Eminent Success

"No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is Required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over And above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate Distinction."

When an archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within Himself. Failure to hit the bull's-eye is never the fault of the target. To Improve your aim-improve yourself.

"Excellence can be attained if you: Care more than others think is wise. Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is Practical. Expect more than others think is possible.

No Excuse

Any excuse for non-performance, however valid, softens the character. It is a sedative against one's own conscience. When a man uses an excuse, he attempts to convince both himself and others that unsatisfactory is somehow acceptable. He is perhaps -unconsciously- attempting to divert attention from performance, the only thing that counts, to his own want for sympathy. The user is dishonest with himself as well as with others. No matter good or how valid, the excuse never changes performance.

The world measures success in terms of performance alone. No man is remembered in history for what he would have accomplished. History never asks how hard it was to do the job nor considers the obstacles that had to be overcome. No man ever performed a worthwhile task without consciously ignoring many a plausible excuse. Washington might have reported, “The Delaware was running ice that would have crushed our boats.” Lincoln might have said, "The people will simply not support a war to keep the South in the Union." Eisenhower might have said at Normandy (as the Germans did), "The weather made amphibious assault impossible."

To use an excuse is a habit. We cannot have both the performance habit and excuse habit. We all have a supply of excuses. The more we use them, the lower become our standards, the poorer our performance. The better we perform, the less plausible our excuses become.

Next time you want to defend your slothfulness, say instead (at least to yourself), "No excuse". Notice the startling effect this will have your self-respect. You will have recognized your failure. You will have been honest with yourself. You will be a step closer to the performance.

Failure Is A Choice Made By The Undisciplined

Failing to meet your objectives, regardless of what they are, is a choice, because something else has been given higher priority. If you fail, it is because you choose to fail.

We call some people "self-disciplined" and others we call "undisciplined." And what's fascinating is that one person can be disciplined at one thing but not at another. I know an extremely successful businesswoman who has run two different billion-dollar businesses. If you saw her in her business environment, you would say she was disciplined. However, this same woman has had an extreme weight problem for as long as I've known her, and so far she hasn't had discipline in that area of her life, even though she would identify it as an area of tremendous concern to her.

How can this happen? How can a brilliant person so strong and disciplined in one area of his or her life be so undisciplined and unsuccessful in another?

The answer is deceptively simple. Discipline always involves the act of reaching a goal, and it also reflects the level of commitment that is attached to the goal. Furthermore, our various personal commitments will be ranked in the order we consciously, or more likely unconsciously, believe fit with our life priorities. When goals are set halfheartedly and they don't reflect our top life priorities, there should be no surprise when we display low discipline and we fail.

The vast majority of us have no grasp of what our top life priorities are. And because we aren't conscious of them, we tend to move them around very fluidly. That's why weight may seem like a high priority on Monday but be lowered to a secondary importance below taste enjoyment by Friday. Likewise, fidelity might seem like the highest priority until temptation comes in our path. In general we allow ourselves to get in the habit of setting goals for which we are not truly committed, and then we beat ourselves up when we fail at achieving them. There is a huge difference between even a 99% commitment and a 100% commitment. Choosing to be disciplined about something means committing 100% to reaching the objective.

My great friend Wayne Dyer (author of The Secrets to Manifesting Your Destiny) is a wonderful example of what it means to be "truly disciplined." There was a time when Wayne had run eight miles every day for 21 years in a row without missing a day! That's over 7,665 days straight running eight miles a day with no exceptions! I don't know about you, but I'd be overwhelmed with the thought of attempting that. And yet to Wayne, it was a part of his day — every day — without exception. Now I think Wayne would admit he isn't disciplined at everything. But what allowed him to be so disciplined at this?

He simply made running the most, or certainly one of the most, important activities in his day, every day. The great thing about this is that you simply don't allow anything to get in the way of the most important objectives in your day. Everything else takes a lower priority. All of a sudden reaching the objective becomes easy. You become — disciplined.

In the case of Wayne, I'm sure that over the 21-year period there were literally millions of things that he could have used as an excuse not to run one of those days. But, because it was one of his top priorities, nothing got in the way of Wayne's running. He ran when he had a fever, he ran in place on long flights, and during bad weather he would run up and down the halls of his hotel. That's discipline!

Here's a fun, potentially life-changing game I'd encourage you to play. Pick out an area of your life that you've had weak discipline in in the past. Set an objective relating to this area. Now, set that objective as your life's top priority — or at least put it in the very top few. Then set a minimum time that you will stay committed to this objective. I'd recommend a minimum of a month, but for this game you could even choose a week. If you can be disciplined for one week, you can be disciplined for as long as you choose. Now, this is going to mean repriori-tizing your time from your normal weekly schedule, but you'll do it — Why? Because it's your top priority!

While doing this, you're going to experience an interesting phenomenon. In the past, when you have set halfhearted objectives, your brilliant mind would start figuring out how to get around the objective to get you back to your comfort zone. However, now you'll find when it's your top priority, your mind works only on achieving the objective and taking you where you really want to go.