Linda here.
Do you have the self-discipline (i.e. self-control) to do something for 90 days that’s difficult, but critically important to your business?
In my Executive Roundtables we have an exercise called “The Next 90 Day Focus”. It challenges members to devote one hour a day for the next ninety days to improving “one thing” that would significantly improve their business.
Many have started, but few have made it the entire 90 days.
Why do so few finish? I don’t know. Maybe they forgot. Maybe they had an emergency. Maybe they lacked the incentive or the skill of self-discipline.
Here are some truths about self-discipline.
- It’s a limited resource. A study on self-control found that people who practiced self-control in one area of their lives depleted their ability to control themselves in other areas.
- You can improve. Paying attention to actions plays a big part in accomplishing goals.
- Lack of self-control leads to selfishness. This is demonstrated by playing the ultimatum game. The game demonstrates that if people are driven primarily by their own economic self-interest instead of fairness, they will accept very low offers because low offers are better than nothing.
- Practicing self-control equals successful outcomes. People with high self-control have better grades, exhibit fewer impulse-control issues (binge eating or alcohol abuse), have better interpersonal relationships and report less feelings of guilt and shame.
- People with self-control are happier. A2013 study pointed out that practicing self-control may not give instant gratification but can result in long-term happiness.
I rest my case. Will you accept the challenge to spend one hour a day focusing on one issue that is critically important to your business?