My personal quote of the month is from the late self-help guru Jim Rohn:

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

I think this is great advice—for experienced business managers, for new college graduates entering the job market, for EVERYONE who wants to live a fulfilling, happy, life. If I may be so bold, I think it would be an even better quote if it was amended to read, “. . . the rigors ofself-discipline or the agony of regret or disappointment”. Certainly, the second pain is much more severe than the first. In fact, that’s the point. And, it’s really disciplining yourself and instilling self-discipline in your staff that we’re talking about.  

Surprisingly, even though self-discipline is a core teaching of virtually every religion, the moral of countless fables, and a core tenet of numerous self-help books and articles, many of us are unable or unwilling to embrace it. Lack of self-discipline is arguably why many people are overweight and out of shape even though they know that this will almost certainly adversely affect their health and happiness. It’s lack of self-discipline that prevents many athletes or sports teams from ever reaching their full potential because they don’t adhere to their training protocol or make careless errors on the playing field. It’s why many seniors reach retirement age without having a sufficient nest egg to support themselves. And, it’s what causes business managers to make costly impulsive or short-sighted decisions or operate their businesses inefficiently.

Why is it so difficult for us to better control our own behavior? For one thing, it doesn’t come naturally. It’s a habit that has to be learned and practiced. Also, unless you wholeheartedly believe in the benefits of self-discipline, you won’t have the staying power required to stick with it. Some actually resist it because they think it inhibits creativity and work enjoyment. In fact the opposite is true. For example, only within a disciplined product development process can you foster the kind of creativity, spontaneity, and teamwork that produces safe, saleable products as opposed to chaos. 

The choice is yours. If you’re ready to choose the lesser pain of self-discipline versus the excruciating and eternal pain of regret, here are a few ideas to get you started:

·         Create a life plan. Another Rohn quote I like is, “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”  A life plan enables you to look at your life as a totality and confront the big questions about what you really enjoy doing and want to accomplish now and in the future both in your personal and business life. It’s bound to change over time, but it provides you with the framework that defines what you need to be disciplined about. If not a full-fledged plan, at least set some measurable life goals. I used to carry around in my wallet a card on which I wrote my goals for each aspect of my life—e.g. family, business, personal health, and even my golf game (haven’t achieved that one yet).  

·         Establish and stick to a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual routine. You need your own “personal process”. This was certainly true when I was running my company, but it’s just as true now in my “2^nd career”. I don’t know about you, but when I let my personal routine slip, I not only become much less effective but my stress level increases. Your life plan goals should be integrated into your personal process so that you stay on track. I use Microsoft Outlook as the backbone of my organization system and have found a related book very useful—Total Workday Control by Michael Linenberger.

·         Make major life and business decisions based on data and facts not speculation. It takes self-discipline to resist jumping to conclusions when things go wrong or apparent opportunities appear. It’s easy to make some big and sometimes hard to reverse mistakes this way. You should always be asking and answering the right probing questions. How do we know what really was the root cause of the problem? How can we tell if our customers are really happy with our products? How will our employees know when they are doing a good job? Is this really the right person to hire? And of course, are we staying true to our mission and goals? Your answers should be based as much as possible on hard data and careful analysis and not just personal opinion.

·         Recognize that organizational self-discipline must be led from the top. Self-discipline (or self-management) should be part of every organization’s culture and it’s the CEO and only the CEO that creates and enforces the culture. You can do it by example, through documentation of core values, via training, and most importantly through your actions when discipline is lacking.

If you’d like some help with specific ways for you and your company to avoid the “pain of regret”, contact Kyle Schaller at kschaller@jpma.org to sign up for one of my CEO Mentor Skype sessions. They’re “painless”.