Success: Discipline, Attitude, and Achievement

Success or winning is about discipline and attitude, not just achieving a goal.  It’s about the road you take to get there.  From start to finish there will be many routes to choose from, left or right, which will lead you to the inevitable outcome of success or failure.  The choices you make along that route will lead to the degree of success or failure of that goal.

When it comes to training, the program, which is your route to a goal, is the most important aspect towards success.  Many people spend too little time actually doing their homework of what is involved with achieving a particular goal.  A goal is like the center of a web and everything you do around it will affect how to get to the center.  For example, the food you eat will affect your body composition, which will affect your weight loss goal positively or negatively.  Another would be how many reps and how much weight you lift will determine if you will be strong enough to hit that personal record you’re after.  The dedication you need to do your homework before committing to the plan is just as important as showing up to the gym and doing the exercises.

Next, there is the attitude of approach.  This is particularly important to the psychology of how much work or discipline you’re committed to putting in to achieve your goal and how hard you’re willing to push yourself.  This is the toughest part of success.  The discipline you need to have the correct attitude will not only dictate success or failure, but dictate the level of success or failure.  This is where and why most people quit.  I personally use a technique called visualization.  I did a mini-thesis on this topic during my undergraduate degree and found it extremely powerful when it came down to the raw success or failure of an individuals’ ability to achieve.  The attitude boils down to what type of person you are.  Are you an introvert or extrovert?  Are you a competitor or more of a solitary person? These types of questions will determine your specific attitude towards your goal.  Maybe you need to compete against others, or you need to compete against yourself.  Whatever the case, make sure whatever it is, it drives you to be your very best at the end.

Lastly is deciding what to achieve.  Without a particular goal, what’s the point of programming or having the right attitude? Your goals need to be measurable, realistic, and most of all, attainable.  If you can’t even reach your goal, what’s the point? All that will do is de-motivate you.  Have points along the way you can measure against where you started and see that you’re improving.  Most of all make sure you’re making them (the goals), and someone else isn’t forcing you into doing something that you have no interest in.  Because if it isn’t fun, than you’re motivation levels will be low and the chance of success is even lower.  Having said that, do not choose goals that you know you can already achieve.  The point of success and self-betterment is to move outside your comfort zone.  This plays back to the attitude in which you started your endeavor and if you have what it takes to push through those comfort zones.

So, to close out these few thoughts, make sure that you’re having fun.  Life seems too short to continuously chip away at things that don’t make you a better person and a better person to others.  Remember, have a plan, tailor your plan to your goals, have the right attitude, and you will be successful.  Whether you’re an athlete professionally or recreationally, be a success to yourself.

Categorised in: Goal setting