I’m going to change gears slightly in today’s post and talk about something most coaches and ‘make money’ type folks don’t talk about. TshirtRiches has been online for about 8 years now and during that time, I’ve spoken to and responded to tens of thousands of people (and e-mails).
Countless people reach out seeking help and guidance on starting and growing their business. The overwhelming majority of those people I’ve spoken with go on to do absolutely nothing. But yet, only a small percentage of those I speak with have HUGE success in the business.
What’s the difference?
Well, I’ll share that with you in just a moment, but first, I wanna tell you a story. Something I learned the other day.
A friend of mine by the name of Jackie Wilson posted pictures and video clips of himself walking 3-5 miles each day up and down a mountain in Northwest Georgia.
Most days he’d post those pictures, but then every so often, a day or two would go by where there were no pictures. Each time that happened, I called and asked him what happened.
I got to a point where I started looking forward to seeing those pictures and each time I saw those pictures I got more and more motivated to get off my butt and start walking myself.
After about 6 weeks of this, I asked him what was going on… He finally revealed it was his initial goal to walk up and down that mountain for 30 straight days — no matter what happened.
I thought 30-days couldn’t be that difficult so I took and challenged myself to walking 30 straight days too… While I don’t have a mountain, I do have a beautiful beach within a 1 mile drive from my house.
So off to walking I started…
I ain’t gonna lie to you… By day number 3, I was looking for all kinds of excuses not to go out walking. By day number 7, I really had to drag myself out there.
By day 9, I wanted to quit… What seemed so simple, became very difficult for me to do.
It was hard… There was always something else I wanted to do and each time, I had to struggle and force myself to go walk. One day, I ended up going for a walk around 11 p.m. at night because I finally convinced myself I had to do it no matter what…
I initially started this 30-day walk challenge to get myself into shape. But then an amazing revelation came to me by day 12 while I was walking.
While my initial goal was too get in shape, this walking thing became more than that. I quickly discovered this was more about discipline — self discipline to be exact. On day 12 I realized most people won’t see success because they lack self-discipline. It’s not because I was lazy that I didn’t want to walk — it was because I lacked self-discipline. Plain and simple. It’s 100% a choice. I chose or didn’t choose to go walk.
There’s a man that walks past my house EVERYDAY with his dog. It didn’t matter if it was raining, freezing-cold or burning up hot outside. At precisely the same time everyday, he walks right past my house. I could almost set my watch to the time he passes by.
What this man had was ‘self discipline’. No matter what happens, he was going to go out and walk.
I looked up Self-Discipline and it means: The ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.
I then looked up ‘Discipline’ and that meant: The practice of training (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior (it doesn’t necessarily always means punishment).
Notice the first 3 words of Discipline: The practice of…
I then looked up the definition of ‘Practice’, which means ‘repeated exercise in or performance of an activity or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it’.
So when you combine all of that with discipline — it means we must ‘practice’ being disciplined.
It’s not something we’re born with. It’s something we have to practice.
Financial advisors tell us to save a minimum of 10% of our income and to put it away in savings/investments and never touch it — no matter what.
But most of us lack the self-discipline to do this.
Saving money requires practice and ‘discipline’. It doesn’t come naturally for most. In fact, most will initially slip up a few times and spend the money, but each time we falter and realize our mistake, hopefully it makes us stronger.
For so long I had a hard time paying my bills on time… Even when I had an excess of funds, I just could not pay my bills on-time… I lacked discipline.
I now realize discipline is what will determine our success (and your success in the t-shirt business).
Now that I’m aware of this thing called ‘discipline’, I now recognize the excuses I tell myself when I don’t want to do something.
I’m now 21 days into my 30-day walk. Just 9 more days to go…
So far, because I was disciplined to stick it out, I’m seeing my the benefits… They didn’t come immediately, but change was happening each day, even though I couldn’t see, I just had to stick it out long enough to reap it’s benefits).
If I’d quit 5 days in, I wouldn’t benefit.
In the picture below, before i started, my watch fit very snug to my wrist. I could barely move the thing. 21 days in, look at it now — it turns upside down. I can’t keep the watch up right.
My pants are loose now and some of my tight shirts fit much better now… These are the benefits of ‘self-discipline’.
I’m able to walk 3 miles now without a struggle — in the beginning, it was challenging getting up to two miles — i was ready to quit.
The longest stretch so far was 6 miles… I felt great; well, not exactly, I had to sit down and sip water after the 5th mile…
Each day I walk, I listen to motivational and educational stuff. Now I’m learning as I go along my daily walk. I’m learning so much more now because of this walk.
Not only is this walk helping me get fit, but my mind is expanding. I’m learning more about how to invest my money. I’m learning how to be a better saver.
I’m learning that I don’t have to buy fancy and expensive stuff to show my success… I’m learning that I was a FOOL buying all this stuff that ‘depreciates’ in value when you spend a few hours each week reading and learning… I listen to audio books as I walk each and everyday.
It’s amazing.
So the point of this story is that if you want to be successful in the t-shirt business or any business whatsoever, you gotta get your head game right.
This game is mental. You don’t have to be smart. You just have to be disciplined enough to see it through. Disciplined enough not to quit. Disciplined enough to do the work even if you don’t feel like it — even if you don’t see the results.
You have to practice becoming disciplined.
There are things you have to do to set yourself up for success. For me, walking in the morning is the BEST time for me. If I don’t do it in the morning, I run the risk of increasing my chances of not doing it in the evening — that’s why I had to force myself out of the house at 11 p.m. to complete my daily goal.
There will always be something that’ll try and keep you from doing what needs to be done. But you gotta be disciplined enough to recognize it and do it regardless.
21 days into my walk now and I feel great. I know so much more now than I did 21 days ago.
No one is going to motivate you to succeed. You gotta do that yourself.
It’s very important to find people to hold you accountable. I have 3 friends I text my workout details to after I’m done (see below)
If they haven’t seen my text by mid-afternoon, they’re generally texting me and asking if I did my walk for the day… This helps keep me motivated. There was a day or two when I hadn’t planned on going out that day, but my boy Jackie sent me a message saying ‘what’s up Ross’.
I got up and went out… I didn’t want to say I missed a single day, otherwise, I’d have to start over at day one.
So… If you want to have a successful business, you must be disciplined enough to see this thing through. There will be days where you might want to throw in the towel, but you can’t.
There will be days where all types of resistance will come your way. People will call you crazy and will question your sanity. They will think your idea is a stupid one and if you listen to them, you’re only hurting yourself and proving them right.
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