THE REAL ‘SECRET’ TO SUCCESS: SELF-DISCIPLINE

Have you ever wondered what the real secret to success is? If you’ve watched the movie ‘The Secret,’ you may already believe that the Law of Attraction (LOA for short) is the real secret to success.

The ‘Secret’

Like many LOA practitioners, you may be struggling to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or maybe you’ve yet to achieve that beautiful life that you’ve been told to imagine for yourself over and over.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated because your dream house hasn’t materialized or your bank account isn’t as big as you hoped it would be by now, then this article is for you.

If you’ve been trying to implement ‘The Secret’, but have yet to make it work for you, then keep reading.

Before we press on, here’s a quick disclaimer on LOA. We believe LOA is certainly a noteworthy success concept, and it does have it’s merits and valid nuggets of truth.

And since we aim to be completely honest with you, always, we secretly believe people can benefit from it.  So, we’re not writing off the philosophy of the secret entirely, we just believe there is more to the secret.  A secret of the secret if you will.

That being said, we must also emphasize that LOA is a force that cannot and will not ever come to fruition without first embracing the following key attribute of success.

The Real Secret to Success

So what is the real secret to success?

Without further delay, the real secret to success is this…. it’s nothing more nor less than acquiring and practicing the self-discipline necessary to help you take full and complete possession of your own mind.

Did you catch that?  Yes, the answer is that simple.  The ‘real secret’ to success is nothing more than having self-discipline.

Now, to make this proclamation digestible, we want to provide you with two models that were created to show you exactly why all success starts with self-discipline.

So here they are:

This first model is what The Secret’s model for success looks like. Notice how the graph below highlights thoughts. It’s highlighted, because according to the secret, everything starts with our thoughts.

The Secret’s Success Model

The Secret posits that all success begins within in our minds. In other words, our thoughts become things.

And while we agree that there is truth to the statement, we believe that to effectively harness the secret of success, one must take it a few steps further.

The following self-discipline model demonstrates what we mean. If you observe the model below, you will notice that it starts at the top with the word ‘self-discipline’, and then cascades down through several events, ultimately ending with the word ‘success’.

So, what the model basically portrays, is that all success begins with self-discipline.  In addition to this, the model also conveys the following: that any given success will materialize to the degree and quality that you completed each step.

The Self-Discipline Success Model

To help you put this model into perspective and equip you better for action, let us provide further interpretation on how it works.

So, let’s say we hypothetically start off in pursuit of a goal or something we are trying to achieve.   And in that pursuit, we maintain little to no self-discipline, both in how we start the pursuit and how we follow through with it.

As such, by starting off with little to no self-discipline (let’s call it weak self-discipline), we directly affect the quality of the input we will need to get off to a good start.

For all intents and purposes, having weak self-discipline will have allowed for weak input (negative, anti-productive, unhealthy media/messaging) into our minds.  As cause and effect would have it, putting weak input and information into our minds will lead to weak thoughts.  Weak thoughts are typically of little quality, and low quality thoughts will inevitably impact our decisions.

“The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of everything else to which he is justly entitled.”

– Andrew Carnegie –

You can probably guess what kind of decisions come from having thoughts that are unproductive, unfocused, and unhelpful to the realization of our goals.  You guessed it, bad decisions, at least as it’s related to what we are trying to accomplish.

Now, as you can probably deduce from the pattern we’ve established, making low quality decisions will ultimately lead to weak or ineffective actions, and ineffective actions ultimately leads to bad results, and bad results never lead to success.

Real World Self-Discipline Scenario

So, what’s a real world example of this?  Well, let’s say you decide to start dieting right and exercising regularly so you can lose 50 lbs. over the next three months.  You know this will be a huge undertaking, and instead of carefully planning for it, you zealously begin pursuing your goal with little preparation.

You go to the gym three times on the first week, and you eat all the right foods that you’re supposed to be eating.  But by weak two, you start to feel your resolve melting away.  So, you do what feels right and you give yourself a break at the end of week two because you’ve been doing so good.

Input

Your mind is made up and you decide to give yourself a ‘treat’, and allow yourself to watch some unadulterated T.V. to rest up for next week’s hard workouts.  While watching T.V. you just allow yourself to consume whatever the TV throws at you (input). 

You know…fast food commercials, negative news, reality shows that portray people who have zero self-control, and now you’ve consumed so much crummy content that it starts to impact the thoughts your having.

“The mechanism of the mind is a profound system of organized power, which can be released only by one means, and that is by strict self-discipline.”

– Napoleon Hill –

Thoughts

Suddenly, an ice cream commercial comes on, and now you’re in a mental state that has just been influenced by less than stellar material.   You then start to mentally debate with yourself on how one ice cream really won’t hurt anything anyway (thoughts).

Decision

As such, you decide the treat to yourself wouldn’t be complete without some delicious ice cream.  So, you make a snap decision (decision) to go get yourself some of that delicious ice cream.

Action

You know you shouldn’t be going, but you go anyway (action).

Once there at the ice cream shop, you waste little time grabbing that delicious chocolate treat you saw come on the tube minutes ago, and you devour it (action).  Amid your ice-cream consumption ritual, you even start to think to yourself, ‘you know, eating ice-cream isn’t so bad, I mean if it were so bad then why would everybody else being doing it.”

At this point, you are no longer hyper-focused on health, but rather you’ve started to wonder why you ever got started on such an ambitious goal in the first place.

Results

The beginning of week three rolls around, and now you’ve demolished any momentum you might have had.  You decide to jump on the weight scale before going to the gym, and you notice you’ve only lost 1 lb. (results).  With results like this you feel crushed, and think to yourself…’what’s the point’, and so you quit (success, not so much).

And there you have it… a real-world example of how the real secret to success process works.  Reverse the level of self-discipline from the get go, and you reverse the end results.

Discipline is The Key to Success

This self-discipline success model works the same in all areas of our lives: business, work, education, money, you name it.

The quality of the results and successes we achieve in life, is directly dependent upon the quality and strictness of the self-discipline applied from the onset and throughout the entirety of the endeavor.

In other words, the real secret to success is self-discipline.

If you don’t know where to start, start here.  These self-discipline books will get you where you want to go, fast.

Alright, you now possess the real secret to success.  Now what are you going to do with it?

Your success awaits!

Till you reach your aims,

STRIVE

PS – If you are a true seeker of success, then these other excellent resources will support you in your journey:

• Discipline Affirmations
• Inspiring Discipline Quotes
• Tips to Improve Discipline
• Discipline and Happiness
• The Greatest Secret