What Does Discipline Mean? How To Use It Effectively In Our Business

byEdwinBernard

9.2K followers

10 months ago

We often talk about how important it is to have discipline in building our business. Have you stopped to think what discipline really means? Let me share what I have learned.

Discipline can be defined as taking action when you need to do so, at the time when it is needed to be done, whether you like it or not.

It requires the ability to consistently follow through on commitments, adhere to rules, and maintain self-control in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Successful individuals have made discipline a habit. Without discipline, it becomes much harder to achieve our goals.

Procrastination is the opposite of discipline.

Have you made a business plan with completion dates for specific tasks? When it came time to doing those tasks how often do you feel you are not up to it and leave those tasks unfinished for another time?

I confess I am guilty of this shortcoming and it really hurts.

Discipline needs two others to be effective. The actions involved have to be INTENTIONAL and GENUINE.

Intentionality

The intentional part takes focus and effort. Clear intentions and goals need to be established.

Here is where brainstorming can be helpful. Oftentimes teams can collaborate and shine in this process. Ideas are discussed and problem solving takes place. There are sayings that hold true such as:

"Two Heads Are Better Than One"

"Teamwork Makes The Dream Work"

Genuine Motivation

For discipline to be most effective it has to be backed up with genuine motivation that stems from within. It is important to have high ideals, and values to be genuine.

Often external factors try to influence us away from our values with false promises. If we have a strong value system embedded in us, we can counter these external forces. and stay focused on our goals.

Overriding Factor In Our Affiliating Marketing Goals

Wealthy Affiliate teaches us one overriding factor that is essential to be successful.

Everything we do must be directed in meeting the needs of our target audience in our selected niche. If our primary focus is to sell and make money, it is going to be much harder to succeed, if not impossible.

Want to know a secret? When we quit trying to sell and make money, and focus instead on solving problems or meeting the needs of others, sales will follow automatically and grow. But first, we need to build trust.

The High Value Of Trust

Being successful in affiliate marketing, or any sales activity, is not easy. We first need to build trust with our customers. How do we do this? We come full circle.

Our intentionally has to include a genuine motivation to help others. This has to be backed up by consistent disciplined action!

When we communicate this message in our website posts or YouTube videos, often enough, trust will gradually happen. It shows our customers that we truly care about helping them.

An important byproduct of trust allows us to move into the realm of ATTRACTION MARKETING!

Visitors to our website who buy from us will remember how good we made them feel. Many will become repeat customers. Our target audience will be attracted to us, instead of us pursuing them.

The Importance Of Listening

Here's another secret. We cannot truly listen to someone and multitask at the same time. Our mind has to be free from other distractions as we listen and genuinely try to understand what our customer is telling us. People will tell us what they need if we only listen intently.

We can use calls to action (CTA) to not only ask for the sale, but to ask questions to our readers. This kind of CTA sends a message that we want to know more about what problems related to our niche they are trying to solve.

Listening doesn't always have to be verbal. It can also be textual.

We can become their advocate. Our audience will see us as having the power to take away their need with whatever we recommend.

Yes, when they own what we recommend, we take away their need. Think about that. We are seen as the power to solve their problems and eliminate specific needs.

You now know why some affiliate marketers are more successful in selling the same product that others have difficulty selling.

Conclusion

It all starts with being intentional in our planning, have genuine motivation, and use discipline to project that we mean business.

This post is my adaptation on the conclusion of a 5-week course I took on a book by John Maxwell called The16 Undeniable Laws Of Communication. Each law is a chapter unto itself.

I have listed these laws below. If you have read his book, please share how it impacted you.

If you have any questions or comments on these laws please let me know in the comments section below.

Cheers!

Edwin