Many people ask me how to get things done. How do you drag yourself out of bed at 4 AM in the morning when every cell in your body is begging you to roll over and go back to sleep?

How do you focus on completing the assignment that is due at 9 AM in the morning when you know it requires three more hours of intense concentration to complete and your watch is telling you that in just six short hours the shrill sound of your alarm will snap you out of a deep sleep so that you can make it in to work on time?

How do you force yourself to go to the gym after a long, gruelling day at work when all you want to do is crack open a beer and collapse on the couch?

Is there a Magic Solution?

For so many of us these, and similar experiences, are all too familiar.

I posed these questions to three people who I know to be able to provide us with clear and concise responses as their own lives provide glimpses into powerful answers.

These three, a commercial realtor whose unwavering weekly commitment to 150 cold calls has resulted in an annual income approaching seven figures, a single mother of two rambunctious kids, who has a full-time job, teaches four yoga classes each week and is vigorously pursuing an MBA and a small business owner whose search for glory as a power lifter has him spending 30+ hours each week in addition to his regular 70-hour work week.

I listened closely to their answers and, using poetic license, blended them into the following pearls of wisdom.

Simply put they told me they live by a simple credo: What you start, you finish. Period.

Each of them subjects themselves to rigorous daily routines as they pursue dreams that will bring more meaning to their lives and compensate them, many times over, for the price they have paid to get there.

They said that if success was easy, everyone would be successful and that it is only those few who have the temerity, determination and insatiable hunger necessary to stay focused on the prize and to simply “suck it up” when faced with the barrier, who will eventually reap the rewards of their efforts.

They explained to me that life is a mind game and that our lives are not shaped by our experiences but by our beliefs.

How to Get Things Done

When faced with the problem of “how to get things done,” they have chosen to not accept as fact many of the so-called “truths” that have been drummed into so many of us.

They accepted that eight hours sleep per night would rob them of much needed time to hit their daily targets and they, thus, chose to flourish on 3 to 5 hours.

They trained themselves to believe that energy does not come nearly as much from sleep and nutrition as it does from mindset and belief and they convinced themselves that pain – both physical and emotional – is not a signal to give up but rather is a jolt to push harder.

And they wrapped up by saying that the simple answer to the above questions is that when you’re struggling with how to get things done, you just do.

You don’t whine about it, you don’t complain about it, you don’t rationalize (deceive yourself) why you shouldn’t do it. If you have said you would, then you do.

Quietly, without fanfare, and with the unshakable conviction that this is the pathway to the future you want.

I have known these three folks a long time. I have watched their lives bloom despite frequent setbacks and have marvelled at the singularity of focus that has enabled them to do what to so many of us is elusive.

They all agreed that while success may indeed require skill and knowledge, neither move anyone a millimetre closer to where they want to be unless they are coupled with an inextinguishable fire in the belly, an unshakable belief that pleasure always lies at the end of pain and that you can never win when you take yourself out of the game.

They stand firm in their conviction that they are ordinary people that have only one tiny advantage over those who spend their lives dreaming without ever achieving.

They always, always, always finish what they start.

Do you?

Till we read again.