I have to hand it to Tony Robbins for one thing, and that is sharing his secret for motivating yourself to accomplish anything.

You have to associate NOT doing it with massive pain, according to that infomercial king, and he's right.

But he doesn't go far enough, as far as I'm concerned.

The better approach is not to think about pain in the abstract, but to actively deny pleasures in the here-and-now. These include everyday indulgences, and even—if you must—bathroom breaks until you reach your next goal.

Let's say you're in sales, and you're making calls to set appointments. Instead of caving in to the defeatist, negative self-talk that we serve ourselves, or to the beckoning coffee machine down the hall, you should try another tack.

Tell yourself you're not going to break for lunch, accept that next inbound call from your mate, or grab that smoke, until the next person has green-lighted a meeting with you. To add even more stoutness to this declaration, add the words, "And I don't care how long it takes!”

When you commit in this way, heaven and earth move. You suddenly sound like you cannot be denied to the people with whom you speak. Secretaries and screeners buckle, and your intended sales targets have big bulls-eyes on them, and they say, come on, please, aim here!

In other words, selling becomes a piece of cake because your discipline is ironclad.

A wonderful side be

nefit to doing this is that you'll instantly feel better about yourself. From that point on, you know you'll do whatever it takes to come out on top.

Procrastination and time wasting will have no place in your schedule. And ironically, you'll probably earn some of the longest breaks you can imagine, in the form of wonderful vacations and terrific weekend getaways, paid for with suddenly bigger commissions and bonuses.

Discipline is a price we pay, but it's also its own reward.

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