Desire, Discipline, and Dedication
Find the courage to be bold and act in spite of your fears.
If you’re paying attention, you know that in the months of January and February, the Fearless Journeys community is reading Bet on Yourself by Major League Soccer star Chris Mueller, who will be joining us for a live session to discuss the book when we complete it in February.
And, if you are keeping up with our suggested reading schedule, by now you should have completed the first three chapters of the book. Today’s summary reviews chapters 2 and 3.
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Before you embark on achieving your dreams, you have to the proper vision. In Chapter 2, Chris delivers some essentials that you must have before getting started:
Clarify what it is that you want for yourself
Identify goals at the beginning of the journey — it’s fundamental to long-term success
Your end goal must be something you are passionate about, or you won’t complete it — it’s what will get you out of bed on the hard days
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Pause and complete these action items:
What’s your desired destination?
Imagine yourself 5 to 10 years from now: envision the emotion of what it will feel like to win
This is where we get into VISION. Your brain cannot tell the difference between a vivid, in depth, detailed thought, and actual reality. That is why visualization exercises are so important.
Chris also advises us to push past the fear. “Find the courage to be bold and act in spite of your fears.”
Then, speak your visions into existence. This doesn’t just mean talking out loud to yourself. Share your vision with close friends and family. This allows you to experience the emotions together of what it would feel like to get the things you utterly desire.
You almost feel like you already have it when you talk and act like you already do.
It’s important to distinguish how far and wide you should talk about these things. Chris has suggested to share your vision with close friends and family for a reason. They are people that know you and people who you can trust. Then use that fire to power you through the ups and downs along the way.
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In Chapter 3, Chris introduces us to the 3 D’s:
Desire
Discipline
Dedication
He reminds us that all day long we are going to fight the energy of resistance. It just so happens that the greatest battle we fight is you vs. you. Resistance usually comes in the form of finding excuses — usually to procrastinate the things that should be the prioritized actions that are going to help you achieve our dreams.
Applying the 3 D’s will give you the upper hand against resistance.
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Desire is defined as a “strong feeling of wanting to have something.” Chris reminds us that just because you want something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. He understands desire as the “internal motivation.”
First: think of something you want. Then ask yourself; how bad do you want it? What are you willing to do — or give up — in order to achieve it? How will you hold yourself accountable?
Chris cites Tony Robbins who wrote that all of our actions are driven by either pleasure or pain. We either want to gain pleasure or avoid pain.
Chris says one way to use pleasure or pain to take the right action is to link the pleasure or pain to the action you should be taking.
One example he gives is to link something like going to the gym to your desire to be alive to see your grandkids grow up. That will provide internal motivation, giving you a completely different level of desire to go to the gym.
You can do the opposite with pain — link a tremendous amount of pain to not taking action.
ACTION ITEM: take some time to write down some of your desires, maybe even four or five of them. Don’t rush through it. Think about some of the things you really want — and then how you are going to apply pleasure or pain to help you take the actions required to achieve them.
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Discipline is commitment + accountability.
Chris cites author Darren Hardy who defines discipline as commitment — or doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.
“Discipline requires you to become the enforcer, the commander, and the general,” says Chris. He adds that “having versus not having discipline might be the most common fallout of those who never reach their full potential.”
In last week’s summary, I told you how much I love the word potential. In fact, the concept of “potential” may be the entire premise of Fearless Journeys. The goal of this community is to help you and everyone in it to reach their full potential. But that requires discipline.
Are you disciplined enough to take advantage of the resources we offer? Do you read the books in the book club? Do you attend the online sessions with Featured Innovators? Do you try to apply some of their advice? Do you take opportunities to join us on in-person meet-ups or group trips?
Or do you merely desire to do some of these things? It takes discipline to reach your potential.
Chris shows how many people — including his friends and family — might see his results and think he was an overnight success. “But they didn’t see me during my college days where I would go for long runs in the blistering cold Wisconsin weather.”
Being disciplined also requires you to be patient, brave, and persistent in your actions by focusing on winning each and every day.
“Like anything else in life, the greater reward, the higher the price tag.”
ACTION ITEM: write down a few areas of your life in which you can be more disciplined.
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Dedication is committing yourself to a task or purpose.
To be truly dedicated means you do what is necessary no matter what mood you’re in and no matter how you feel. It will force you to learn as you go and act on the move.
For Chris, he knows that stretching is an important thing he needs to do several times a day, as a professional soccer player, in order to stay injury-free and extend the years of his career. But does he like to take 20 minutes each evening before bed to stretch? No. But, he does it anyway!
Dedication makes the difference!
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How dedicated are you to reaching your potential? Will you continue reading with us? For the week ahead, read chapters 4 and 5.
I am dedicated to bringing these summaries to you. Tomorrow, I’ll be getting on a plane to Cuba — my first visit there. The island nation where my father and grandparents came from and never returned to. I’m dedicated to traveling and seeing places that are significant to my interest. So dedicated that I’m willing to board a 737 Max 8 (thanks Southwest Airlines!) and flying to a communist country.
But I'm equally dedicated to keeping up with these readings and bringing you a digest of the most important things you need to know from the great wisdom that authors like Chris Mueller are bringing us. You’ll have another summary in your inbox before I return! I hope you keep up with the reading! See you soon!