Self-Discipline and Personal Excellence

 

“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act but a habit.” 

—ARISTOTLE

You are your most valuable asset. Your life, your potential, and your possibilities are the most precious things you have. Thus your great goal in lifeshould be to fulfill that potential and become everything you are capable of becoming.

          Your ability to learn, grow, and fulfill your potential is unlimited. Today, people are graduating from high school and college in their seventies, learning new subjects and developing new capabilities. Your ability to learn and remember can continue throughout your life if you keep your brain alive, alert, and functioning at its best.

            Your most precious financial asset is your earning ability . Your ability to work is your primary source of cash throughout your life. You could lose your home, your car, your bank account, and everything you own, but as long as you have your earning ability, you can earn it all back—and more —in the months and years ahead.

Your Biggest Investment

Most people don’t realize this. They take their earning ability for granted. But it has taken you your entire life to develop your earning ability. Every bit of education, experience, and hard work that you have invested in learning your craft and developing your skills has gone into building this asset.Your earning ability is very much like a muscle. It can increase in strength and power year by year as the result of regular exercise. Likewise, the opposite is true, too: If left alone or ignored, your earning ability, like your muscles, can become weaker or even decline because you have simply failed to upgrade it continually.

You Are the President

See yourself as the president of your own “Personal Services Corporation.” Imagine that you were going to take your company public on the stock market. Would you recommend your company as a growth stock, continually increasing its value and earning abilityeach year?     Or would you describe your company as one that has leveled off in the market place, that is not really going anywhere in terms of increased value and income? Would you recommend stock in “You, Inc.” as an excellent investment? Why or why not?

What Got You Here Won’t Get You Any Further

Some people are actually losing value each year, declining in earning ability, because they are not continually upgrading their knowledge and skills. They don’t realize that whatever knowledge and skill they have today is rapidly becoming obsolete. It is being replaced by new knowledge and skills that, if you don’t have them and someone else does, you will be in danger of being overtaken by your competition.

No Limits on Your Potential

The average income increase in America is about 3 percent a year, just about the same as the rate of inflation and cost of living increases. People whose income is increasing at 3 percent a year seldom get ahead. They have a job, which can also be thought of as an acronym for 

“J ust O ver B roke.”

            But the fact is that no one is better than you, and no one is smarter than you. If someone is doing better thanyou are today, it is simply proof that he has learned how the Law of Cause and Effect applies to his work, and he has begun doing the things that other successful people have also done.

The application of the Law of Cause and Effect to your personal life is “learn and do.”

The Keys to the Twenty-First Century

Knowledge and skill are the keys to the twenty-first century. Becoming the best person you can possibly be and moving to the top of your field require the application of self-discipline throughout your life. Mental fitness is like physical fitness: If you want to achieve either, you must work at it all your life. You can never let up. You must be continually learning and growing—every day, week, and month—throughout your career (and in other areas of your life) if you’re going to join the top 20

percent and stay there. To earn more, you must learn more.

Abraham Lincoln once wrote, “The fact that some have become wealthy is proof that others may do it as well.”

Ordinary into Extraordinary

Very often, you see people who don’t seem to be as intelligent or as talented as you are who are nonetheless accomplishing remarkable things with their lives. There is nothing that will make you angrier than to see someone who seems to be dumber than you doing better than you. How can this be?

The answer is simple: At a certain point in their lives, they realized that the key to success was personal and professional growth. It was a dedication to lifelong learning.

Make a Decision

The starting point of your moving upward and onward toward becoming one of the most competent, most respected, and highest paid people in your field is simple: Make a decision..!!

         It is said that every major change in your life comes about when your mind collides with a new idea, and you then make a decision to do something different. You make a decision to complete your education, upgrade your skills, or get into a good college. You make a decision to start a new business. You make a decision to take a particular job or start a particular career. You make a decision to invest your money in a particular way. And, especially, you make a decision to be the best in your field.

This from the book No Excuses! By Brian Tracy 

Thank you