Foundational Leadership Part IIIDiscipline

What is leadership? Leadership is influence

What is the foundation of leadership? Character

Define Character Who you are when no one else is looking

Define Commitment A Promise

What is discipline?

DisciplineDoing the right thing, the right

way, all the time.

Tom Landry said it in another way – “Discipline is ‘Making yourself do what you don’t want to do in order to achieve what you want to achieve.”

Tom Landry p. 279

Discipline comes from within!

Have you ever spent much time around a “difference maker” in this world, someone who has really impacted the world? If you have you probably have noticed that they have a vision, and are driven to see the vision materialize. Because of their drive they have an unnatural amount of self-discipline.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” Hebrews 12:11-12

Why?◦ We are our own worst problem.◦ “When we are foolish we want to conquer the

world. When we are wise we want to conquer ourselves.”

If we do not have self-discipline we will never achieve the things we want to achieve in life.◦ “What we do upon some great occasion will

probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self discipline.” - H.P. Liddon

If we do not have self-discipline we will not be able to become the people we want to become.

We have to have control over ourselves before we can even begin to think about leading others. The mastery of the self through discipline is essential.

Organize your life.◦ Have you figured out what is important to your in

life? Have you sat down and made a list of what you want out of this life? If you do not have a set of values or principles and a direction in which you are headed you will be disorganized and headed in every which direction.

◦ Prioritize what is important◦ Manage your Time by learning to say no

Prioritize what is important.◦ “Most people say their main fault is a lack of

discipline. On deeper thought, I believe that is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply implanted in their hearts and minds.” Covey p 157-158

Relationship to God

Family

Serving Others

Fishing trip Golf

softballCommunity Activities

Lunch with friends

Mike Singletary Priority Box

Saying “No” is even more difficult when your choice becomes something that you would rather do than stick with your priorities.

Give some examples

Managing your time is one of the keys to surviving as a student-athlete. There are enough hours in a day to go to every class, to study for every class, to practice, to eat, to socialize, and to sleep. Most studies show that student athletes perform better in the classroom during the season because each day is so structured and there is no time for procrastination. If, however, you do not manage your time certain areas of your life will suffer. Time Management takes organization and self-discipline.

Tips: Rick Pitino says to make a daily to do list. Do the things

you want to do least first to get them out of the way. The things you want to do least will bog you down all day if they are not finished first. For the rest of the day you can do things you enjoy.

Complete Projects one at a time. Organize your work space. Develop systems that work for you i.e., computers,

phones, calendars, to do lists, etc. Find out how you work best and develop that system.

Examples

Tips for planning: Study your most difficult subjects at the times when you

are most alert. Eliminate dead hours. Use a spare fifty minutes to review

for a class rather than as an extended break. Use daylight hours to study. Study before recitation classes. Study after lecture classes. Study math and foreign language classes each day. Know your sleep pattern and put it in your schedule. Plan recreation. Plan study breaks. Allow time to eat well-balanced meals. Avoid too much detail in your plan.

Directions: Make a weekly schedule. First, Directions: Make a weekly schedule. First, fill in all of the hours when you know what fill in all of the hours when you know what you will be doing; classes, work, meals, you will be doing; classes, work, meals, sleep, meetings, travel time etc. Secondly, sleep, meetings, travel time etc. Secondly, plan your study and recreation plan your study and recreation hours. hours.

Think about something in your life that you want or need to do, but have been unable to do. Do not think about life goals but something smaller and more manageable to achieve in a 30 day period. The challenge is to not only choose something but to commit to working on or accomplishing the task by finals week of this year. It is best to choose something that requires either daily discipline or a Mon.- Fri. discipline. Once a week things are ok but over a relatively small period of time like we are working with it is less effective. The key to this exercise is realizing something that you want to do. The second step is to make the commitment for a 30 day period and the final step is to discipline yourself to follow through. You can practice discipline and therefore you can get better in your discipline. No one is a lost cause. In the space to the side write in your commitment and sign you name. This will make you a better person and ultimately a better leader. Remember is you cannot lead yourself, then you will never be able to lead others.