We’ve talked about making THE decision and making a commitment to pursue your dreams. So, let’s talk about the third thing it requires to pursue your dream.

Discipline. This is a huge topic and we may have to revisit this one later. But it takes discipline to pursue a dream. Malcolm Gladwell who wrote The Tipping Point says it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. 10,000 hours. Think about it. That’s a lot of time. If you worked on your dream 40 hours for 52 weeks of the year, that’s a little over 2,000 hours. At that pace it’s gonna take roughly 5 years to get to 10,000 hours. Now don’t get discouraged. Remember, you’ve made a decision. You’ve committed. And now you gotta get as tough as a drill sergeant. Olympic athletes discipline themselves in how they work out, eat, and challenge themselves beyond their endurance. Any athlete who has won the gold medal would say, “It’s worth it.” At some point they had to get disciplined. Discipline is a muscle and requires working out to strengthen it. You won’t be disciplined over night. You’ll mess up. But recommit and begin again. Discipline yourself.

If you struggle with this area, we will talk about this some more because there are strategies for becoming more disciplined. But for now, begin. And if you need someone to help you, a partner in crime, so to speak, try to find someone you can trust with your dream (remember, no one who is going to laugh or harass) and ask that person to keep you accountable. Maybe you can help your friend if he or she is struggling too.

So does discipline come easily for you? Or do you struggle? What are some techniques that have helped you be more disciplined?


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Labels: career, chasing dreams, discipline, goals, setting goals