How To Unlock Success

Hey team! All right, so it’s Wednesday Workshop. We love Wednesday Workshop! I’d like to share with you a quote that I read about success and maybe some components of success. I’ve talked about these components time and time again, and it’s really helpful for us—even for me—to continue to see these kinds of things wrapped around the importance of what it takes to become successful.

Getting to the top might actually be a fairly easy feat for some. It’s staying at the top and remaining there that’s hard. That’s a lot harder—to get to the top and then remain in that consistent flow of staying relevant in today’s world with all the moving and changing that goes on. To remain successful and not be knocked down—kind of like that King of the Mountain thing you might’ve done as a kid—it was always great to get to the top of the mountain, but man, there was always somebody coming after you to knock you down. Life is like that sometimes. It feels that way.

Focus builds discipline. Focus is an important component of success. Discipline is what creates habits. Having discipline in your life means saying no to stuff. Focus helps you have the discipline to say no. You know what? I’m not going to do another two hours of binge-watching whatever it is you watch on television. I’m going to go focus on reading a book that I’ve chosen to read this month. And I’m going to put my time in and get my 10 or 20 pages in today so that I finish this book by the end of the month. That’s what I’m going to do.

Discipline helps with your focus and will help you create long-lasting habits. If you’ve read James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, he talks about the smallest little things you can do—with some focus and discipline—that will make incremental changes to make you better tomorrow. That habit will then drive consistency. When you do something with focus and with discipline on a consistent basis, then you will unlock success. You’ll start seeing yourself become more and more successful.

Like I said, I talk about it all the time, and I love seeing it happen among our team. I love hearing about the books our teams are reading. Many of your leaders are reading a book—believe it or not, some are reading one or more every quarter, or even two or three every quarter. That’s an important function. I find myself feeling a lot more optimistic about life when I’m reading consistently, building the discipline, the habits, the consistency, and the focus of my life on those things. It transforms me personally into a happier human being—with better humility, better involvement, more transparency, and more resolve when times get tough.

I can consistently unlock success in my life because of focus, discipline, consistency, and great habits—doing those things on a consistent basis.

So what are you needing this week to be more consistent at? What do you need to hone in on? What kind of clarity break do you need to take and say, “This is what my focus needs to be on”?

We get to the end of the year, we always do these New Year’s resolutions, and then we forget about them. Every so often, it pops back up, and we’re like, “Oh man, I was going to lose some weight, but I haven’t been to the gym in six months. Oh, I was going to do this; I was going to do that. I was going to read a book. And I did. I read a chapter. I read three pages.”

Do something nice for yourself. Maybe sometimes a reward can be a component to that. Say to yourself, “You know what? If I read a book this month, I’m going to do this for myself.” Throw a reward out there. “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that. I’m saving, I’m working smart dollars, so I’m going to do this. Once I pay off this bill, then I’m going to splurge. I’m going to go buy myself a new pair of pants or a new shirt.”

Whatever it is, save, but don’t go into debt to buy. Don’t pay off a bill just to go create another one. Don’t do that. Keep working on getting out of debt. Your future self will thank your current self for the discipline it has today—believe it or not, it’s really true.

The things I’ve been disciplined on in my life and focused on in my life that have brought me the greatest habit, consistency, and success are because of little things I did—decades ago, months ago, years ago, weeks ago—depending on what it is. But little itty-bitty consistency on consistency, on focus, on discipline, and habits—that’s what’s going to bring you success in your life, no matter what it is or what you’re shooting for.

You’ll never accomplish it by just setting it as a New Year’s resolution. You’ll be writing it down for years to come, and it’ll never happen because it just doesn’t happen like that.

My little son David really wants a Cybertruck. He really wants one bad, he wants a Tesla X. He wants one so bad. He’s so excited. He wants to go test-drive one with me. He said to me the other night, “Daddy, what’s the chances of me getting one before I’m old?” (I think he was talking about me.)

I said, “Well, I can tell you the chances of us getting one anytime right now—it’s like a hundred-some thousand dollars. Only if Daddy wins the lottery.”

So he tells his mom he’s praying Daddy wins the lottery. I’m all for that, I guess.

But ultimately, how is my son going to get a Tesla X? How is he going to get a Cybertruck? By getting really great grades in school. That’s his job. His focus needs to be on getting good grades in school. Having the discipline to put his phone down and make sure he’s reading books. He’s only seven, but that’s how he’s going to do it. He’s going to have to focus, set some disciplines, say no to some things and some people in his life, in his future—to make sure he’s creating habits that build on consistency and get him the success of having the finances to buy a Tesla X or a Cybertruck or whatever else he wants.

And the same is true for each and every one of us.

So on this beautiful Wednesday in this beautiful month—God bless you, have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will see you next week.