“If you do what others don’t do, you’ll have what others don’t have.”
That’s one of my all-time favorite quotes.
But over the years, I’ve made one small change that makes it even more accurate:
If you do what others won’t do, you’ll have what others won’t have.
Most people could be more disciplined.
They could be more consistent.
They could push through plateaus and build something extraordinary.
But they won’t.
And that’s the separator.
If you ever find yourself plateauing, feeling stagnant, or simply knowing deep down that you’re capable of more, there are five pillars that will help you break through and take your business – and your life – to the next level.
Let’s unpack them.
1. Discipline: Motivation Is a Feeling, Discipline Is a Decision
This may sound strange coming from someone who gets labeled a “motivational speaker,” but I believe motivation is highly over-indexed and over-glorified.
I don’t want you to rely on motivation.
Why? Because motivation is a feeling. It’s an emotion. And like any emotion, it will ebb and flow.
There is not a single person on this planet – myself at the front of the line – who feels highly motivated 100% of the time. That’s not realistic and it’s certainly not sustainable.
So if you’re depending on motivation, you’re building your future on something that is inherently unstable.
Discipline is different.
Motivation is a feeling.
Discipline is a decision.
You don’t control when you feel motivated.
You do control the decisions you make.
Most people tell themselves a story:
“I’m just not disciplined.”
“I can’t get up early.”
“I can’t stick with a routine.”
Those are not truths. Those are narratives.
You may have plenty of evidence from your past where you struggled. That’s fine. But you can change your story with the very next decision you make.
My definition of discipline is simple:
Discipline is making a decision in the moment that most aligns with the person you’re trying to become or the goal you’re trying to achieve.
Every decision becomes binary:
Does this move me closer to my goal or not?
If the answer is yes, that’s a disciplined decision.
If the answer is no, it’s not.
And no, you won’t be perfect. Life, business, and sports are all imperfect games. The goal is not perfection — the goal is progress. Progress is built one disciplined decision at a time.
2. Consistency: The Controllable Superpower
If discipline is your decision in the moment, consistency is your ability to repeat that decision over time.
From working with elite athletes, I can tell you this with confidence:
Consistency is a controllable superpower.
Most people are consistent when they feel like it.
When it’s convenient.
When the weather is good, the inbox is calm, and life cooperates.
High performers operate differently.
They do what’s required regardless of how they feel.
Consistency doesn’t mean you work seven days a week. I’m a huge believer in self-care and recovery. It simply means:
If something matters, you show up for it regularly.
You don’t wait for inspiration.
You don’t negotiate with yourself.
Consistency isn’t done because you want to.
It’s done because it needs to be done.
3. Confidence: Earned, Built, and Brushed With Humility
Confidence might be one of the most attractive and impactful traits a human being can have – especially in a field where influence and impact are everything.
But let’s be clear:
Confidence is not false bravado.
It’s not “fake it till you make it.”
Confidence is earned. Confidence is built.
It’s not genetic. It’s not inherited. It’s constructed over time.
So how do you build it?
a) Combine Discipline and Consistency
When you make disciplined decisions consistently, you build confidence.
When you make undisciplined decisions or show up inconsistently, you erode it.
b) Demonstrated Performance
Confidence comes from seeing yourself perform well — especially in the “unseen hours.”
Think of Steph Curry. One reason he’s the most confident shooter in basketball history is that he has literally watched the ball go through the net more times than anyone else on Earth… mostly when no one was watching.
You need your version of that. Reps. Practice. Preparation.
c) Keep the Promises You Make to Yourself
If you tell yourself, “I’m getting up tomorrow to go for a walk,” and you do it, your confidence grows.
If you hit snooze and hide under the covers, your confidence erodes.
Every kept promise is a deposit in your self-belief account.
d) Master Your Inner Voice
The most important things you will ever say in your life are the things you say to yourself.
Many high achievers are brutally hard on themselves. They speak to themselves in ways they would never speak to another human being.
You need to flip that script.
Talk to yourself the way you would talk to a close friend:
With empathy
With belief
With reassurance
This isn’t about going soft.
You can still demand high performance from yourself.
You just do it through kindness, not cruelty.
And when you start to build confidence, you must temper it with humility.
The most lethal combination on the planet is earned confidence brushed with humility.
Humility keeps you:
Open to coaching
Open to feedback
Open to the idea that no matter how good you are, you can still get better
You’re not competing against others. You’re competing against your own potential.
4. Emotional Regulation: Don’t Let Your Feelings Drive the Bus
I believe emotional regulation – or emotional intelligence in action – might be the single most important skill a human being can have.
As a father of three teenagers, it’s one of the most important things I try to model and teach.
Here’s the essence:
Your emotions are designed to inform you, not direct you.
I don’t believe in “good” or “bad” emotions. Every emotion is inherently neutral. You simply prefer some over others.
Of course I’d rather feel optimistic, confident, and happy.
But real life includes disappointment, frustration, jealousy, discouragement, and anger.
Emotional regulation is not about avoiding those feelings.
It’s about decoupling how you feel from how you behave.
I feel the full range of emotions:
As a dad
As a business owner
As a speaker
I get frustrated, annoyed, discouraged, even jealous at times. The difference is I do my best not to let those emotions dictate how I show up, how I lead, or how I treat people.
Perform to a standard, not to a feeling.
Feel every emotion. Don’t suppress or ignore them.
Acknowledge it, dig deeper into why it’s there…
Then choose your behavior based on your standards, not your mood.
That’s emotional regulation. And it’s a game changer.
5. Next Play: How Well Do You Bounce Back?
The fifth pillar is so important to me that I wrote an entire book about it: Next Play.
Next Play is about your ability to bounce back. To move on. To refocus.
In basketball, if you turn the ball over, miss a shot, or get a bad call, you can’t fix it. That play is over. It’s behind you. It’s unchangeable.
The only thing that matters is the next play.
The same is true in your life and business:
A sales call goes sideways
A client relationship gets rocky
You have a disagreement with your spouse
A plan doesn’t work the way you hoped
You can’t drag the negativity of that moment into the next one.
Next Play means:
You acknowledge what happened
You learn what you can
Then you quickly refocus on what’s in front of you
And this doesn’t just apply in the short term. It also applies to major life transitions.
We are always in a state of transition:
Parents aging
Kids leaving the house
Careers evolving
Health changing
The question is:
When circumstances change, what will your next play be?
Don’t wait to react. Be proactive. Think ahead.
Your ability to continuously re-center on what’s right in front of you – instead of ruminating on what’s behind you – is a massive competitive advantage.
The Operating System Behind the Pillars
Earlier, I shared what I consider the “mental operating system” that underpins all of this:
Believe
Commit
Prepare
Execute
Compete
Build that foundation. Then stack on top of it:
Discipline
Consistency
Confidence
Emotional regulation
Next Play
That’s a solid checklist of ten.
But there’s one more piece that ties it all together.
The 11th Component: Be Urgent Today, Patient Over Time
If there’s an area I personally struggle with the most, it’s this:
Patience.
High achievers want things to happen now. Yesterday, if possible.
So here’s the reframe:
Be urgent in the short term.
Be patient in the long term.
Today matters. What you do right now matters.
But you need to brush that urgency with patience around outcomes.
Be urgent with the process.
Be patient with the results.
Don’t implement these ideas for a week and then DM me saying, “Alan, it’s not working yet.”
You’re right. It’s probably not. Yet.
“Yet” is one of the most powerful words in the English language.
I haven’t broken through the plateau yet.
I haven’t overcome stagnation yet.
I haven’t skyrocketed my business yet.
You keep going until:
Until you break through.
Until you overcome stagnation.
Until your business looks the way you know it can.
Maybe that takes two months.
Maybe it takes two years.
Hopefully it doesn’t take two decades.
But if you stick with it, it works.
A Simple Example of Extra Effort
Let’s say you decide your “extra” is making five additional calls every workday.
Not your normal calls. Five extra calls.
Five extra calls
× 5 days a week
× 50 weeks a year
= 1,250 extra calls this year
= 12,500 extra calls over a decade
Even at a low conversion rate, are you telling me that wouldn’t radically change your business?
That’s what doing what others won’t do looks like in real, practical terms.
Master the Little Things. Do What Others Won’t.
We don’t need more complicated strategies or grandiose ideas.
We need to:
Master the fundamentals
Make disciplined decisions
Show up consistently
Build real confidence
Regulate our emotions
Focus on the next play
And stay patient with the process
Because I believe this with every ounce of my being:
If you do what others won’t do, you will have what others won’t have.
That’s not just a quote.
It’s a way of life.
