Let’s do away with Generation Y and Z — Be a part of Generation Productive.

If you’ve heard success stories about your peers in various aspects of their life — notably success in their career and entrepreneurship — chances are they’re the kinds of people who don’t stay home all day on their computer in the summertime, or go to parties only to go home and sleep at the crack of dawn.

The key character trait that these people are likely to have in common is discipline. One cannot be productive without first achieving victory over oneself. Discipline is just that — victory over oneself.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey outlines that the “common denominator” of success lies in the fact that successful people often do the things that most people don’t want to do.

This statement profoundly changes everything that we have been taught in life. We’ve been taught to chase pleasure, to find a career that will make you comfortable, to reach a certain point in your life and remain complacent with the status quo of making six figures a year. We’ve been taught to do what we want to do, when we want to do it. But if you truly want to be successful, it’s those very things that we’ve been taught that are holding us back from achieving truly great things. But it’s also not about talent, connections, or even good old fashioned hard work. It is simply about being disciplined — and it takes time. Nobody can go from sitting in front of a computer screen 10 hours a day, watching movies and playing video games, to a person who wakes up early, goes to the gym, reads books and has a fulfilling passion that generates an income in a matter of weeks.

But to start on this journey of self-discipline, you must first ask yourself — what is your ultimate goal, and do you truly want it?