Discipline
I've been thinking about discipline a lot since revisiting one of Jim Rohn's old talks. And now it's appearing everywhere. A key to everything. Or maybe just confirmation bias doing its thing.
So I reflected. And realised that all my executive clients have shown remarkable self-discipline. But it showed up differently in each of them. Each one strongest in at least one of three types:
Discipline in seeing.
They read dynamics others miss. They sense the tension under the polite update, the real reason the hire didn't work out, the shift that hasn't surfaced in the data yet. Under pressure, they double down on observation. And the other disciplines, designing something around what they see, acting on it, start to slide. The seeing becomes its own reward. Or its own excuse.
Discipline in designing.
They build. Structures, processes, operating rhythms. Intelligent systems. Under pressure, they restructure again. Redesign the org chart, rethink the operating model. And they stop checking whether what they've built still matches what's actually happening. Design becomes a fortress instead of a tool.
Discipline in acting.
They execute. Relentlessly. Through resistance, through noise, through exhaustion. Under pressure, they just move faster. And somewhere along the way, the direction stopped mattering. The discipline became about not stopping, which is a different thing entirely from moving toward something that counts.
I know where I skew. (Seeing. Always seeing.)
Self-confidence, the real kind, doesn't come from retreating to your strongest area of self-discipline. It comes from not neglecting the others. Especially when everything in you wants to. Rohn called it the power of daily small disciplines. He was right. But he was talking about life in general. For leaders in high-pressure roles, the disciplines are specific: see clearly, design deliberately, act and learn.
Let one slide and you're compensating. Let two slide and you're surviving.
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What pulls you
Rohn had another idea I love: magnificent obsession. Something so clear and alive that it pulls you forward into the future, through the hard months.
But pull works in every direction.
Some leaders get pulled backward. Into the version of the company that made sense 2 years ago. Into the strategy that worked before the market shifted. Into the identity they had before this role started demanding something different from them.
Some get pulled sideways. Into distractions that feel like progress. Another restructure. Another offsite. Another hire that solves the symptom but not the thing underneath it.
And some get pulled forward. Toward something they can't fully articulate yet, but they feel it. A version of their leadership, their organisation, their own capacity that doesn't exist yet but could.
The difference is whether you have something ahead of you with enough gravity to hold you through the quarters where nothing seems to be working. Without that pull, it's easy to get swallowed by a bad month. but with it, even a bad year becomes something you move through rather than something that stops you.
Still, the pull doesn't protect you on its own. A magnificent obsession with a blind spot in one of the three disciplines will drag you forward, sure. Fast. And crooked.
The obsession gives you the power. The disciplines give you shape and direction.
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Questions I'd ask you
If you were sitting across from me, I'd ask you questions, not framework. So here are a few. Not all of them will land. The ones that make you uncomfortable are probably the ones worth staying with.
On seeing:
When was the last time you saw something clearly and did nothing with it? What was the reason you gave yourself? And was that reason true, or comfortable?
What are you choosing not to look at right now? You probably already know what it is.
On designing:
Is the structure you're working inside still built for where you're going, or for where you were when you built it?
When was the last time you checked whether your team experiences the system the way you think they do?
On acting:
Are you moving fast because the situation demands it, or because slowing down would force you to feel something you'd rather not?
What would you stop doing this week if you were honest about what's actually producing results?
On the pull:
What's pulling you right now? Is it forward, backward, or sideways? Can you name it specifically?
If your magnificent obsession disappeared tomorrow, what would you organise your days around? That answer tells you how much of your discipline is yours and how much is borrowed from the goal.
The leaders who get pulled into the future are the ones who keep all three disciplines sharp when the pressure says otherwise. Even when it's tedious. Especially when it's tedious.
Because a bad quarter won't swallow you if your disciplines hold. But a great quarter might, if they don't.
