Get R Done!

Larry the Cable Guy coined the phrase “Get R Done” and I’ve been a fan of how the act of saying it (especially the way he does) can help me buckle down and get things done. Just try it…………..see what I mean! 🙂 Getting R Done, AKA being task oriented, doesn’t always mean that a person has self-discipline. A person can be great at getting things done yet when they also focus on the steps and learning that will help them to grow then they are practicing self-discipline.

Some people view self-discipline as an act of religion or only practiced by up tight and prudish people. I say this just isn’t so!  Look at history and you will see that successful people aren’t successful because they are lucky. Successful people are successful because they are disciplined in their actions, thoughts, and words. They create goals and retain focus on them, they have an understanding that it takes willpower and hard, roll up your sleeves, and roll around in the muck work!

“Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. It requires you to connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s results. There is a season for sowing and a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you to know which is which.” – Gary Ryan Blair.

Self-discipline isn’t just about having willpower and self-control, its about tackling the wants over needs constant message in our heads. It’s about making choices when our goals are about to get railroaded and choosing to have a long-term focus rather than a short-term focus. And no…self-discipline doesn’t have to mean self-denial. It’s knowing the big picture and how our choices and actions will effect when we reach our targeted goal.

Before we can start practicing self-discipline we need to understand ourselves.  When we understand who we are and what we are capable of, we can then focus on mindful awareness of what we are doing or not doing to get things done. When we identify undisciplined behaviors we can then make a course correction to eliminate them. Maybe try keeping a log when these situations happen so that you can track your progress in remaining self-disciplined.

The practice of self-discipline won’t work without your conscious commitment to the process. We need to follow through on what we say needs doing. If needed, ask for an accountability partner to help ensure that you are working on staying focused and Getting R Done!

“Self-discipline is awareness of consequences.” – Dalai Lama

Embrace the difficulty of staying disciplined. Self-discipline can be a hard thing to do guys! Listening to that devil on your shoulder sometimes can seem more fun and gratifying yet we need to rely on the angel on the other shoulder to guide our focus back to the big picture and the end goal.

Train your inner voice to help you to Get R Done! This process can help you to regain focus when its lost and to have the courage to keep working to move forward. Remember that the price of discipline is always less than the price of regret.

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” – Jesse Owens.

If we can view self-discipline as a positive effort rather than a mode of denial we can create new habits of thoughts, actions, and words to improve our ability to motivate ourselves to persevere until our goal is achieved.

A friend asks me each week what I’ll be sharing in my next blog post. Actually, his positive feedback has helped me remain disciplined in maintaining my blog! He is my unofficial accountability partner. 🙂 He recently shared with me that he is motivated by reading my blog topics but he is struggling with how to pull it all together. I shared with him that he has great timing because the pulling together of Personal Mastery concepts requires self-discipline! Here’s my take on it:

1. Timing is everything. Whatever time of day you are most effective cherish and guard this time. Use it to work on the steps you need to Get R Done! For me, I’m most effective early in the morning so I block out that time to work on my current two primary goals. The first goal is my coaching certification course work and the second is writing for my blog.
2. Write your goal down. Don’t keep it in your head – because that’s where it will stay! Build a plan to reach your goal by breaking it into workable parts. Again ask for an accountability partner if you’re concerned that the devil on your shoulder my override your drive and focus. This is a difficult area for many people who are feeling stuck in the how too’s of goal setting. (Spoiler Alert! – goal setting or what I like to call goal achievement plans is the topic for next week post.)
3. Create a vision of your goal and attach an emotional component to it. When emotion is involved we are much more likely to do the work needed to be successful. Attaching an emotion gives the motivation and energy we need to complete the tasks.
4. Create a goal to do list and a daily to do list and prioritize them. Each workable part you created in step two have smaller tasks that need to be accomplished. The act of checking items off a list can also be a visual motivator to completing a task or reaching your goals.
5. Don’t wait until you reach the end goal to celebrate. This is a very important step! Celebration of the small successes you’ve just achieved will keep you motivated to keep working at it. Self-discipline is hard but it shouldn’t be painful!
6. Be positive and be persistent. You know what you want to achieve, you can visualize yourself achieving it, you can feel the joy and pride of accomplishment, and no mater how long it takes or how hard it is YOU CAN DO IT!!

“Being self-disciplined is the number one component that creates long-term success and it is a required ingredient to accomplish our goals.”