For the past several months, I’ve been on a journey to live with greater focus, consistency, and discipline. This pursuit was sparked by a quote I came across on LinkedIn from Steven Bartlett, host of The Diary of a CEO podcast. He wrote: “Success has three ingredients: focus, consistency, and discipline. Six months of these three things can change your life forever.”

That message resonated deeply with me. I’ve written about it before, and I believe wholeheartedly that cultivating focus, consistency, and discipline is the key to achieving the results that matter most. But knowing it and living it are two different things. Like many people, I’ve found the journey challenging – especially in pursuing my health goals. The truth is, my struggles often come back to lapses in these very three areas.

Focusing on Health

One way I have been focused is that I have been tracking what I eat and how much I weigh. I have been tracking my meals now for more than five months and I have been tracking my weight for more than four years. These have become important habits in my life and something that I do every day.

While it is good to have these habits, I have not been focused enough on my health, and this means I have not been getting the results I want most. Work and my Toastmasters leadership responsibilities have been my focus over the past several months. I am a dedicated leader for my Toastmasters club and district, but this has not helped me to reach my health goals.

Focus is all about identifying the top priorities in life and then dedicating time to those priorities every week, if not every day. Health needs to be one of my top priorities if I want to lose weight, and this means I need to shift some of my attention away from work and Toastmasters, and to refocus it on my health.

Consistent Results

I have been consistent for five months in tracking what I eat and for four years in tracking my weight, but tracking my results is not enough. Knowing what I weigh and knowing what I have been eating is good information, but without consistent action and different choices based on this information, I am still fighting the weight loss battle.

My favorite author, John Maxwell, says: “Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” The key here is repetition. It means making the same choices, day after day, that lead to the results you want.

For me, this means not just tracking what I eat every day. It also means making meal and snack choices that keep me within my daily calorie budget. In other words, not overeating and not indulging in unhealthy food choices like sugar or other junk foods.

What about you? What choices move you in the right direction and bring you closer to achieving your goals? Do you consistently make these choices every day, or do you let distractions or the easy road direct you away from achieving your goals?

I recommend identifying the choices that produce the results you are striving to achieve, and to then consistently make those choices every day. For me, this means I need to start making daily decisions that keep me on budget calorie-wise. It also means continuing my meal tracking and weight tracking habits and using that information to make better eating choices every day.

Discipline Matters

Focus and consistency are important, but without discipline, you won’t make the hard choices that keep you focused and consistent. I believe in discipline, but it is harder to be disciplined in the moment, especially when more tempting or easier choices are pulling you off the road you want to travel.

Even though I focus on tracking what I eat, and I weigh myself every morning, it has been more than a year now that I have been trying to lose weight. I have not been flexing my discipline muscles enough and as a result I have plateaued and not been losing weight. Even worse, in recent months my weight has started to trend upwards. All because I have not been disciplined enough in my eating choices.

I teach self-directed leadership and I want to be a prime example of someone who leads himself effectively. To be a good example, I need to build a solid foundation of health to lead from. That will give me credibility and proof that I lead a focused, consistent, and disciplined life.

Being disciplined is about staying on the right path. It is about making the right choices, which are often the hard choices. The tempting or easy choice may lead to instant gratification or results in the short term, but longer term they may not product the results you want most. For example, indulging in fast food and junk food satisfies a short-term craving but leads to longer term problems like weight gain or less money available for other items in your budget.

Conclusion

Focus directs your energy to what matters most. Consistency turns effort into momentum, creating compounding results over time. And discipline ensures you stay the course, making the tough choices that keep you moving forward. Together, they form the unstoppable formula for lasting success.