Achieving any goal: discipline and willpower

“The traditional paradigm for achieving any goal emphasizes discipline and willpower. If we want to succeed, we must (a) religiously follow our plan and (b) resist any distraction that tempts us off plan. Discipline supplies the power to say yes every day to doing the hard stuff. Willpower provides the determination to say no to the bad stuff. We admire, often to the point of amazement, anyone who displays these two virtues to accomplish something difficult or extraordinary: the sibling who loses sixty pounds and keeps them off; the neighbor who accomplishes her lifelong dream of fluency in Italian; the addict who kicks the habit.”

Excerpt From: Marshall Goldsmith. “The Earned Life.”