27th August 2010
"Discipline yourself for maximum productivity by repeating `back to work!'
over and over."
-Brian Tracy
We need some system of reinforcement to keep us on track. Anything which is not reinforced may disappear. Take the example of media advertisements. The product may be very good and effective. The quality may be very superior. It may also have the patronage of many customers. But if the product disappears from the media, the product may disappear from the households also! As long as the media continuously promotes the product, we will continuously buy the same.
This principle applies to human behaviour also. Discipline is the name of the game. Without discipline nothing great can be achieved. We need time discipline, money discipline, material discipline, road discipline, food discipline etc. Discipline consists of investing all our attention with one pointed focus. It is only natural that we get distracted constantly. But we need to refocus.
You know the internal audit function in an organization. They audit if the budges resources are expended the way they are intended. If not, they bring the deviation to the attention of the top management who take remedial action.
When it comes to perseverance, our conscience is our internal auditor. We have to constantly ask ourselves the question: what am I doing now and what am I supposed to do? If there is a deviation between what we are doing and what we are supposed to do, we need to redirect our action by repeating the words `back to work, back to work'.
Here's is a simple home work for you: type this mantra `back to work, back to work' on a sheet of paper, print it as bold as possible, laminate it and stick it on to your work table in conspicuous place. You will understand the power of this mantra in forty eight days!
N C Sridharan
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