovide much
real value to eole!
Persistence of action comes from ersistence of vision! &hen you(re suer-clear about #hat
you #ant in such a #ay that your vision doesn(t change much, you(ll be more consistent +
and ersistent + in your actions! 5nd that consistency of action #ill roduce consistency of
results!
Can you identify a art of your life #here you(ve demonstrated a attern of long-term
ersistence. , thin$ if you can identify such an area, it may rovide a clue to your mission +
something you can #or$ to#ards #here assion and self-disciline function synergistically!
htt;<<###!steveavlina!com<blog<2005<0=<self-disciline-ersistence<