Quote #4: Discipline can seem like your worst enemy but in reality, it is your best friend.
Jocko Willink is the author of Discipline Equals Freedom, a workbook that shows you how to imbibe more discipline in your life in less than 30 minutes.
The first time I heard of this book was early last year, February to be precise.
I attended a financial modelling seminar where the speaker expressed his profound admiration for this book in his closing remarks.
Of course, I ignored him. What has this got to do with the matter at hand?
But I coincidentally bumped into the same book about three months later at a friend’s, and on a whim, I decided to give it a quick scan. …
And why you should never let it hurt you
If you’re out there taking your shots at life, doing your bit, or trying to make things happen, chances are that you’re going to attract the attention of critics.
You’re consistently being trolled on the internet for doing your best. You launch a new business and get a one star online business review. Your colleagues say you’re not good enough. Your boss says you suck at your job. You get countless rejections. Even your close friends and family think your ideas suck.
Critics are everywhere and probably will always be there. That’s just the way things are.
When Constructive Criticism Gets Out of Hand
We are all often critical sometimes, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. We understand that our colleague, spouse, boss, or coach has our best interest at heart. …
Culled from the commonly mentioned regrets among aging people.
The best way to avoid regret is to spend time with the elderly and listening to their regrets.
Why?
Because in doing so, you can see an image of yourself if you follow the path they did.
1. Choosing Work Over Family
How do you balance work and family time?
You’d say to yourself, it’s not a big deal if I stay late at work just this one time. I’ll make it up to the family this weekend.
But in reality, these make-ups never seem to happen.
You have a deadline to meet and at the same time, you want to sit down with your family and have a nice dinner. …
From his most successful book, Man’s search for meaning
Man’s search for meaning is a book written in 1967 by an Austrian Neurologist and Psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Frankl. His book ultimately reveals that striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.
Dr. Frankl was a 2nd World War Holocaust survivor and the inventor of Logotherapy — A philosophical and psychological approach to healing through meaning in life. In his lifetime, he published 39 books in 49 different languages, received 29 Honorary Doctoral degrees, and received several awards for his contributions to religion and psychiatry.
I got sober reading this book. Dr. Frankl described his brutal experiences as a prisoner in 4 different Nazi concentration camps where he lost almost all his family members. Here are the 5 most useful lessons from his book that can help you get through the hard knocks of life. …
To guarantee consistent sales, you must understand and learn how to avoid it
Have you ever wondered why some businesses encounter a sharp decline in revenue after a short period of consistent growth in sales? And why other businesses in yet the same industry prosper year after year with increasing sales and armies of new and repeat customers?
To get a clue to the answer, ask yourself these questions;
- Have you ever been a customer lately?
- How did you feel after having an encounter with the last store you visited?
- Based on this feeling, are you “more” or “less” likely going to visit that same-store for your future needs?
Truth is, whenever a customer or a prospect has any sort of contact with your business — whether, through phone calls, visits, third party inquiries, or even purchases, he is likely to experience consequences as a result of interacting with your business. …
Just because it’s taking time doesn’t mean it’s not gonna happen
Events may not necessarily turn out as planned but this doesn’t mean you’ll never arrive at your destination.
Sometimes life gets really tough. Hang in there, it gets better.
One of the toughest battles in life is making a decision between hanging on and letting go.
But remember this, you’ve got to live through bad days to get to the good ones and to do that, you need to hang on.
If you’re patient enough to understand this fact, you’ll begin to uncover how things are slowly working out for your good.
Don’t let someone who gave up on their dream talk you out of going after yours.
Don’t let someone who hasn’t shared the same life experiences as yours convince you it can’t be done.
In life, nothing goes 100% as predicted.
You’ll always be faced with situations that will make you think putting aside your goal is for the best, but if you hang in there, always believing in the cause, I have absolutely no doubt you will succeed. …
A timely guide to timeless manners
I read about the gentlemanly code in a book by John Bridges titled How To Be a Gentleman: A timely guide to timeless manners. I found it quite interesting as it reminded me of a handful of gentle manners which I had forgotten in a hurry.
The author suggests that the book is really not about complicated rules and convoluted instructions, but a simple guide on how to behave from day to day and occasion to occasion, with the aim of making life easier for other people.
But beware….
In the book and definitely on this article, you’re going to come across a particularly recurring phrase — “A…
This is your extra shot at increasing your chances of success!
Success as we know it, is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. When consistent effort is applied to a defined purpose, we increase our chances of success at anything.
Applying consistent effort to any cause will require a lot of determination and discipline — and this is where motivation comes in.
Motivation is the reason we act or behave in a particular way. It’s that emotional spark that drives us with the needed desire to achieve anything we want. Motivation can give you 2 important things;
- the willingness to start something, and
- the enthusiasm to stick to that cause, especially when the going gets tough. …
How to worry less, live more, and think more critically
I read about the Trichotomy of control in William Irvine’s book, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy. The idea sounded interesting to me so I decided to give it a trial. Turns out it affected my life positively.
There are a few examples of how I’ve applied it in my personal dealings but the most intriguing part of this discovery was how it revealed the obvious truths about worry and disappointments in life.
The Trichotomy of control attempts to provide an additional explanation on the things that perhaps, are under our control.
What Can You Control?
According to Stoic philosophy, there are things in life that you can control (an example is your thoughts or actions). There are also things in life that you cannot control (an example is whether the sun will rise tomorrow or not). Therefore, we should only concern ourselves with things that are within our control. …
And why you should take advantage of it
One of the biggest fears we will ever face as humans is to waste our lives and effort on things that eventually won’t matter.
But the reality is that most people live like this. As humans, we are biologically wired to be distracted by activities.
We get carried away by life, working on “stuff”
This cycle can go on for days, weeks, months and even years and this is very evident in our daily lifestyle.
The Obvious Truth
If you take a look at the calendar of most people, you’ll find the regular set of scheduled events like meetings, lunches, dinners, birthdays, games, and so on. …
About
