Striving for Perfection

Perfection is something we all desire. However, it's something no one will ever achieve, but you should always keep trying!

By acquiring discipline you WILL always keep trying. Your mind is being trained to improve and achieve.

Manage Life by the 80/20 Rule

80% complete is better than another missed or failed project. Accomplishments are addicting. Remember the last time you were proud of yourself for achieving something. What was your mood? Get that feeling back.

Put a stake in the ground and bring projects to fruition. Once version 1.0 of your project is complete you can always re-visit it to make improvements.

Life Is All About Accomplishments

We're all on this planet for one time and one time only. There are no second chances. I continually ask myself; why are millions of people wasting so much time everyday?

I can't imagine not accomplishing one goal after another until the day I drop. If there are no accomplishments, there is no life, or at best it's an unfulfilled life.

There is no purpose for living. You may exist, but that's not living. Living is progressing, becoming more aware, more ethical, more able to enjoy things, more able to get things done.

There is no greater feeling in the world than accomplishing a major goal. Once you complete a goal you will never forget it.

It's hard to describe in mere words what the feeling is like. It's a kind of euphoria that not only makes you feel invincible, but is extremely addictive as well.

The level of intensity is relative to the difficulty of the goal. The harder the goal, the stronger the "feeling of accomplishment" will be. You can take my word for it. I still remember each and every goal, even the ones I accomplished over 30 years ago.

To me, life is about accomplishments and feeling on top of the world each time you achieve one. What a rush, one after another, like no other feeling. Those are REAL highs.

It's a self-inflicted adrenaline rush that you can't get out of your system once you've experienced it. The more you accomplish, the more you crave more accomplishments for yourself. You will never be satisfied.

What a feeling it is to always want more and have that hunger to take on new challenges and to accomplish more year after year. Life now has purpose. You don't need to worry about boredom.

Discipline opens the door to accomplishment and greatness.

Continuously Seek Knowledge

Not just formal education that you get by going to school. I'm talking about after high school and college and beyond.

I mean those everyday experiences and challenges we all face. Whether it comes from traveling (cultures, languages, etc.), understanding your body's physical limitations, or completing a huge project at work; keep on learning.

Story: The Continuous Thirst For Knowledge

I was on assignment in Washington, D.C., the home of politics - the most dreadful word (in my opinion) to ever come out of Webster's Dictionary. "Politics." God, I hate that word - always have, until recently. I felt that politics was for people who cannot accomplish anything and politicians were spineless weasels. (As you can tell, I have a very negative outlook in this area.)

I was facilitating a weeklong strategy workshop at a very large and profitable corporation in the DC area. The first day was miserable. I felt sick: my frustration level was at an all-time high.

In attendance were Vice Presidents and Directors. By the end of the first day, it was apparent that very little would be accomplished because of all the hidden political agendas. I was ready to burst. I made a comment to the attendees: "You guys are lucky that this company is so profitable. I don't understand how things get done." Up till then, my fixed idea had blocked me from seeing any usefulness to politics and the political way.

However, things get done even in their own bureaucratic, entangled way.

I started to see that even in the midst of all these agendas, things could get done. Unbelievably, by the middle of the second day, I wanted to learn how they did it. I had become curious.

Something that I had felt so strongly against was now something I wanted to learn about. I had an incredible thirst to understand politics, agendas and how to weave in and out of them to accomplish an objective; and by the end of the week, it made sense. With politics, especially the D.C. type - you learn not to fight it but work within the system.

This article comes from the forthcoming book "Take Control of Your Life, The Ten Commandments for Mastering Discipline" by Harris Kern and Adriana (Ace) Lewis.