Why Discipline is So Damn Difficult (and How to Master It)

'cause I love chocolate biscuits and malteses. They're practically self-care in my land. But let's get into it. Why do we find discipline so damn difficult? I think there's a delicious allure of distraction that's going on. Some will tell you that the problem is willpower or brain chemistry or resistance, but I reckon the real reason is distraction actually feels amazing. You know, it's instant gratification. It's finest, isn't it?

It whispers, you know, just five more minutes when your alarm goes off, it lures you into saying, I'll follow up tomorrow instead of hitting on that. Pitch, email hitting, send on that pitch email. Now it's sexy, it's sparkly, it's seductive, and guess what? It's also a big fat liar because here's the truth bomb. If distraction is all about short-term pleasure, then discipline is all about long-term purpose.

It's not about suffering, it's about stacking those little wins that create the big dreams. You know, we're talking and writing a book. lending and TEDx Talk. Launching your empire, getting high quality leads on repeat. It's not exactly things you achieve by winging it with your phone in one hand, and lovers blind on in the background. It's not the sort of thing you can achieve by actually not doing the boring work.

This stuff, getting those TED Talks, writing that book, building your business requires work, it requires discipline, it requires consistency. And that, my friends, is often the boring part of business. But I think it's time to flip the script. Let's talk strategies because discipline doesn't have to feel like a bootcamp hosted by Sadistics personal trainer that, let me tell you, I'm retraining for a high rocks right now, and that's how it's feeling. We've gotta flip the script.

So here's a couple of strategies I want you to think about. The first one is to lock down your goals and your why. Because without clarity, distractions actually win every single time. You wanna grow your business, great. But what does that mean? What does it mean? What is the motivation? What is the reason for doing this stuff? My clients, especially those in Elevate, we sit down every single quarter and we create a game plan.

And this is not just lofty goals, but it's actually the micro actions over these next 90 days that will actually get them there. And by the way, we set these 90 day plans, not just from a business and professional perspective, but also. Personal perspective because we're not just single-minded human beings. Many of us have other things going on. We've got life dreams, we've got relationship goals and all those sorts of things.

And it's really important that we get clear on these micro actions that are going to get you there because a great idea without a plan, well, that's just wishful thinking with a hashtag, so work out. What is it that you are wanting and why? Most importantly, why does it actually matter? And I want you to think really, why? Really, really, really why? The second thing is you gotta ditch the temptation. Willpower's cute, but it's, you know, unreliable.

It's like a bad ex. We've actually gotta put systems in place, not stress. So if it's about turning off your phone, it may be about shutting down your email, it may be about hiding the remote. Whatever it is, you've got to get serious about removing. Those distractions. One of the things that I've shared this before that we do in my Elevate community is we do a weekly hour of power. This is where we meet online, the cameras are on, but microphones are off.

Every single person is muted, and we spend that hour in business development mode, like our goals depend on it because they actually do. And let me tell you, knowing someone's watching you on Zoom, well magically it makes you productive. Funny that right? So remove the distraction. Number three making sure that you're celebrating those small wins. I used to think that discipline meant suffering, you know, like nose to the grindstone, gray tracksuit, eye twitching kind of suffering.

And you know, honestly, I think it's. There's a lot of that childhood conditioning about you work hard, you keep working hard, and someone will notice you and remember my North of England dad saying, but it doesn't have to be like that. Now what I do is I celebrate the glimmer moments every single month. I look at what I've actually achieved in that month, what are those small steps that I've achieved, and I give myself the reward.

It might be a massage, it might be a glass of bubbly at the beach. It might even be a guilt Free nap. It doesn't matter because success isn't just about the doing. It's about the being, and you deserve to feel good along the way. Next strategy number four is about being kinder to yourself. I used to be really bad at this, you know, like world champion at beating myself up, kind of bad. But now I pause, I reflect, I laugh. Sometimes I swear loudly and start again, but I never stay stuck.

I tell my clients the same thing. If you've fallen off track, don't spiral. It's just about acknowledging what happened, what got in the way, what stopped you, and then taking ownership and pressing reset because there is never failure, only feedback, or sometimes a slight. Back. And one of the final things I do is I track my progress like a hoard. I am only retentive about tracking absolutely anything. This is like my superpower to my business. It's one of my biggest secrets.

I track everything. I track daily sales and cash flow. I track word camp when I'm writing a book. I track social media reach, I track my email list. These are my habits because I know that if I don't track it, it doesn't happen. And inside my Elevate and Inner Circle community, every single one of us has a dashboard. Actual dashboards, not just metaphorical ones.

Those dashboards are built to measure the very thing that my clients are measuring at that moment in time to ensure that they're making a step forward. We look at the North Star metrics, which could be sales and profit. We look at the attention metrics, those metrics that we need to be following to ensure that the right amount of eyeballs are seeing our stuff. we track our attraction metrics. How many people are coming into our world? What is our lead gen looking like?

and then we Track the activation, metrics, what's actually being converted because every single one of those numbers shows us both the impact of our activity. And it gives us clues. It shows us the breadcrumbs of where the opportunity is, of, where we need to take action. What you focus on grows. What you neglect well, that gathers dust. It fuels self-doubt. It adds the cobwebs into your business.

So the big question is, are you going to let distractions keep you in the loop of, I'll do it later. Are I gonna commit to a kind of discipline that builds freedom? It builds flow. It builds long-term brilliance. I know which camp I'm in and I know which camp you belong to too, and it's not the one with empty promises and half eaten biscuits. So what's one thing you're gonna take away from today? Maybe it's shutting down your inbox during deep work time.

Maybe it's scheduling your own hour of power. Maybe it's finally getting clear on your goals and why they matter. Whatever it is. Please make a commitment and make that commitment today. And once again, if you've loved this episode or you've got someone that you think needs to listen to this episode, please share it with one of your besties, with one of your business buddies, with one of the incredible other people in your network who has got big dreams, but just keeps getting pulled off course.

And of course, tag Me, act Janine, wherever you're sharing it. And tell me what are you focusing on? Discipline isn't punishment, discipline is a declaration of what matters, of who you are and of who you are becoming. Now, off you go. Go and unleash some more brilliance this week and I'll catch up with you next week.