A lot of people say they want to get better. A lot of organizations, departments and teams say they want to get better. 

What does it mean to get better?

Getting better means you are improving. We have become a society that is comfortable with mediocrity. Mediocrity means you don’t get better, you simply stay the same. But, no one stays the same. There is no neutral in your life. You will either improve or you will slide. You will progress or regress. Success is never accidental and it is certainly never found through mediocrity. Mediocrity produces disappointment, unrealized dreams and missed goals. Mediocrity is personal preparation to miss opportunity. When you live with a mediocre attitude, with mediocre effort, you will always get mediocre results. Average doesn’t stay average for long. Average becomes below average when you accept mediocrity. 

Eradicate Mediocrity

I am on a personal journey to eradicate mediocrity out of my life and my organization. This is life -long pursuit. And it begins with the belief that I will never arrive. This means I, personally, and my organization, collectively, must always improve. The first president of Chick-fil-A, Jimmy Collins, I once heard say, “I find very little perfection on earth.” He would go on to explain that he was looking for excellence. He explained that there was always room for improvement. If we can recognize our need for improvement, then we enter the path of growth. Staying on the path is quite another thing. To stay on the path of personal growth, you must have discipline and a lot of it.

Personal discipline paves the path to personal growth. 

We all say we want to grow. But, most people are simply not disciplined enough to grow in all the ways they could or should. A new year is always a time to examine new growth. However, good growth is simply impossible without discipline. It is important to pause and consider that there is no neutrality in regards to growth. There is good growth and there is bad growth just as there are good habits and bad habits. If you are becoming more lazy, this is an example of bad growth. If you are becoming more intentional, more focused this would be an example of good growth.

An honest evaluation is where you must begin.

Truly self-aware individuals are in a constant state of evaluation. This is where discipline begins: the evaluation. Self-aware individuals are able to self-evaluate. The best evaluations lead you to a great awareness of who you are and where you really are. Until you are able to self-evaluate, you need others to help you with your evaluations. Instead of looking for encouragement and praise from the evaluator, look for truth. Truth is the reality of where you really are and where you are not. A good evaluation gives good measurement. It is a combination of encouragement and challenge. A good evaluation is not one-sided. Rather, a good evaluation is circumspect–meaning it is more of 360 degrees than 180 or 90 degrees. As you become more self-aware, you should become more aware of your weaknesses and blind-spots. These areas taint your view of you and are catalysts for laziness and mediocrity. You must learn to accept the hard reality of these areas in your life and bring greater discipline into them so that you will have greater success. 

Ephesians 5:15 says, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise”. This word circumspectly means having the highest level of accuracy and attention to detail. It means you have narrowed it down in a way that you are carefully considering what is before you. Without careful consideration and examination, it is very easy to accept things, habits and conduct in your life that is detrimental to your personal success and the success of others. 

You will not grow in a healthy fashion without discipline. It is easy to want everyone around you to be disciplined while you yourself are not at the level of discipline that you need to be. Highly successful people and highly successful organizations are always highly disciplined. 

If you want to grow, if you want to see real, personal growth in your life then, you will not discover it without real, personal discipline.  You must examine yourself and find the places where you are giving yourself permission to do things you shouldn’t or giving yourself permission not to do things you should. Discipline is always an action. It may be unseen, but personal discipline is always an action. 

Discipline is the habit of saying no and the art of knowing when to say yes. 

Start by telling yourself no and others no. Only say yes to your spouse and to what is critical. We allow far too many loud things to get our yes’s. Discipline saves your yes’s. One of the hardest things I had to learn as a leader was first to tell others no, and then only say yes if it was critical to what my calling, my mission and my direction was. Every wasted yes results in wasted time and misused energy. Don’t waste your yes’s. Keep a perpetual yes on the table for God and your mate and everyone else starts with no. 

Discipline is the practice of establishing boundaries and keeping yourself and others in them. People, including, you, have a hard time staying in their lane. The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” We are prone to wander. Wanderer is a sign we are not disciplined. The reason so few people see growth is they are not intentional to pursue self discipline. Discipline is an intentional set of habits, practices and behavior that you hold yourself to without the need of others. This is self-accountability which looks a whole like personal responsibility. 

Success is not found in your dream, but in your discipline. 

I have found the greatest personal success has come through my sustained, personal discipline. If you want to find success, then hunt it through rigorous personal discipline. I have seen people get results who extraordinary ill-disciplined and have grown careless. This is a recipe for wasting what God has given you and wasting your opportunity. 

Establish personal discipline and you will see personal growth. Discipline means you do more than you talk, dream or desire. 

I’ve seen that discipline not desire is the pivot point on which developing leaders hinge. Without it they regress. With it they practice patience and progress. If you want to get better, see stronger results and create forward movement, then it is and will always be discipline that propels you forward, one step, one act of discipline at a time. Getting better requires better discipline. You have to get it and put it into your life and your organization. You cannot accept mediocrity in your life or the lives of those you are partnered with. Excellence kills mediocrity and discipline paves the path of excellence. 

You want to build a great life, great team, great organization and great business, then personal discipline is the key. 

“Discipline is the soul of an army.” 

~George Washington