The Importance of Self-Discipline

It goes without saying that self-discipline is a crucial success principle. It is essential for any important achievement and it might be that something which stops you from achieving the results that you want. So what does it mean to be self-disciplined?

To be self-disciplined means to do what you know you should do and when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not. The problem is that so many times we don't really "feel like it"... And instead of doing something that would bring us closer to the manifestation of our dreams we stick to our old lazy habits and do what is fun and easy instead of what is necessary.

Why is it so hard to do what we know we should do? I guess it's part of our human nature, we always seek the easiest way to do things and we want to achieve our results with the least effort and time investment possible. We all want instant gratification. And we do want our reward before paying for it, but any great achievement requires dedications. In other words, you have to pay the price for the prize.

Even though it may seem that discipline is related to some kind of slavery and limitations it actually creates a lifetime of success, wealth and freedom. Author and ex-olympian gymnast Dan Millman says, "Discipline brings excellence and excellence brings freedom."

When you think of success principles author Brian Tracy is someone who comes first to my mind. In his books he shares a lot of insights about achievements of all kinds. I like what he has to say about self-discipline. Below you can read Brian Tracy's simple and yet effective seven steps that will help you become more self-disciplined.

Discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do to be the very best in your field. Perhaps the best definition of self-discipline is this: "Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not."

It is easy to do something when you feel like it. It's when you don't feel like it and you force yourself to do it anyway that you move your life and career onto the fast track.

What decisions do you need to make today in order to start moving toward the top of your field? Whatever it is, either to get in or get out, make a decision today and then get started. This single act alone can change the whole direction of your life.

There is a powerful seven step formula that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. Every single successful person uses this formula or some variation of this formula to achieve vastly more than the average person. And so can you. Here it is:

Decide What You Want
Step number one, decide exactly what it is you want in each part of your life. Become a "meaningful specific" rather than a "wandering generality."

Write it Down
Second, write it down, clearly and in detail. Always think on paper. A goal that is not in writing is not a goal at all. It is merely a wish and it has no energy behind it.

Set A Deadline
Third, set a deadline for your goal. A deadline acts as a "forcing system" in your subconscious mind. It motivates you to do the things necessary to make your goal come true. If it is a big enough goal, set sub-deadlines as well. Don't leave this to chance.

Make A List
Fourth, make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. When you think of new tasks and activities, write them on your list until your list is complete.

Organize Your List
Fifth, organize your list into a plan. Decide what you will have to do first and what you will have to do second. Decide what is more important and what is less important. And then write out your plan on paper, the same way you would develop a blueprint to build your dream house.

Take Action
The sixth step is for you to take action on your plan. Do something. Do anything. But get busy. Get going.

Do Something Every Day
Do something every single day that moves you in the direction of your most important goal at the moment. Develop the discipline of doing something 365 days each year that is moving you forward. You will be absolutely astonished at how much you accomplish when you utilize this formula in your life every single day.


Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into action immediately.

• First, decide exactly what you want, write it down with a deadline, make a plan and take action -- on at least one goal -- today!
• Second, determine the price you will have to pay to achieve this goal and then get busy paying that price -- whatever it is.

Want to know how to accomplish more in a month than most people accomplish in a year?
Brian Tracy's audio program, The Miracle of Self-Discipline, will show you how! Training yourself to complete important tasks -- even when you don't want to -- is a vital skill that every Top Achiever should master. To get your copy today, click here.

“Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.” - Napoleon Hill

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The Emotion of Fear

When writing about success principles I mentioned fear as one of the things that may stop you from achieving your goals. Let's face it, we are all afraid of something. We are afraid of all kinds of failures, we are afraid of other people's criticism or what they might think about us, we are afraid to step out of our "comfort zone", etc. But what is fear after all? Is it real? Or maybe it's just an illusion, maybe we are just making it up?

I'd like to share with you this video where author Neale Donald Walsch talks about the emotion of fear. You may have already heard about this author from the movie Conversations with God which tells the true story of Walsch, also his famous books that have changed lives of millions of people worldwide. He also appeared on the Secret. So here's the video, I hope you get something useful out of this!

Technorati Tags: emotion of fear, mind food, personal development

The Real Secret of Success

You must have already heard about the Law of Attraction. This universal law basically states that like vibrations attract like vibrations. In other words, we attract into our life that which we think about - whatever we think about, we bring about. Many successful people have known this law and have consciously worked with it for years, many success coaches have been teaching this law to their students. Nevertheless, the Law of Attraction reached its peak of popularity after the release of The Secret.

Below is what author Brian Tracy has to say about the Law of Attraction and the movie.


More than 5,000 years ago, in the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, the mental and spiritual laws and principles of success were taught to students who dedicated their entire lives to learning in what was called the "Esoteric Arts."

One of these "secrets" was the Law of Attraction, which said that your mind is a magnet and that you invariably attract into your life people and circumstances in harmony with your dominant thoughts, especially your dominant thoughts emotionalized.

Today we say, "Like attracts like" and "Birds of a feather flock together." From ancient times, it was known that your mind sends out vibrations, like radio waves, that are picked up by the minds of other people who are tuned into the same rate of vibration.

The force that determines the sending power of your mental vibrations is the amount of emotion, positive or negative, that you put behind a thought. If there is something that you intensely desire, something that excites you and enthuses you, you will send out powerful, high-frequency vibrations that can travel large distances in split seconds and cause your phone to ring from someone you have not heard from for months or even years.

Because your mind is so powerful, especially when backed by emotionalized thoughts, you must handle it carefully, like a child handling a gun. The Law of Attraction is neutral. It works on both positive and negative thoughts. It brings into your life whatever you are thinking about on a regular basis with either fear or desire.

When the book, "The Secret" came out, along with the movie, I was happily surprised to see that the first half of the movie comes from my audio program and seminar, "The Psychology of Achievement" which was produced initially in 1981. We videotaped the live seminar which explains the Law of Attraction along with thirty-one other laws, plus how this law is applied in every area of life, and then distributed the video seminar world wide, including New Zealand, where the Author of The Secret comes from.

The weakness in The Secret is that it is "necessary but not sufficient." Of course, it is important that you think positive thoughts and that, by so doing, you will attract positive people and circumstances into your life. But it is not enough.

In response to The Secret, I decided to write a book which is called "Flight Plan -- The Real Secret of Success." In this book, I explain that life is very much like a long distance flight. When the plane takes off, it will be off course 99% of the time. But nonetheless, the plane will eventually arrive at its destination, even thought it was off course most of the time.

In my experience, the real secret of success consists of three major factors: First, you must be absolutely clear about your destination. By this I mean that must have clear, written, specific, measurable goals, committed to paper and organized into specific, step-by-step plans of action.

Before you can set your goals, you must know exactly who you are and what you want. You must do a thorough analysis of yourself, your life, your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions, and where you want to be sometime in the future. Then, you create a "Flight Plan" to get you from wherever you are today to wherever you want to be in the months and years ahead.

The second part of Flight Plan is that you must "take off!" You must have the courage to step out in faith with no guarantee of success. You must be prepared to launch in the face of your fears, doubts and natural reluctance to break out of your comfort zone. "To achieve something that you have never achieved before, you must be prepared to do something that you have never done before." (Les Brown).

Once you have launched toward your goal, like an airplane, you will meet with unexpected turbulence, headwinds, updrafts and downdrafts, lightning, storms and every sort of mechanical problem. You must be prepared to make continual "course corrections" as you move toward your goal.

Perhaps the most important quality for success is, and always has been, the quality of persistence. You must resolve in advance to persist in the face of any difficulty or problem that you experience. You must resolve in advance that you will never give up. You must resolve in advance that you will view every temporary setback or difficulty as merely a signal that you need to make a "course correction" as you move inevitably toward your goal.

This is a great time to be alive. The very best days of your life lie ahead of you. The highest income of your life is still to come. The greatest experiences of your life are still to be experienced.

There is very little that you can not accomplish if you will file your flight plan. Determine exactly what it is that you want to achieve, take off toward your goal with no guarantees of success, and then make continual course corrections until you finally succeed. If you resolve to do these things, nothing can stop you from creating an extraordinary life.

Want to know the REAL secret of success?
You need a flight plan to succeed. And having a plan isn’t enough. Just like an airplane pilot you must make course corrections to arrive at your destination -- your goals. With Brian Tracy's Flight Plan, you can discover a how to achieve more, faster than you ever dreamed possible. You also receive 2 BONUS CDS!

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Success Principles

Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? Is the person who earns $200,000 ten times more skilled than the person who makes only $100,000 a year? Is there something different that successful people do? Do they know something that others don’t? Or are they just lucky?

Well, as it turns out there are some common principles that most successful people consciously or unconsciously apply in their daily life. There are many books out there about success available to us today and it seems like success has more to do with your beliefs and mindset than any other condition. Most success authors and coaches would agree that you don’t need to have a PhD to be successful. According to author James Arthur Ray 85 % of the self-made millionaires in the world don’t have a college degree (nor does the author himself) and C students often own the businesses that B and A students work for.

Let’s look at some of the most fundamental success principles.

- Think big! I bet you have heard this one before and Donald Trump has put it really well, because we do create our reality with our thoughts (whether we know it or not). All great achievers had written down their big goals (intentions) and visualized them come true before they were manifested.

- Never give up, never ever give up! (Another mouthful from Donald Trump.) Most great achievers have had ups and downs in their life but it didn’t stop them from going forward. Most of them would tell you about challenging upbringing, financial failures, accidents and other troublesome conditions, some of them have even been homeless or crippled. Take for example Donald Trump who was over 3 billion dollars in debt, Robert Kyiosaki was over a million dollars in debt, James Arthur Ray went bankrupt twice, Bill Bartman was paralysed and the doctors said he would never walk again, Neale Donald Walsch was homeless, Dr. John Demartini was told that he had a learning disability and would never read, write or communicate… And these are just a few examples.

Instead of blaming and degrading themselves for failure successful people ask themselves: “What have I learned from this?” So don’t be afraid to make mistakes in life, just make sure you get the lesson.

- Successful people are continually learning. For many people their education stops after school. But if you want a successful and fulfilling life you should constantly be learning something new. We all need growth, it’s our nature to grow. I like how James A. Ray puts it, “If you’re not growing you’re dying.”
Thus truly successful people are reading lots of books, attending seminars and classes, spending quality time with people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. Success coach Jack Canfield says, that he reads at least one book a week.

- Successful people love what they do. Mark Twain said, “The secret of success is to make your vocation your vacation.” To be truly happy you have to find what it is that you love to do. It is not what you do that determines your success it’s how you do. So ask yourself: “What am I good at? What inspires me? What do I truly love to do?”

“The human spirit will not invest itself in mediocrity, and you need that human spirit to achieve what you want. Your goal should be so exciting that you have butterflies in your stomach! That's how you unlock the power of the mind and put it to work for you!”

– James Arthur Ray

That explains why so many wealthy people say that they haven’t worked a day in their life, although it’s obvious that they are pretty busy and work really hard.

- Successful people are disciplined. Brian Tracy says, that discipline is doing what you know you should do and when you should do it whether you feel like it or not.

“Discipline brings excellence and excellence brings freedom.”- Dan Millman

To sum up, all wealth and achievement is an inside job. The reason why most people don’t become successful is because they never decide to. Of course, there are many more habits and believes that may keep us stuck with the same results. To mention a few, procrastination, fear of failure and criticism, lack of longterm perspective, limiting and self-disempowering believes.

For more success principles visit Brian Tracy website:

Technorati Tags: success principles, mind food, personal development

Are You a Warrior Or a Peasant

In his book “Harmonic Wealth” author and self-made millionaire James Arthur Ray shares that after years of meeting and interacting with people of different cultures and professions he discovered that generally there are only two kinds of people: peasants and warriors. Let’s take a look at the differences between these two types of people.

A peasant is somebody who regards “everything in life as either a blessing or a curse”. As a peasant you see yourself as a victim of circumstances and have no power over your own life. You always blame others for your failures, and complain about how diffucult and unfair life is or how somebody did something wrong to you.

For example, if you blame poor upbringing, lack of education, and bad government for your financial scarcity you most likely belong to this group of people. It is also very likely that in response as to why you cannot take care of your physical health and fitness you would explain that it’s because of your genes (everybody is fat or ill in your family), or that you are too busy to go to the gym and watch your diet, or perhaps you can’t afford to, etc. In other words, this group of people would always find many reasons why they cannot succeed in one or another area of their life.

It goes without saying, that due to these limiting believes they have no control over their life and depend on conditions created by others. These people are afraid to make any changes in their life and stay in their “comfort zone”. Unfortunately, you can’t get different results doing the same things over and over again…

On the other hand, warriors are those people who take full responsibility for everything that happens in their life. A warrior is a person who sees life “as an opportunity to learn and grow”. They know that their outer world is an exact reflection of their inner world. And that they are creating their own reality with their thoughts, feelings and actions. They see every challenge as an opportunity and become masters of life.

What type of person are you? I know nobody wants to be a peasant… But be honest with yourself because recognition is the first step to personal transformation. If you don’t recognize that you need to change in the first place, you never will.

It’s really up to you whether you choose to see the world as a victor or a victim, whether you choose to be in control or being controlled.

Well the good news is that anyone can become more of a warrior. As James Arthur Ray puts it, “inside every peasant is a warrior clamoring to step into armor and march forward”. And you can do this by continuously learning and growing, by developing self-empowering believes and success habits. It starts with the right MIND FOOD!

Technorati Tags: mind food, types of people, personal development, marvelous mind, brain power

Leverage Your Time

How do you get the most out of your time? I'm sure there's something that you've always wanted to learn but never had the time. Perhaps you’ve been planning to learn some new skill or just increase your knowledge in specific area? Maybe learn one more language or read a new book? Well here are some tips that will help:

• How much time every day do you spend in your car? Make sure you have some educational cds to feed your mind while sitting in that traffic jam. And if you always wanted to learn at least one more foreign language - go ahead! You'll also be able to repeat out loud every new word that you learn.
• Do you commute to work or school by public transport every day? Why not entertain your mind with some educational program or simply read a book of your choice. Just don’t waste your time staring at other people!
• Listen to inspirational and educational audiobooks or your favorite podcasts while jogging on the beach or sweating on a treadmill in the gym. Now that sounds like a fun Mind-Body Workout!
• How many hours each week do you spend cleaning the house, doing grocery shopping, making dinner, etc.? Would you be willing to transform your housework into something more fun and self empowering? I’m sure you will now.

Well these are just a few tips but you get the idea. Get creative and make it fun!

Technorati Tags: time management, learning, educational audios, personal development, marvelous mind, brain power

All Leaders Are Great Readers

How many nonfiction books have you read this month, this year?
Now you may be telling me that you are a very busy person and there is simply no time that you could squeeze in to you agenda for reading books.
Let me tell you this: we have all been given the same amount of time per day, per week, etc. The way you plan your day depends on your priorities. If you asked some of the most successful people in the world you’d be surprised to know how many books they read. Because they know that…
There are only two things that you can do with your time (and your brainpower) – you can either spend it or invest it.
Which one will you choose? Now remember that time spent is gone forever. But if you invest your time in learning it creates a lifetime annuity. I hope you choose wisely!

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky
Russian Poet and Essayist

Technorati Tags: reading, nonfiction books, personal growth, personal development, marvelous mind, brain power

Feed Your Marvelous Mind

Your mind is your number one asset. That is the greatest gift that you’ve been given by the Creator. But how do you really feed your mind? How many hours per week do you spend watching television? How many books do you read each week?

Research tells that an average American household spends 6 hours and forty-four minutes a day watching television. That equals to almost 2 full days per week!

Now think about how your life would change if you invested those hours in your personal development. Do you believe that you could have a much more successful and fulfilling life?

In this blog I'll be sharing some of the most powerful tips as well as useful links and tools that will help you increase you brain power and improve your life!

Technorati Tags: mind food, feed your mind, personal development, marvelous mind, brain power