02 Feb How to Accomplish Amazing Feats with One Daily Discipline
Sometimes I think people get too caught up in how they're going to accomplish their goals. They set a lofty goal, get overwhelmed, don't know how they'll ever achieve it, and they give up.
But is it really all that complicated?
If you look at any goal, regardless of how big or small it is, it just comes down to a series of steps that you need to complete. We all know this. We know that if we do steps 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, we'll see a certain result.
So why not break down your goals just like that?
Breaking Down Big Goals
I was in a mastermind group in the 1990s with five other realtors. (Yes, this was back in the day when I was a conventional realtor). We were all very successful, with each of us selling a hundred homes or more per year.
Just to put that into perspective, the average realtor in the U.S. probably sells around for our five homes per year. And there was one guy in the group, a guy named Mike from Florida, who was selling 200 to 250 homes per year. He's still doing that today.
We were having a brainstorming session one day and Mike said, “Look guys, I figured out how to have a great year this year.”
He went on to explain, “If we take our goal for the year and break it down by the quarter, by the month, by the week, and then by the day, and we finally get the thing honed down so that we know what steps are necessary every single day in order to achieve those yearly goals—then all we have to do is have a successful day every day. We are guaranteed from day one of the new year to the end of the year to achieve our goals.”
Makes sense, doesn't it?
So, right then and there, we made “The Power of One Daily Discipline” chart. I’ve used this chart ever since then to break down my long-term goals into daily actionable steps.
The Power of One Daily Discipline
We have a template for the One Daily Discipline chart that you can download here, or you can follow along below and make your own.
The template is simply a chart where the left-hand column holds your daily disciplines, and the rest of the chart contains the days of the month (one through 31) where you can check off every day that you've completed each discipline.
You can start this process by writing down all of the daily disciplines you know are necessary to achieve your goals on the left side of a piece of paper, or the left side of the template if you're using that.
These could be things like making a certain number of calls per day, checking in with your team (if you have one), meeting with your coach, or any number of activities. These are things that you know you should be doing every day, even if you don't want to do them.
And this does not have to be strictly business-related. Be sure to include personal and business disciplines. You may write down, “Do a cardio workout and call three people” as an example. You'll want to check in with your mentor to make sure these activities make sense. For your business, you should be focusing on the best money-producing activities you need to do.
The right side of the chart then contains the days of the month, one through 31. All you need to do from there is put an X for each day that you do each discipline.
For example, if it said “contact three new people” on the left-hand side, you'd go over to column number two and see that it is the second of the month, then put an X there if you did it. You don’t put an X if you don’t do it.
You’ll find that this accountability to yourself is pretty powerful. Keep doing it for two or three months and you’ll find yourself keeping that chart on your desk and checking off the boxes. If you don’t do it at the end of the workday, you’ll spend the extra 10 minutes when you go home at night or in the morning. You’ll want to do whatever it takes to keep yourself accountable on your own chart.
Utilizing an Accountability Partner
Want to raise the bar a little bit? Get an accountability partner you can check in with once a week.
Here’s how it works: let’s say it’s the end of the day, 4:00 or 5:00 pm on a Friday. You meet with your accountability partner and you each review your week.
You say, “Yes, I accomplished my goals,” or “No, I didn’t,” and then, if you did, what’s your goal for next week? If you didn’t, do you reset those goals and try it again? Or do you abandon them and rewrite them because something has changed? It’s that simple.
Picture it. If you do that every single week, every single Friday, or whatever day works for you, you can’t get off track. Especially if you’ve given your accountability partner permission to make you stay on track (which I recommend you do).
What are some of the things you haven’t been doing that you know would improve your life—your health, your business, social affairs, family—any area of your life you want to work on, but you just haven’t done it yet.
What if you make just one change every month? (This idea also came out of that 1992 brainstorm.) What if you add just one new discipline every month? If you want to get aggressive, do it every week; if you want to water it down, do it every quarter—but add one.
How far ahead would you be next year (or three months from now, or three years) with 12 new disciplines or 12 new ideas? Just think of the potential growth!
Play with the chart a little bit. I encourage you to download our template. We've included some examples of daily disciplines, but you can brainstorm disciplines that are more relevant to you.
You can enroll in our Quantum Leap System (QLS) and get some ideas for money-producing activities there. You can add your personal activities. But I want you to take advantage of this chart—there’s so much power in using it. I’m constantly working on adding new and better disciplines. It doesn’t stop—it’s an ongoing process. Make it part of your life and you’ll reap the rewards personally and professionally.