Self Discipline

Leading a successful life: Self Discipline: No personal success, achievement, or goal, can be realized without self-discipline. It is singularly the most important attribute needed t...

Self Discipline

No personal success, achievement, or goal, can be realized without self-discipline. It is singularly the most important attribute needed to achieve any type of personal and professional excellence. Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you could simply get yourself to follow through on your best intentions no matter what. The pinnacle of self-discipline is when you reach the point that when you make a conscious decision, it’s virtually guaranteed you will follow through on it.

Self-discipline is one of many personal development tools available to each one of us. The problems which self-discipline can solve are important, and while there are other ways to solve these problems, self-discipline absolutely shreds the problem. Self-discipline can empower you to overcome any addiction or lose any amount of weight. It can wipe out procrastination, disorder, and ignorance. Within the domain of problems it can solve, self-discipline is simply unmatched. Moreover, it becomes a powerful teammate when combined with other tools like passion, goal-setting, and planning.

What is Self-discipline?

It is the ability to control one's impulses, emotions, desires and behavior. It is being able to turn down immediate pleasure and instant gratification in favor of gaining the long-term satisfaction and fulfillment from achieving higher and more meaningful goals.

To possess it is to be able to make the decisions and take the actions, and execute your game plan regardless of the obstacles, discomfort, or difficulties that may come your way. 

Certainly, being disciplined does not mean living a limiting or a restrictive lifestyle. Nor, does it mean giving up everything you enjoy, or, to relinquish fun and relaxation. It does mean learning how to focus your mind and energies on your goals and persevere until they are accomplished. It also means cultivating a mindset whereby you are ruled by your deliberate choices rather than by your emotions, bad habits, or the sway of others. Self-discipline allows you to reach your goals in a reasonable time frame and to live a more orderly and satisfying life.  

Celebrities have never been more visible in our culture. Famous sportspeople, wonderful actors, and musicians are all over the media. While they are naturally talented, but what we don't see are the thousands of hours of super-focused work these people have put in behind the scenes. Sure, there is such a thing as natural talent but:  

1.       Natural talent counts for little unless it's supercharged by self-discipline.

2.       Self-discipline can, to some extent, overcome lack of natural talent.

Exercising self-discipline can make the difference between an averagely talented person doing something amazing with their lives and a naturally talented person realizing very little of their potential. It's easy to feel that success comes easily; that it's just a question of self-belief. But anyone who has achieved anything has done so because they've been able to control and direct their own inner lives and actions to the extent that has enabled them to become super-able at what they do.

Life isn't some waiting room in which to 'kill time' with repetitive self-amusements. Self-discipline, like a muscle, can be developed. If we were raised in a disciplined environment, we may find it easier to be self-disciplined, but we can all develop more.

How to develop Self Discipline?

Start with small steps: No process takes place overnight. Just as it takes time to build muscle, so does self-discipline. The more you train and build it, the stronger you become. In exercise, if you try to do too much at once, you could injure yourself and have a setback. Likewise, take it one step at a time in building self-discipline. So, begin by making the decision to go forward and learning what it takes to get there. Learning self-discipline in the little things of life prepares the way for big successes. On the other hand, those who are undisciplined in small matters will likely be undisciplined in more important issues. Small daily steps over time leads to giant successes.

Get yourself organized: Make a schedule, however detailed or general you are comfortable with, and stick to it. Have a to-do list of things you need to accomplish. Using a daily planning book or a personal information manager program on your computer or your smart phone would be helpful. But get organized, even if all you do is jot down appointments and to-do items on a piece of scrap paper. The simple reality is that if you don't control your time, everything (and everyone) else will.

Learn what motivates you and what pulls you down:  You can begin by learning about yourself! Sometimes it is very difficult to fight off urges and cravings, so know the areas where your resistance is low and how to avoid those situations.  If you know you cannot resist cake, fries, or other temptations - stay away from them. Do not have them around to lure you in moments of weakness.  If you also know that putting pressure on yourself does not work for you, then set yourself up in an environment that encourages the building of self-discipline rather than one that sabotages it. Remove the temptations and surround yourself with soothing and encouraging items such as motivating slogans and pictures of what you want to achieve. 

Learn also what energizes and motivates you. Your willpower can go up and down with your energy levels so play energetic music to perk you up, move around, laugh, go for a walk in the nature. Train yourself to enjoy what you are doing by being energized. This will make it easier to implement desirable and appropriate behaviors into your routine - which is really what self-discipline is all about. 

Make certain behaviors a routine: Once you have decided what is important to you and which goals to strive for, establish a daily routine that will help you achieve them. For example, if you want to eat healthily or lose weight; resolve to eat several servings of fruits and vegetables each day and exercise for at least half an hour. Make it part of your daily routine and part of your self-discipline building. Likewise, get rid of some of your bad, self-defeating habits, whatever they may be. They can put you in a negative frame of mind and hinder your self-discipline. A poor attitude can also be a bad habit.  If you start something, finish it. Therein lies an important key to developing self-discipline.

When you have free time, do things that are productive instead of merely entertaining. Read a good book, listen to music, take a walk, or have conversation with someone. In other words, learn to entertain yourself with things that are challenging, stimulating, and creative. Things that are of no value except to entertain you make a very small contribution to your well-being.

Practice self-denial: Learn to say no to some of your feelings, impulses and urges. Train yourself to do what you know to be right, even if you do not feel like doing it. Skip dessert some evenings. Limit your TV watching. Resist the urge to yell at someone who has irritated you. Stop and think before you act. Think about consequences. When you practice self-restraint it helps you develop the habit of keeping other things under control. Be honest with yourself. Honesty can be hard to take. Harder, in fact, than actually doing the thing you're trying to avoid. Stop mistaking excuses for credible reasons.

Remember the words of Abraham J. Heschel:“ Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself”

Other people can exert an immensely negative effect, if we let them. Don't let them. Don't let words or even negative facial expressions deter you. Seek the advice of experts by all means and learn from the best, but never accept negativity from people who haven't themselves achieved what it is you are set upon achieving. If people say what you plan is not possible or sneer at your efforts, don't be deterred by this; rather, use it to fire your energy and strength. Proving others wrong is a greatly underrated pleasure.

Engage in sports or physical activities: Sports are an excellent way to enhance self- discipline. They train you to set goals, focus your mental and emotional energies, become physically fit, and to get along well with others.  Participating in sports provides a situation where you learn to work hard and strive to do your best, which in turn, teaches you to integrate the same the thought processes and disciplines into your everyday life. Similarly running is also an excellent way to enhance self-discipline. It trains your body and makes you physically fit and build endurance.

Learning to play a musical instrument can be another great way to practice self-discipline. The focus, repetition, and application required in learning to play an instrument is invaluable. Achieving self-discipline in any one area of your life reprograms your mind to choose what is right, rather than what is easy.

Get inspiration from those you admire: Sachin Tendulkar has always maintained that his greatness as a cricket player came as much from his willingness to work hard at his craft, as it did his talent. It was his desire through discipline and focus that made him one of the world’s greatest cricket player ever. If it worked for him, it could certainly work for the rest of us. 

Visualize the rewards: There is nothing more gratifying than accomplishing your goals. Practice the technique that high achievers and top performers do. Project yourself in the future. Visualize your desired goal. Feel how rewarding it is and the countless benefits you will enjoy. Remind yourself what it takes to get there. 

If we are to be masters of our own destiny, we must develop self-discipline and self-control. By focusing on long-term benefits instead of short-term discomfort, we can encourage ourselves to develop of self-discipline. Ultimately our health and happiness depend on it. Self-discipline is the fuel that gets you places. The happy by-products of discipline are success, self-respect, and improved physical and mental health.

                                 

Sources : Learnings from Robin Sharma, Darren Hardy, Brahmarishi Shri Guruvanand ji Swamy, Grant Cardone

                                 

Values

Values guides our every decision and, therefore, our destiny. Successful people know their values and live by them. If we want the deepest level of life fulfillment, we can achieve it in only one way, and that is by deciding upon what we value most in life, what our highest values are and then committing to live by them every single day. Unfortunately this action is far too rare in today's world. Too often people have no clear idea of what's important to them. If you and I are not clear about what's most important in our lives or what we really stand for, then how can we ever expect to lay the foundation for a sense of self-esteem and have the capacity to make effective decisions? When you know what's most important to you, making a decision becomes quite simple and easy.

We need to realize that the direction of our lives is controlled by the magnetic pull of our values. They are the force in front of us, consistently leading us to make decisions that create the direction and ultimate destinations of our lives.

In our personal and professional lives, we must be clear about what is most important in our lives and decide that we will live by these values, no matter what happens. This consistency must occur regardless of whether the environment rewards us for living by our standards or not. We must live by our principles even when it "rains" even if no one gives us the support we need. The only way for us to have long term happiness is to live by our highest ideals, to consistently act in accordance with what we believe our life is truly about.

Many people know what they want to have, but have no idea of who they want to be. Getting "things" simply will not fulfill you. Only living and doing what you believe is the "right thing" will give you that sense of inner strength that we all deserve.

To value something means to place importance upon it: anything that you hold dear can be called a 'value'. Those things that are most important to you in life are referred to as life values. Life values are of two types: ends and means. So if someone were to ask you, what do you value most? You might answer "love, family, money etc." Of these love is the end value you are pursuing, in other words, the emotional state you desire. Conversely, family and money are merely means values.

The challenge in life is that most people are not clear on the difference between means and ends values and therefore, they experience a lot of pain. So often people are too busy pursuing means values that they don't achieve their true desire: their end values. The end values are those that will fulfill you, make your life rich and rewarding. Here is an example which would clearly demonstrate what is meant by means and ends values. Let’s say a man’s highest value are caring and contribution, and he chooses to become a lawyer because he once met a lawyer who really impressed him as being able to make a difference and help people through his work. As time goes by, he gets caught up in the whirlwind of practicing law and aspires to become a partner in a firm. As he pursues this position, his work takes on an entirely different focus. He begins to dominate and becomes one of the most successful man you know, yet he feels unhappy because he has no longer any contacts with the clients. His position has created a different relationship with his peers and he spends all her time in meetings ironing out protocol and procedure. He achieved his goal but missed out on life’s desire. In order to be truly happy, we must know the difference, and be sure to pursue the end itself.

While it is absolutely true that everyone are constantly motivated to move towards pleasurable emotional states, it is also true that we value some emotions more than others. For example, what are the emotional states that you value most in life? What are the emotions that will give you the most pleasure? Love or Success? Freedom or Intimacy? Adventure or Security? These are pleasurable states that we value most because these are the emotional states we will do the most to attain. What are some of the feelings that are most important for you to experience in your life on a consistent basis? It is certainly true that we probably value all these emotions, and that they are all important for us to feel. However it would be fair to say that we don’t value all of them equally. There are some emotional states that we will do more to achieve than others. Actually, we all have a hierarchy of values.

Remember, whatever your values are, they affect the direction of your life. We have all learned through our life’s experience that certain emotions give us more pleasure than others. Knowing your own values helps you to get more clarity as to why you do what you do and how you can live more consistently, but knowing the values of others is also equally important. It might be valuable to know the values of someone you are in relationship with, or somebody you are in business with. Knowing a person’s value give you a fix on their thought process and allows you to have insight into their decision making. Further knowing your own hierarchy is also equally critical because your top values are those that are going to bring you the most happiness. If you do not know your own hierarchy, you will experience what seems like an inexplicable feelings of unhappiness and emptiness.

Just as there are emotions we desire to experience because they are pleasurable and that is why we are always moving towards them, we also have a list of emotions that we will do almost anything to move away from. We must remember that any time we make a decision about what to do, our brain first evaluates whether that action can possible lead to either pleasurable or painful states. Our brain is constantly juggling, or weighing our alternatives to see what the impact may be, based upon our own value hierarchy. The relative levels of pain or pleasure we associate with certain emotions will affect all of our decisions.

Life always has a way of testing our commitment to our values. Give yourself the gift of taking hold of this force that shapes your destiny. Spend some time to understand your values and hierarchy of values so that you are able to link up with your priorities in life and build a great system of values that gives you magnificent direction in life along-with happiness and fulfillment in living by them.

To sum it up, would share the following lines from John Wooden: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

Source : Learning from Robin Sharma and Tony Robbins

Energy

Energy is one of the important ingredients for success. Energy can be both positive and negative, for being successful it is essential that you always be full of positive energy and same should be exploding out of you. You should always keep yourself surrounded by people with positive vibes. Both these types are nothing but a state of mind. Positive energy empowers you to perform at world class level, while negative energy is always instrumental in pulling you down in other direction and taking you off-track. Once you start allowing negative energy to make inroads into your mind and soul it requires immeasurable efforts to come out and get yourself to positive frame of mind. It is said that to overcome one influence of negativity you need to make hundred times more effort to convert your state of mind towards positive frame. In next few paragraphs I will be sharing some thoughts on how to keep your energy levels explosive and full of positive vibes. Energy levels influences each action you take day in and day out. Without high level of energy opportunities would remain untapped.

Ideas remain untapped and unrealized. All successful people have high level of energy, high levels of energy allows them to wake up early in the morning without feeling exhausted; allows them to be on their own; allows them to work hard; allows them to play at their best, allows them to have fun and enjoy life and see it as a rich adventure. High level of energy also allows them to handle adversity and keep them optimistic and stay positive at all times.

See the lives of all great people, be it Sir Richard Branson, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Mother Teresa, Benjamin Franklin, to name a few, these great people have demonstrated that you cannot be a leader if you do not have high level of energy.

Do not drag yourself out of the bed rather wake up with high energy. Do not keep dreaming rather build dreams which are so big that keeps you awake with high level of energy in pursuit of your dreams. Few inputs on how to create energy explosion in your life:

1. Clarity and World Class Planning: Clarity precedes success. When you have meaningful goals and a clear direction in your life, that will not only promote greater sense of hopefulness but you will feel more energized. Great Goals brings energy to your life. Setting goals boosts your energy. It gives a reason to get out of bed every day. The secret of passion is purpose. The cause has to be higher than self. As the saying goes time and tide waits for none.  Time slips through our fingers as grains of sand, never to return again.

When you set goals for every part of your life, you will feel energized as better clarity leads to better decision and better results. Writing things down on a piece of paper clarifies fuzzy thinking and gives better awareness  and better clarity and better awareness and clarity leads to better choices and better choices leads to better results. What is not measured is never improved. Getting clarity over the philosophy of your life and what your life would stand for and breaking down that philosophy into specific and measurable goals for each core area of your life will connect you to the giant source of energy, passion as well as the focus that resides within you. Clarity and world class planning is the key ingredients for success.

2. Get up early and work on yourself: When you get up early on a consistent basis you will find yourself with more energy rather than less energy. Your conscience watches everything you do. Getting up early helps create better self-esteem and self-discipline. People who feel good have high level of energy. Win the battle with the bed, mind over mattress.  Getting up early is the primary win for yourself, this is the first victory of your first goal. If you are serious in working on yourself, follow the following tips:

a) Do not eat after 7.00-7.30 pm;

b) Do not watch the news or spend time on your mobile or your tab before you go off to sleep, remember it’s not the quantity of sleep that is important, it’s the quality of sleep that matters. Before going to sleep, spend moments in silence, do some thoughtless breathing, think of positive things, results of this would be a better and sound sleep and you wake up next day with abundant energy;

c) Sleep early by 10pm/11pm. You cannot burn the candle on both ends. Human being are remarkable to adopt, create your new normal. Take 60 minutes for yourself every day, read some inspirational book, journaling and record your learning from previous day, meditate and spend time on spirituality, be in the moment and enjoy the journey of life. You can also use affirmative success statements like "every day and in every way I am getting better and better healthier and healthier" or "I am joyfully living in the moment and am being at my best", Spending time with nature is another wonderful way to energize, visualize and work on your attitude. Focus on the good things in life, will keep you positive, work on your personal philosophy.

 
Give yourself some time to settle to this schedule, research has suggested it takes 66 days to form a habit, be persistent with it and you can do it.

3. Consistent exercise and high performance diet: Exercise boosts energy. When you are in world class physical condition you can get to your goals and missions in life as you are full of energy. The price of discipline is much less than the pain of regret.

 
You can plan for your exercise to cover the three aspects of cardio, weights and stretching. Exercise makes you happy and boosts energy. Exercise has to be vigorous. When you are strong physically you are strong internally. In a relaxed body remains a relaxed mind.

A high performance diet is a critical success factor for getting a high level of energy. When the diet is impeccable, you have boundless energy. There is such a link between what you eat and how you feel. If you eat a big meal, you are going to get exhausted and your creativity diminishes, high energy falls apart mental clarity and thus impacting you professionally, personally and your inner life. Successful people always maintains the following in their diet:

a. Drinks a lot of water, water hydrates your brain;

b. Drinks fresh fruit juices;

c. Portion control -eat less food, will allow more energy for you;

d. Don't eat after 7.00 -7.30 pm, if you eat late at night all night your food is being digested, you will wake up feeling exhausted and the results of the following day will be much less than what you desired and planned.

4. Personal regeneration and renewal: We live in a world where most people go full out in their work. Too many people takes vacations as a waste of time or unproductive time. There is a parallel which is so very true, if you were to run your car at full speed for next seven days, what is going to happen to that car, it’s going to break down, it’s going to wear out and it’s not going to perform at its best. High performers in the playing field of life understand that metaphor and they run their life in cycles, they balance perfectly well between playing their best game in professional or work life and personal regeneration/renewal. High performers balance is being ”on game" I.e. playing full out and being at your best with periods of recovery. There is a misperception around 'stress', there is nothing wrong with stress, stress makes you play your best game, it marshals your best resources, the real problem is most people do not take time out to recover from stress, they are  always working, they are always rushing, their minds are always in million places at a single time, we do need recovery time, as shared in the car metaphor, if you don't take time to recover, you will break down, you will  get tired, you will get to a place where you will be unproductive and you are frustrated. Build time for recovery and renewal, time to relax, time to regenerate, time to bring back the balance, when you take time for personal recovery, you will actually become more productive with explosive energy levels, and you can do far more in less time.

5. Adventure and Fun in life: Human brain craves novelty, most of us cling to the safe harbor of the known, we try to do the same thing with same people day in and day out and resist any change. We think that our life would be happy, safe and secured without realizing that this is a recipe for disaster. That’s the most insecure place to be in. We are happiest when we are adventurous, we are not happy when we are at the safe harbor of the known, we are happiest when we are trying new things, meeting new people and pushing our personal frontiers. The greatest risk you can ever take in life is not taking any risk. To have world class energy you need to institutionalize adventure and fun into your life by building a system around it. Plan one day every week as a Play day for adventure and fun.

Get back to being a kid, connect with the child that resides within each and every one of us, that's a great way to release the world class level of energy lived within you. Say no to negative energy and influences, embrace positive thoughts as a way of life, weed out all negative influences and people around you. If you apply the above thoughts into your life, I am sure of your meeting success in whatever you do. Energy is the most important and powerful ingredients for success.

As the saying goes, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others who succeed make it happen!”

Sources: Learnings from Robin Sharma and discourses by Pt. Vijay Shankar Ji Mehta

Action

Action is a very positive power principle. In general terms, action is nothing but the process of doing an act. Action is an expression of an impression. Action is placing in your mind the thoughts you want it to work on. Then letting them repeat, amplify and grow until you soak them up completely and they push you towards the goals you define for yourself.

There is a difference between action and doing, action is a power word. The action step in the creative step is expression of an impression. Before you can do something you be something. Doing is the expression of something which has already taken place mentally. The action step become automatic when you prepare yourself mentally. Action is the expression of an impression.

When you call for action make it massive action as such actions are not something other people are always involved in. Faith without action is useless. The action comes from you which causes a reaction and, the reaction comes from the universe. The action meeting the reaction alters your conditions, circumstances and environment which produces your result, your creation. Get your thinking right, if it’s on the wrong track fix it, if you don't fix your children will inherit.

We all have tools for achieving greatness. All great people have come from varied background, there is one factor which remains constant, the creative process which produces results in their life. Their results were preceded by an action, a massive action which was automatic. It was the expression of the thoughts and ideas which had been impressed upon their emotional mind over a period of time. They became what they thought about. The thoughts always propels action. The bottom line is obvious when you become quiet and think, every moment you are engaged in is an action. Action is something you are already involved in. The trick is to control the action to create the type of massive action which causes us to find our goldmine.

The better you will feel about yourself, the more confident you will become, the more confident you become the easier it will be for you to move into the action on great big explosive ideas and solve the problem that come with it. When we feel confident about ourselves we know we can solve the problems or at least put them into perspective and remind ourselves of our abilities when things are going well.

Ideas are like slippery fish, if you don't write them with a pencil, they will evaporate and you will never get it back. Action comes when the idea is ready and not when the clock dictates. If a person will move confidently in the direction of their dream in an endeavor to live the life they have imagined they will meet the success unexpected in common hours. So don't worry about what might happen when you are exploring action on your big ideas, whatever happens will be what must happen for your idea to move into the fore.

We must remember that there are no short cuts. The more actions you take the better are your chances of getting a break. Disciplined, consistent and persistent actions are more of a determinant factor in creation of success than any other combination of thing. Most people fail only because they are operating at wrong degree of actions. The actions can be categories into four simple categories/degree of actions:

1.     Doing nothing: Doing nothing is no longer taking actions to move yourself forward in order to learn, achieve or control some area. Do not assume “nothing” requires no energy, no effort or no work. Regardless of which degree of action you operate in, they all require work in their own way. People in this group will find themselves spending their time and energy justifying the situations. They are actually spending energy and they are not doing anything, they are actually spending energy justifying why they are not doing anything, which requires as much work as all the other action. It takes work to lose a job because of lack of production. It is work which is evaluated for promotion, and have to wait another year to be considered and to explain the same to people around you. It takes tremendous effort to exist in this planet to stay as under-appreciated and under paid person. The person who is not taking action, has to make excuses for his or her condition, this requires tremendous creativity and effort. Those who do nothing in one area of life will find time in something they love to do where they would spend lot of energy and effort and would take massive action and activity, on activities like playing a game on the mobile, using social media etc. People who do nothing in their careers, relationships or whatever they want have given up on their dreams and are willing to accept pretty much whatever comes their way.

2.     Retread: Retreaters are those who take actions in the reverse, probably in order to avoid negative experiences that they imagine will come as a result of actually taking action. The retreaters personifies the fear of success phenomenon. Like the do nothings, the retreaters justifies the responses and believe it is in their best interest to live at their current retreat level. Retreaters claims to be doing so in order to avoid more rejections or failures. It is almost never the actual rejection or failure that has impacted them but something else. More often than not it is their impression and evaluation of what failing and rejection mean that is causing them to justify the retreat. Like doing nothing, retreading is an action that requires energy, effort and hard work. Usually retreading only comes about as a result of being told to do so over and over again, many of us has been instructed during childhood, don’t touch that, be careful, don’t talk to him, get away from that, so on and on and then start to adopt retreat as a survival activity. We tend to be pulled away from the very things about which we are most curious in life. Although it is often for our own good and supposedly keeps us safe it can be difficult from years of being educated like this of holding back which might be why it is so difficult for many of us to try new things later in life. We might even be encouraged to retreat by our friend, work associates or a family member who believes we are being too ambitious, or too focus or too dedicated in some area of life. Any realm in which you have assumed you can no longer advance or improve and are now deciding nothing you can do except retreat, would be considered of area of retreat. Those who retreat will spend a life time justifying why they are retreating. They have typically convinced completely that they are merely doing what they must do in order to survive.

 

3.     Normal level of actions: People who take normal levels of action are most prevalent in our society. This is the group who appears on the surface to be taking the necessary amounts of action at its normal level. This is actually the most dangerous of activities because it is considered acceptable. People in this group spend their life taking enough actions, only enough action to appear average and create average life, average career etc., however they never do quite enough to create the level of success that they can maintain for their survival. Unfortunately majority of work force takes a normal degrees of action. The goal here is average, average in every activity, as long as average works they are good to go, they are fine. When you have been taking only normal levels of action and when you been making only normal investments in your future, you become more susceptible to the challenges that are certain to come your way. Average by definition assumes less than extra-ordinary. It is truly to some degree or another just an alternative description of retread and no action. Average level is actually a retreat from what you are capable of. Someone who takes average action but is capable of much more is really electing to do some variation of nothing or retreading. Be honest with yourself, if you have more energy and creativity available than what you are using, then do not stick to average. Imagine that the product or services you are so often tempted to purchase used average in the advertising, who will buy such product. Taking normal action is the most dangerous of all levels.

4.     Massive Action: Massive action is the most natural state of action for all of us. Children are in constant action, massive level of activity, except when something is wrong they are taking action. Look inside of an ant hill or in the bee hive you see constant, massive, unlimited amount of massive action being generated by living being in order to ensure their survival into the future. There is nobody asking them to back-off, they have attitude to go for it and take massive action and they always find their way. Massive action is when you create new level of problems, until you create new level of problem you are not taking massive action. When you are taking massive action, you are not thinking in terms of hours or effort, your mindset shifts and so will the result. You will end up instigating opportunities to make things happen and routine things become the things of the past. Successful people knows first-hand what it takes to achieve that kind of success. Successful do not see excessive levels of action as a problem but unsuccessful people do see it as a problem. The successful people will never identify massive action as undesirable in any way. Taking massive action means making somewhat unreasonable choices. People in the first three degrees of action, will be threatened by your activity level and will often make it seem what you are doing as wrong in order to make themselves happy. You will realize that you have stepped into the realm of massive action when a) you create new problem for yourself; b) when you start receiving criticism and warnings and supposed help from others. You need to stay strong and continue in the path of massive action you are treading on. Massive action cannot hurt you, it will always help you. This is also one place where quantity is more important than quality. In order to stand out of the crowd, the average, the masses you must take massive action. Making massive action a discipline will break you through obscurity. Massive action will increase your value to the market place and it will help, ensure and guarantee you to generate success in any area of life where you would like to operate with massive action.

Everyone utilizes all four degrees of action at some time in their life especially in response to different areas of life. Different people take different degree of actions based on the circumstances and situation. One might be taking massive action in some area while retread in another area in his life. A person is going to excel and do best in those areas in which he or she invests the most attention and takes the most action. Unfortunately most people spend their time in first three degrees of action. The first two degrees of action i.e. do nothing and retread are the recipe for failure and the third degree of action i.e. normal level of action will only create a normal existence at best. Taking normal levels of action is the killer of the four, it deludes you in believe that you are doing something when only what you are doing is normal and will never get you to extra ordinary. Successful people take massive actions which would lead to a path of success.

Once a person sees the four degrees of action for the first time, he realizes that each of the four require energy, he or she may wake up to make other healthier choices. If you are going to use energy either ways then why not utilize it in the direction of success.

Source: Learning from  Mind Games by Bob Proctor and 10x Rules by Grant Cardone