Tag Discipline

The Importance of a Strong Work Ethic – Part Two

Steve Keating 1 Comment

In Part One of this two-part post, we looked at why a strong work ethic is essential to a person’s success. Many people think having a strong work ethic simply means working hard. That’s true, but there’s more to it than that.

Strengthening your work ethic involves building habits and adopting mindsets that promote discipline, focus, and accountability. So continue to work hard but add these ideas into the mix so that you’re working smarter too.

1. Set Clear Goals

Break larger objectives into smaller, actionable steps.

Use tools like planners, task lists, or apps to track progress.

Here’s some additional insights on the importance of goals: https://stevekeating.me/2021/04/18/the-hopelessness-of-no-goals/

2. Prioritize Discipline

Stick to a schedule and avoid procrastination.

Start your day with the hardest or most important tasks (the “eat the frog” method).

Here’s a post that can help you in this area: https://stevekeating.me/2024/01/11/how-to-develop-more-discipline-in-your-life/

3. Practice Consistency

Work consistently, even when motivation wanes.

Build routines that make good work habits automatic.

Here’s an earlier post that can help you: https://stevekeating.me/2024/09/15/motivating-yourself-when-youre-not-particularly-motivated/

4. Maintain a Positive Attitude

View challenges as opportunities to grow.

Approach your work with gratitude and a can-do mindset.

Read this post for more ideas on this point: https://stevekeating.me/2024/05/23/why-having-a-positive-attitude-matters/

5. Improve Time Management

Learn to prioritize tasks using frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix. Never mistake the urgent stuff for the important things that really matter.

Minimize distractions by creating a focused work environment. This may be shocking, but it is possible to turn your damn phone off from time to time.

6. Take Responsibility

Own up to mistakes and learn from them. If you’re not confident enough to admit your mistakes, you actually lose the power to correct them.

Hold yourself accountable for meeting deadlines and achieving results.

7. Build Resilience

Accept that setbacks are part of growth. If you’re not failing once in a while, you’re probably not working hard enough.

Develop mental toughness to stay productive under pressure. Understand that those failures are all about learning to succeed. Embrace the lessons of failure and do better next time.

8. Seek Continuous Improvement

Learn new skills and stay updated in your field. The most successful people learn something new almost every single day. Invest a minimum of 15 minutes a day to improve your base of knowledge, it will positively impact you in a ton of discipline ways.

Actively seek feedback and use it constructively.

9. Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People

Spend time with motivated, hard-working individuals. If you’re hanging out with low- energy people, don’t expect to be high energy yourself.

Engage with people or groups that value diligence and productivity.

10. Balance Work and Rest

Avoid burnout by incorporating regular breaks and leisure activities. Invest time to “recharge” and refresh. Even small breaks can make a big difference.

Get enough sleep, eat healthy, and exercise to stay energized.

Using these ideas can help you steadily build a strong work ethic. One that supports success, personal satisfaction, and career growth.

Remember, there will very possibly always be someone who knows more than you. And someone who has a bit more ability, and maybe someone with more experience. Those things are outside of your control. But you have complete control over the level of effort you put forth; that means there is never really a valid excuse for being consistently outworked.

Make a better effort and you will be making yourself a better life.

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How to Develop More Discipline in Your Life

Steve Keating 2 Comments

I had a conversation with a friend a while back and he said that once you have discipline in your life everything is easy. I only wish that were true. That reality is that doing hard things is hard. Discipline allows you to do them anyway. It doesn’t make them easy.

My definition of discipline is wanting something more in the future than the something that you want today. For example, having the discipline required to lose weight means you want to weigh less in the future more than you want that handful of chocolate covered raisins today. Said another way, discipline means you’re willing to give up something today so you can have something better tomorrow.

You can have more discipline in your life when you realize that discipline is a developable skill. Developing that skill is a gradual process that involves making consistent changes to your mindset, habits, and routines. Here’s how to get started.

Set Clear Goals. Discipline rises and on goals. Until you know what you want in the future you’ll have no reason to work towards it today. So begin by defining your short-term and long-term goals. You’ll need to be as specific as possible here. You should have goals in multiple areas of your life. That balance will allow you to keep moving forward when setbacks and obstacles try to knock you off track. It’s knowing what you want to achieve that provides a sense of direction and purpose. Purpose makes up the core of your discipline.

Prioritize Tasks. Instead of doing the easiest things first create a prioritized task list based on their importance and deadlines. Focus on high-priority items first. As you develop discipline it will be less likely that you look down your list and pick a lower priority task to do first. You’ll need to do everything possible to stick to your prioritized task list for at least 30 days. It’s at that point that your newfound discipline can take over.

Create a Routine. Establish a daily routine that includes dedicated time for work, rest, and personal activities. Consistency in your schedule helps develop discipline. Do NOT over schedule your calendar. “Stuff” as they say, happens. There is nothing wrong with having a gap in your calendar here and there to handle that stuff. If you completely fill your calendar everyday then when the inevitable “stuff” happens your routine is shot to hell and likely, your discipline is shot with it.

Eliminate Distractions. Identify and minimize distractions in your environment. “Distractions” may well include co-workers who lack discipline. You may need to politely decline their hallway conversations or gossip sessions. They might be using you as an excuse to procrastinate and few things can impact your personal discipline like allowing someone else’s procrastination to become your problem.

Time Management. You can’t really manage time, you get 1440 minutes a day to use as effectively as you can. So learn to manage the “events” of your day that use up that time. Set deadlines for tasks and allocate specific time blocks for different activities/events. Do not confuse “busy work” for true productivity. If an event did not contribute toward getting you closer to one of your goals or objectives then you might have been busy but it’s unlikely you were productive.

Build Habits. The most successful people know that not all habits are bad. In fact, many could be considered positive habits. Identify the positive habits in your life. To be a positive habit they need to align with your goals. Consistently practicing these habits helps automate positive behaviors and build unshakable discipline.

There are certainly other areas of focus that can help you further develop discipline in your life but these are a good place to start. Building discipline is a gradual process, and it’s important to be patient with yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your durable discipline won’t be either. Consistency and perseverance are key components of developing lasting discipline in life.

Stay the course because your future self will be mighty glad you did.

An Overlooked Quality of Authentic Leadership

Steve Keating 1 Comment

Much has been written about the qualities and characteristics of Authentic Leaders. But one essential quality of Authentic Leadership is seldom discussed. 

That quality is self-discipline. Developing the quality of self-discipline is part of leading yourself. Leaders sometimes forget this fact but if a person can’t lead themselves it is almost certain they can’t lead anyone else. 

Building self-discipline requires that you understand, develop and follow your priorities. If you can’t clearly state what your priorities are you will always struggle with time management. People who tell me “they don’t have time” get frustrated with me when I challenge that statement. The fact is they have as much time as any person on this planet. They struggle to get things done because they don’t understand their priorities. 

Not understanding their priorities causes people to spend time on seemingly urgent tasks rather than investing their time on important things. It’s the important things that pay long-term dividends. When you get your time under control you’re on your way to living a self-disciplined life. 

To further develop your self-discipline you need to challenge your excuses. That process begins by understanding the difference between an excuse and a reason. The example I most often use to explain this difference is being late. 

If you show up late, to anything, and say, “sorry I’m late but the traffic was brutal” that’s an excuse. An excuse indicates that you accept no responsibility for your tardiness. It also shows you have no intention of doing anything different to prevent it from happening again. 

If you show up late and say, “sorry I’m late, the traffic was brutal and I failed to take traffic into account this time of day. I’ll pay more attention to that next time.” That is an example of a reason. It indicates that you accept responsibility for being late and you will take steps to try and prevent it from happening again. 

Excuses are plentiful and easy to find…or make up. Just remember people who are good at making excuses aren’t very good at making progress. If you allow yourself too many excuses you’ll limit your ability to life a disciplined lifestyle. 

Living that disciplined lifestyle requires that you focus on results. Success is a process and results often come slowly. Success seldom follows a straight line, it’s more of a zig zag. Accept all results as a win, no matter how small and no matter how slowly they arrive. 

Living a disciplined lifestyle can seem like a daunting task. It may feel like we can’t be disciplined and have fun. Develop the mindset that being disciplined is fun itself. Also realize that you don’t have to be disciplined every day, you only need to be disciplined one day…and that day is today. When you wake up tomorrow you’ll discover that tomorrow is another today. 

As a leader you likely want the people you lead to be disciplined as well. It is vital, and this is why self-discipline is such an essential quality of Authentic Leadership, it is vital that you always keep in mind that you are the model of successful behavior for your people. 

If you don’t display self-discipline then don’t expect to see it from anyone you lead either. 

On a another subject…Donald Trump and Joe Biden both say they “never miss a video from LeadToday on Twitter!” Well… they would say that if they had ever heard of me, or if one of them hadn’t been kicked off Twitter. The videos they aren’t talking about are something new I’m trying on Twitter. It’s called “Super Followers.” For $5 a month, that’s 17 cents a day, people can follow a part of my Twitter stream that is for subscribers only. It features short videos of me discussing leadership topics, sales tips and ideas for better overall relationships. I’m assuming there will be far fewer Super Followers than the million or so people who regularly follow me on Twitter. That will give me the opportunity to answer questions more throughly than I can on regular Twitter. Most of the answers will come in the evening cause we all have day jobs, right? Think of it as ”mentoring on demand!”

My goal with SuperFollowers is to build a better connection, one where I can help more and have a greater impact. I’m hoping it gives me a chance to mentor to a wider audience. It’s still new, we’ll see how it works. It’s a $5 dollar investment that may be the extra “push” you need to get to where you want to be. I’d be honored to be able to help get you there. 

You can find more information by clicking the Super Follow button on my Twitter profile page IN THE TWITTER APP. http://twitter.com/leadtoday Give it a try if you’re so inclined, and if you are, be sure to let me know how I’m doing and how I can be of even more help.

Being on Time Matters

Steve Keating Leave a comment

If you’ve read this blog a long time you may know that I attended High School at a Military Academy. The staff there, many of which were military leaders were VERY big on being on time. My first day in the building as I entered another kid was coming out…of the window above me. He was tossed out the window for being late. 

During my four years there lots of kids were expelled for being late. They taught us that being late was bad, very very bad. They also taught us that absolutely no excuse was acceptable. Nope, not even dying. I remember one of the Sargents telling me that if I died then I better have someone prepared to drag my dead body into school on time because there were things he could do to a dead person that weren’t very pleasant. 

I was 14 years old at the time, I can still hear his voice. It made a lasting impression on me and from that day on I knew without a doubt that being on time matters.

For the record, the school is still alive and turning out future leaders but I don’t think they can get away with stuff like that anymore…which apparently is good. Okay, okay, it’s good.

When it comes to time there seems to be two major groups of people. Those who believe being on time matters and those who believe it matters that other people be on time. There are always a few exceptions, some people for instance just don’t think being on time should matter at all. They make no effort to be on time and they don’t worry about sitting around wasting time waiting for someone else to show up to an appointment or meeting. I REALLY try hard to avoid those people, they will never reach their potential in life and they could even prevent me from reaching mine.

So which group are you in? 

The group that expects other people to be on time but refuse to hold themselves to the same standard are very frustrating for me. They are thieves. Yep, thieves, they steal from me one of my most vital assets, time. Every minute spent waiting for them is a minute I can’t get back. I could have used that minute in pursuit of one of my goals. I could have invested it with someone who valued my time far more than the person I’m waiting for. If you don’t want to be a thief then be on time.

People who make other people wait don’t think of it this way but they are being selfish. They could be on time, they simply choose not to be. If you don’t agree that timeliness is a choice then consider how many times you’ve been 5 or 10 minutes late. People who are frequently a few minutes late could easily set their alarms 10 minutes earlier. They could leave the house 10 minutes earlier. They could stop hitting the snooze button. They choose to do none of that, they choose to be late. They choose to let other people wait on them. That’s selfish. 

At it’s core being late is an attitude issue. It shows you value your own comfort and convenience over other people’s. It is disrespectful.

People who highly value being on time send a completely different message to those around them. They send a message that says I value my time AND yours. They show they can be trusted and counted on. They demonstrate that their word means something. People who are always on time show they can manage their lives and that they will do what they say they will. 

No matter how laid back your company and your boss may appear to be they are paying attention to your ability to be on time. They are watching to see if you hit deadlines or let them go whizzing past. They want to know if the precious asset of time matters to you because if it doesn’t then it’s likely other precious resources won’t matter to you either. 

Remember, if a meeting starts at 9:00am and you waltz in at 9:01 then you are late. Always get there early cause if you’re early, it’s impossible to be late. 

Slowing Down

Steve Keating Leave a comment

Ever heard of the saying “speed kills?” It is kind of a given that doing most anything too fast is not a good idea.

What isn’t mentioned often enough however is that going too slow can be just as bad.

I wanted to point that out because I’ve seen some slowing down of late. Many leaders and organizations entered into the current crisis doing a lot of the right things at just the right speed.

They made the proper efforts to keep their people engaged. They communicated appropriate information and didn’t over or under communicate.

I was also impressed with many of the individual efforts I’ve seen. From salespeople reaching out to try and help customers to moms and dads working together to school their kids at home. I was especially impressed with the effort I saw and heard about regarding people making sure to stay in touch with family and friends while pretty much stuck at home.

There have been many good things that have come about as a result of the situation we all find ourselves in. I hope at least some of those things outlast the current situation.

But I kinda feel like many of those efforts are already slowing down. Collectively we are taking our feet off the gas and beginning to drift.

Don’t drift!

Stay focused on how you began dealing with this situation. The things that worked well will work even better when this mess is over and life begins returning to something that feels normal.

Think of it this way… there is a reason the people say “speed up” and a reason they say “slow down.”

Slow apparently has do to with going down. I don’t want to go in that direction. I don’t want my success to go in that direction. I don’t want people thinking my effort, the quality of my work or the amount I care is going in that direction either. I also don’t think you want that.

Intentionally slowing down with a purpose in mind can be good. Allowing slowing down to unintentionally creep into your day is not so good.

Discipline and focus serve you well in good times and bad. Maintain the focus and discipline you had at the beginning of our unusual times. That will give you the opportunity to exit the unusual times better, faster, stronger and more prepared to succeed than when this whole thing started.

Lots of people start strong. The most successful people finish strong as well. Which one are you?

Change the Trajectory of Your Life

Steve Keating 8 Comments

A little kid walks into a candy store with his dad and was amazed by the variety of treats to choose from.

 

“What should I choose? What should I choose? What should I choose?” He asked himself.

 

“Come on son, we don’t have all day,” his dad said.

 

“These are my favorites. No wait, these are my favorites.” He walked along the aisles, picking up bags and putting them back. He just couldn’t make up his mind.

 

“Come on son, make up your mind, we have to go,” his impatient dad said.

 

Frantically, the boy ran around the store, his eyes moving from one shelf to another, but all of the options looked so good and he couldn’t make a decision.

 

Eventually, the dad had enough, grabbed his son by the hand and they walked out of the store empty-handed. The young boy had tears in his eyes. He wanted them all, but ended up with nothing because he couldn’t choose just one.

 

At some point or another we have all been that little kid. The world we live in is that candy store and sadly, some people never do decide.

 

There are a ton of decisions to be made but if we don’t make a decision about our career, education, relationships, investments, church or other important issues, we end up empty-handed. 

 

Sometimes we worry about making the wrong choice so we just decide to delay the decision. Well, that delay is a decision. It’s a decision to not decide and that is almost always the wrong decision.

 

You are perhaps only one decision away from changing the entire trajectory of your life. If you’re not where you want to be it’s likely because of decisions you’ve made in the past or perhaps you’re where you are because of decisions you didn’t make. 

 

If you’ve hesitated to make that decision then that’s on you. It’s your life, you should be deciding as much as possible who and what is in it. 

 

Deciding isn’t all that hard. Making a decision however can be very challenging. What’s the difference you ask…well deciding is choosing to do something. Making a decision is actually doing it. 

 

No matter what you decide it’s not really a decision until you take action to make it happen. Good intentions are not a decision. 

 

Making a decision requires discipline. Discipline is best described as wanting something more tomorrow than the something you want today. Think of it like this: you want to weigh less tomorrow but you have ice cream in the freezer today. If your desire to weigh less is greater than your desire for ice cream then you’ll avoid the freezer. If not, well then enjoy the ice cream. 

 

Good decisions come from discipline. Bad decisions frequently come from a lack of discipline.


When you’re ready to change the trajectory of your life you’ll find the discipline you need to do it. Don’t just decide to do something, make the decision to actually do it.