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[quin--academy]

Never give the other cheek

Quin

[quin--academy]

DISCIPLINE--THE CODE OF BEHAVIOR

Welcome to Quin Nation, where ambitions are given flesh to become a reality by solving the problem of ignorance.

Hallo Quin Nation, welcome to the Wednesday session: Every Wednesday, we examine a Master and learn the secrets of their field. Absorbing this hidden knowledge that comes from years of experience, in a few minutes. This will give you a competitive advantage to surpass your competitors, and realize the truth on the subjects you are ignorant about. Expanding even more to grasping excellence from getting into their brain and learning how to they think.  

The person we are looking at today is Robert Greene. He is known as the godfather of power dynamics, the modern-day Napoleon Bonaparte, a master seducer and a genius for deciphering human nature. His 6 international bestseller books are part of the pantheons of masterpieces that would last a lifetime. Those books are not ones you read, they are the ones you study as Tom Bilyeu had said, because they contain concepts that could be the turning point of your life as it did for mine.  

Today we are looking at his philosophy on the concept of discipline.

PS: If you can’t stand reading long blogs, even though it’s beneficial or can’t swallow the truth because it’s painful—you can leave. There are many social media outlets out there that you can waste the scarcest resource in the world--time.

Let’s get to it:

Leonardo Da Vinci, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and perhaps all the people who we proclaim to be successful. How do you think these people achieved the heights of their ambition?

Most people think that those who succeed are the people who were geniuses and were bestowed the gifts of inborn talent, that are not latent to the rest of the world, and only granted to the minority of the world’s population.  

But a famous philosopher Fredrich Nietzche said otherwise  

“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became ‘geniuses’ (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all pos­sessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to con­struct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.”

To Robert, being talented and having an exceptionally high IQ to the point of genius are mere misconceptions that surrounds the concept of greatness, power and influence.  

The secret of success is a possession of great discipline, to which all ambitions, plans and ideas are met with action and execution. A difficult feat but once implemented, could make any ordinary person, one of great power.

Success or achievement of an ambition is a combination of different factors that harmonized together to create such outcome and DISCIPLINE is one of the big factors to succeed.

Another misconception on the concept of greatness is that people think that they can get rich fast and achieve their ambitions quick.

The truth is you’re a fool if you think that true wealth can happen overnight, that you can suddenly, out of nowhere-- you strike gold and get rich quick or hit a big score, or magically you become a sensation in the Internet overnight. Trust me, you’ll die waiting for that day. We see it everywhere from teenagers to 40 years old.

To truly build something that will last long, is a long process of slow grinding, maximum focus, and hard-core discipline.

If you are ready to drop two of these big beliefs that stops people from acquiring discipline and seeing through their ambitions. You are ready to know how success is achieved, when you break it down.

“Success is an event that happens after a sum of small actions repeated daily for extended periods of time!”

The idea is that success is a sequence of small actions that you take every day for the next 10 years of your life. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can begin taking the steps that could bridge you to your ambition, your ultimate destination.

To Robert, most people cannot stand this, consciously or unconsciously, they seek to avoid the pain and long hours of grinding that presents itself in the early stages of building their fortune, of putting weight to their ambitions, by questing distractions, entertainment and immediate satisfaction to escape the reality that they are not yet good enough.  

Most teenagers tend to postpone the idea of crafting their ideal life NOW, because if there is a category of people that’s so distracted by social media-- it’s them. They don’t have discipline; they can’t make the sacrifices yet? Or can they?

“In the future, the great division will be in those who can acquire skills & discipline their minds and those who are irrevocably distracted by the media around them. The former group are the ones who will own the world.”

This more important than ever because those who try to bypass or ignore this notion will suffer from being left behind.

The foundation to success is simple so listen carefully, it is attained by a person who has the discipline to organize the ideas of the world and has the work ethic and hustle to amass solid skills from different areas and synthesize them in a new, unique and fresh type of way to achieve a certain outcome. It means having an abundance of different skills that are ingredients and means for you to achieve your big ambition and serve your purpose. Once you have these, everything else will come easy, because these are the pillars of success.

FRAMEWORK OF DISCIPLINE

The skill of discipline is the ability to get things done, regardless if feel like it or not. This is by far one of the hardest skills to master because we are in a world of constant distraction.

Unlike the rest, when you say you are going to do something, you get it done. You don’t go back on your word. You know that talk is cheap and so you are results-oriented.

Your code of behavior must always be to work on your ambition: morning, noon and night, in summer or in winter, in rain or shine, in your bad days and good days. You never leaving a stone unturned, never discounting even a single hour that which could be used to make a step forward. It also means being strategic in your time, resources and willpower, focusing in activities that could bring you most results.  

Most people allow their emotions, to control their behavior. They let their mind control them. This is why they are poor and nobody.  

You must take the opposite passage and understand that YOU control your mind, because of that, you can control your life. You can force yourself to do something you don’t want to do. Your desire for success will constantly be tested, and it is in your discipline that will dictate where you will be in the world: A legendary or a nobody. Decide NOW.

"If you can’t master yourself, how do you expect to master the world

Your code of behavior must also meet the standards of greatness, the bar that elevates you above the masses and that is putting in 75 to 100 hours of work, a week.  

Everybody works hard, but to what degree?  

If you want big things, you have to think big, do big, and be big. It’s that simple.

Your friends could be partying, while you work. Your family members could be sleeping while you work. Your classmates could be resting while you work. Until one day, your name will be in history books, forever remembered while their names are in graveyards, forever forgotten.  

STRATEGIES TO FILL THE FRAMEWORK

1) START SMALL

Most people tend to shoot for the moon, but this is unreachable until you break your ambition down to parts and step by step process that makes up the whole, and take the smallest step forward.

In the book One thing, it is perfectly exemplified: It is called a domino effect. Each domino standing represents a small amount of potential energy, these are the small steps that you take, every day. The more you line up, the more potential energy will be accumulated and with a simple flick, you can start a chain of reaction of surprising power.  

Don’t start big, start small. If you start big, you will never get to line up the first domino because your ambition starts with a single step. You can’t take your first step if it’s too difficult for your current capabilities. Discouragement and doubt will cloud your mind--making you lose before you even started. Start small instead, so that you can build momentum that will trigger humongous results. This is the mistake of many, including me.

Make it a rule to work ONLY 1 hour or 2 hours a day. Then, every week gradually increase on it until you reach the standard of 75 hours to 100 hours because if one person works 40 hours a week, and the other works 80 hours, who do you think will dominate and gain control of the world?  

The logic is pretty simple: We all have the same hours in a day, some people use it to grind and see their dreams take place before their eyes while others waste it.

The gem here is to start small so that you CAN do what you say, you will do, in order to develop self-trust and self-confidence. Do you ever know someone who ALWAYS promise things and never delivers on it? Don’t be this person to yourself.

“It doesn’t matter how smart you work, if you want better results, greater impact, and bigger outcomes, you have to work more.”

2) PARETO PRINCIPLE 80/20

Most people keep saying that they are busy. The truth is that having many things to do doesn’t mean that it will bring you closer to your goal. It’s not enough to be busy. The question should be, “What are you busy about?”

Successful people are the opposites, they have an eagle eye for what is essential, they know that truly matters, and allow that to drive their day. You can’t try to do everything because the more you try to do everything, the less you can accomplish.  

Realize that:

20% of your actions causes 80% of your success.

20% of your customers create the 80% of your profits

20% of your activities results 80% of your productivity

This mathematical concept is insanely accurate. Once you identify the ambitious outcomes that you want to achieve, figure out the essentials, the foundation-- the core activities that you could take you there, then spend all the time you have to pursue such.  

This question will help you greatly, “What is one thing I can do, that upon doing it, will give me the most results?”  

Sometimes finding the answer of this, requires research, reading and interviewing the masters.  

Know how to prioritize, and once you learn such, you realize how much progress you are quickly making.

3) PAMADORO TECHNIQUE

Most people torture their minds to work, for 14 hours, and the more they force their mind to do it, the more their body does the opposite. This is because 10 hours of work, seems too long, and perhaps too intimidating—and the mind wants to keep them safe so it stops them from doing it.

This concept remedies such problem: Pomodoro technique means 25 minutes of deep work, then 5 minutes break. You then keep repeating the process until you reach 12 –16 hours.  

It’s effective because 25 minutes isn’t as intimidating as 10 hours, isn’t it? We can work for 25 minutes but for the next 10 hours, that’s questionable.  

Getting started is always the most difficult, and if you can get over this dip, you are more likely to finish what you started, than quit after 25 minutes. This will build propulsion and give you feelings of productivity that only builds up throughout the day

“Let’s say you don’t want to brush your teeth. Tell yourself you’re gonna brush only 1 tooth and if you want, you can stop afterwards. Once you get that momentum on, it kinda makes sense to keep going right?”--Alux.com

4) DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING DURING YOUR PEAK ENERGY

Willpower is the ability delay gratification, and easily bind you to breed deep work. This means there is a time in the day, when your energy, and willpower are at its peak and during this time period, it is a recommendation to do all the work that matters because when willpower is low, we fall back to what Gary Keller and Jay Papasan described as default settings. They said if most of your work is done after willpower wanes, default will define the levels of your achievement and such is usually average and mediocre results.  

To find when your willpower is at its roof, do an experiment.  

What time of the day do you feel you can smoothly get to work, feeling incredibly energized, and completely absorbed in your work, and ideas are pouring and sparking? Where you feel you can get to an extreme level of concentration to make unique connections?  

Once you discover, what time of the day that is, build your schedule around it.  

Until you can begin to fathom this concept, you cannot take a step forward to working smartly.

4) RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Most people pray a lot, they believe that if they pray hard, and wait for it. Their fortune will suddenly appear. This is wishful thinking.  

You have to do your part of the work or you cannot succeed.  

“Don’t let your camel loose and trust it to God. Tie your camel and trust it to god, said the prophet. This means to do all that you can for yourselves and then trust to Providence or God or Nature or whatever you believe in, for the rest.” --PT Barnum

5) EMBRACE THE PAIN AND FRUSTRATIONS

Your mindset should always hunger the negative experiences of pain, of suffering, of limitations as a perfect means to building up your skills and bring your ambitions to life because they give you stamina, strength.

“Frustration is a sign that you are making progress as your mind becomes aware of the higher of skills that yet to attain” Robert Greene

Swallow all the suffering for greatness today, because tomorrow is a promise of paradise.

What you do today will either elevate or restrict you tomorrow. Remember that always when you try to avoid the pain of a workout, the headache of studying and the boredom of keeping your head done and working.

6) DON’T MAKE EXCUSES

It is fairly elementary: If you want something, you have to work for it, that’s how the world works.

But that’s not easy, and it’s not supposed to be easy. That backbreaking work and uphill battle will always be complicated and very taxing.  

That’s why people of mediocre life, makes excuses. They say it’s the government’s fault, their parent’s fault, the system’s fault. They try to justify the reason why they fail.

This is usually a sensitive area for people. They hate to hear this because they would have to face the reality that the fault is not on the world, it’s ON them-- they are not good enough, they didn’t work hard enough, and because of that they weren’t growing enough, they didn’t develop the skills, they didn’t have the knowledge and this sets people off because these are truths that they don’t want to confront—after all, it’s painful.

Look around you and God, you will realize how so much people doesn’t take responsibility in their life anymore.  

Remember: You are the agent in your life, you can change your current reality  and create a better world for you and your family, in the next 5 years but that demands concentrated work so what most people do, is choose the easy route by blaming the world for their misfortunes.

Be a lion, take control of your life than the sheep, constantly in fear for what will happen next

7) HAVE A TIGHT DEADLINE

This is how you can get more done, in less time: Embrace a TIGHT deadline.  

Raise your hand if this happened to you: you had a huge project to be passed the next week and you listened to the voice that tells you to put it off to the last-minute, no matter how unrealistic, and now you had to finish it in 6 hours. You somehow magically get the task done even if it seemed impossible. Have you realize that, if you have a whole day to make the calls, it will take a whole day and if you only have a morning to make it happen, it will happen.

For a milestone goal: give yourself 6 months to finish a huge project that usually takes years to finish, you will then discover that you will be able to miraculously finish it much sooner because when you have are on the edge, where there is outside pressure--you will fight like hell, you will not waste a single hour and this will provide you with heightened concentrated energy and make the end result much better.  

For a daily goal: identify a huge task, a task that requires deep focus and concentration to achieve. Estimate how long you normally would put aside for this task, then to give yourself a tight deadline, by reducing it to half. This will force you to get things done without daydreaming, without any social media or any long breaks. Doing this, will allow you to discover another level of work ethic, that you haven’t begin to grasp.

Thomas Edison and Elon Musk are exemplifiers of this concept. The former would go out to the world and speak about his ideas and visions of the world that he is currently working. With this publicity, he puts himself in a position where the world is on his back, he would have to rise to what he had claimed and soon because if not, he will be ridiculed.  

8) LEARN TO CONCENTRATE, STOP MULTITASKING

The true power of the mind comes to show when you are not distracted and multitasking because when you perform your activities in a state free of distractions, your concentration could push your cognitive abilities to their limits and if you can maintain and sustain this for a lengthy period of time, you can master anything.

Most people are constantly multitasking, juggling from one task to another, they are pulled here, there and their focus is dispersed, they are constantly distracted. The problem with this is that when you multitask, switching from one task to another, your attention doesn’t follow immediately, a portion of your attention remains stuck on thinking about the original or previous task and this divided attention puts a dent to performance on the next task.

It’s better to do 3 hours of work, without distractions, focusing on one task and one task only than 16 hours of work, switching from one task to another.  

Thank you for sticking with me to the end. If you are the person who finished the whole thing unlike the rest, write I AM WORKING LIKE A BEAST!  

This video is a catalyst to create a conversation on the topic of discipline and how one can master this to become a superhuman. “What is your unique strategy to overcome your lower self?” Let me know in the comments.

This is Dianne Orquina signing out with the quote saying  

“What you do, determines where you will go”