One of the things that I love to do is write down quotes to remind me what commitment to small daily actions will do for me over a long period of time. I’ve noticed that quotes that inspire me change overtime, because of my own personal growth. Today, one of the quotes that I love to share with my private coaching clients is: “Only the disciplined are free. If we don’t get tough on ourselves, life will get tough on me.”
I love the thought that I need to discipline myself to do what is necessary all the time, instead of just some of the time. Becoming more disciplined around what actions to take has real life, day to day application that has immediate benefits. In Eknath Easwaran’s book, Conquest of the Mind, he writes: “The Buddha, the most practical of all teachers, defines the wise man or woman as thoroughly practical this way.”
He says, “One who will gladly give up small pleasures to gain greater joy.” I love that thought. Discipline is the person who gladly gives up smaller pleasures to gain greater joy. One of my new disciplines is each time I go on Facebook, I pick one person who has liked, shared, or commented on one of my posts.
I look at that person, think about them, and then I find a quote that reminds me of them, and I send it to them in a private message. Just this morning, I sent this message to one of your referral ignite teammates, Joshua Keen who is also a BroVance Member and one of our future coaches and Coaching Academy students.
For Joshua, I said to him, “This quote really reminds me of you.” And the quote is, “Deep work, professional activities, performed in a state of distraction free concentration that push the cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skills, and are hard to replicate.”
Now, I know that Joshua does deep work, and this message connects with him perfectly. And I love the discipline of finding one person each time I go onto Facebook who has liked, shared, or commented with me a quote that reminds me of them.
Now of course, it takes time to think about the quote, the quote that matches that person perfectly. But, Google makes that pretty easy. The discipline is to think about how can I impact one person a day in my tribe with a quote that inspires me? It’s really worth developing this discipline. Not only do I always get a response, I usually get a very positive response.
And not only will you connect with the quote, but you’ll deepen your connection with that tribe member. That’s really worth thinking about, isn’t it? Only the disciplined are free. And if we don’t get tough on ourselves, life will get tough on me.
