No leader who ever led people to do something significant did it without great effort. Any climb uphill must be deliberate, consistent, and willful. It is very intentional.
The statement“ Everything worthwhile is uphill” not only describes life, but explains the reason self-discipline is so essential for a successful life.
28 Solutions
1. Self-Discipline Enables You to Go Uphill
If I were to ask you,“ Do you want to improve your life?” of course your answer would be yes. The question isn’ t if you want it to happen. The question is how do you make it happen? The answer is by living each day with intentionality. That requires becoming self-disciplined.
Self-discipline moves you from good intentions to good actions. It is what separates words and ideas from actual results. One of the greatest gaps in life is between sounding good and doing good. We are ultimately measured by what we do and how our actions shape the world around us. Without results, all the best intentions in the world are just a way of at best entertaining ourselves, at worst deluding ourselves. Self-discipline paves the road to results. Everything worthwhile is uphill.
My friend Jim Whittaker has climbed the great mountains of the world. One day at lunch he shared with me that his greatest accomplishment as a mountain climber was the number of people he had taken to the top with him. And he then gave me some climbing advice that I want to pass on to you. He said,“ You never conquer the mountain. You only conquer yourself.” That is the most important leadership journey each of us must make.
2. Self-Discipline Makes the Difference Between Temporary Success and Sustained Success
I want to add something important to my statement that everything worthwhile is uphill. Three words: all the way. Anyone can climb for a short time. Nearly everyone does— at least once. But can you sustain it? Can you climb every day, day after day, year after year? I don’ t ask that to discourage you. I ask it because I want you to understand what it will take for you to reach your potential as a person and as a leader. That’ s why I say that the price tag of leadership is self-discipline.
Every day we face the decision of whether we are going to pay the price tag of leadership. I like the way Rory Vaden looked at this issue in his book Take the Stairs. He called it the Pain Paradox. Are we going to do what’ s easy and feels good in the short term? Or are we going to do what’ s difficult and actually is good in the long term?
Vaden said the battle we fight is between our emotions, which typically