21 Days to Discipline:THE RESULTS
I have finally completed my 21 Days to Discipline experiment. Well, it has been a little longer than 21 days but either way I have some great results to share with you. I have found a lot of new information about myself over that last month and in the following post I am going to explain it to you. I have tips that worked for me and some that didn’t. It’s up to you to decide what best fits your needs and how you want to approach your own 21 days to discipline. Here we go:
What Didn’t Work
1.) Too Much
This is fairly easy for me to explain. If you want to succeed at this, DO NOT OVERWHELM YOURSELF. Simply start with small manageable goals. What I stated in the first post was that I was going to be doing ten things a day that were related to personal goals. I was also going to do three business related tasks. With a total of thirteen tasks to complete in a day it got a little tedious. For the first ten days I blew through it like it was nothing. After that I started to gradually work my way down to ten tasks. This made completing the goals a lot more manageable and I finished with quality work.
2.) Wrong Time of Day
Another thing I noticed that didn’t work out for me was trying to complete some of my tasks at night. I am normally a morning person but life sometimes got in the way and I was forced to continue my goals later on in the afternoon. By this time I had some of the family home and my ability to concentrate was diminished. I soon found out that I had to get as much done as I could before 12:00 PM. By this time anyway my mind is getting tired and I just wanted to relax. By working hard though, and having my tasks done before lunch I was able to have some free time to read or study. I also had the satisfaction of knowing all of my daily tasks were complete. This became win-win for me.
What Did Work
1.) One Free Elimination
I made a rule for myself that stated I could miss ONE task and carry it onto the next day. I wrote about this in Part II but recently realized that this helped out more that I thought. Often time’s life gets in the way and we are forced to drop what we are doing. This is why this rule was created. For those times you might not be able to complete everything, feel free to drop it off onto the next day. Trust me, it’s a life saver.
2.) A Rolling Stone Gathers no Moss
Once you start working on your daily tasks, DO NOT STOP! Keep your concentration focused on getting your tasks done. I have found that once I start working on the tasks I do not quit. I build momentum and it takes me to my ultimate goal of daily completion. Keep this in mind when you are trying to talk your way out of working. Once you start you will find that you just keep going. This is important for everything that you do. Want to learn Spanish? How to play the piano? Read a book? Start and let everything else fall into place. If you don’t believe me then try it for yourself and see what you get. I guarantee you will not be upset with the results.
So What Were Your Results Matt?
Over the past 21 days I completed 171 tasks/goals. This to me is phenomenal. Before I started committing my goals on paper I probably completed an estimated three tasks a week. If you do the math, it comes out to about twelve tasks a month. That is around a 2000% increase in the amount of goals I completed over last month. And to think, my only secret was writing my daily goals down and being committed to finishing them. So to our readers I say this, “Look at the proof.” If this does not prove to you that discipline can be learned in 21 days, then I do not know what will. Either way I know I am personally on the right track and wish the same for all of you. Remember to just start small and you will be amazed at how many tasks you can complete. If you had the chance, thank you for participating in this post. Please look forward to more measurable posts I will have on soon. Thank you!
August 21st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
[…] 21 Days to Discipline - The Results […]
October 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
You are the man, Matt