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10 Disciplines To Help You Stay Sharp And Energetic

The book, Shine, is a transformative guide that illustrates how looking inward is the key to unlocking true entrepreneurial freedom. Certainly, Shine is a book for entrepreneurs, however, it is bound to benefit any business leader. 

“Entrepreneurs often have a burning need to succeed. But that same relentless brilliance that propels you in your career can take a toll on your teams, personal relationships, and even your health,” explain author Gino Wickman and coauthor Rob Dube. “Our book will help you strike a crucial balance between those inner and outer worlds while taking your success to new heights.”

In Shine, Gino shares 10 disciplines to help you stay sharp and energetic without burning out. 
The 10 Disciplines teach you how they can lay a foundation that creates space in your busy life for you to consistently and optimally perform and achieve your inner peace.

 

“I have helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs achieve significant business success by using a disciplined and practical approach to operating their businesses. Yet I have come to learn that there are disciplines and a practical approach to accomplish significant life success, as well,” says Gino.

 

As you read the book, you will learn how to:

  • Set boundaries in your work life (without compromising productivity) that allow you to become a better leader and better person.
  • Practice practicable sustainable ways to reset your energy and recognize burnout and stress before they happen.
  • Tap into a flow state to harness unbridled creativity, think clearly, and move through your career and life with ease.

The book includes a valuable self-assessment survey (also available online) and prompts for reflection at the end of every chapter. In addition, within each chapter you will receive how-to's for mastering each Discipline.

 

Before delving into the 10 Disciplines, Gino teaches you 3 Discoveries that will help you free your True Self. 

  1. Embracing that you are driven. It is in your DNA. Embrace it. Manage it well.
  2. Realizing decisions are made out of love or fear. And that making 10 percent more love-based decisions will have a huge impact.
  3. Seeing that it is possible to be driven and have peace. You will not lose your drive when you have peace. You will actually have more drive. 

These 3 Discoveries set the stage for the 10 Disciplines. “The 3 Discoveries are the “what” and the 10 Disciplines are the “how,” shares Gino.

 

Below are the 10 Disciplines for maximizing your impact and inner peace presented at a glance, along with the main point of each. “They will help you succeed in your outer world and your inner world. These 10 Disciplines have evolved greatly over the past few years. I created them when delivering a keynote speech and simply wanted to share with the audience ten things that have greatly impacted my success,” says Gino. 

  1. 10-Year Thinking  Shift your mind from short-term thinking to thinking in ten-year time frames. 
  2. Take Time Off – Take 130 days off per year and don’t think about on any of those days.
  3. Know Thyself – Be your True Self 100% of the time, 24/7/365.
  4. Be Still – Sit in silence for thirty minutes every day.
  5. Know Your 100% – Decide on and commit to the perfect number of hours per week and weeks per year that you will deliver your impact to the world.
  6. Say No…Often – Say no to everything that doesn’t fit into the first five Disciplines.
  7. Don’t Do $25-an-Hour Work – Never do anything you could pay someone $25 an hour to do.
  8. Prepare Every Night – Before your head hits the pillow every night, document the next day’s plan.
  9. Put Everything in One Place – Pick the one place you will capture every idea, commitment, thought, action item, and promise.
  10. Be Humble – View yourself as an equal to every person on the planet. 

Coauthor Rob shares that, “Each discipline is simple. Doing them is harder. Please don’t underestimate them, as they will have a profound impact on your life.” Readers should devote ample time with the book to learn all the details behind mastering each Discipline.

 

By the end of the book, “You will see how to live with a harmonious combination of being highly impactful, while experiencing an incredible sense of inner peace. We call this state being in Flowt™, which is a combination of two words, “flow” and “float.” You are in the flow when you are working and you feel like you are in the zone; time slows down, and you are performing at your best,” explains Gino.

 

“At the same time, you will float through all aspects of your life with a feeling of serenity, calm, fulfillment, and ease, comfortably letting your freak flag fly. We will show you how to experience total freedom from your mind, ego, and pain, while maximizing your energy, being incredibly creative, having a lot more fun, and making an even greater impact on the world.”

 

Gino Wickman


Rob Dube

 

Gino and Rob answer these questions for us:

 

Question: Of the 10 Disciplines, which one or two do most people struggle to master and why?

 

Gino: Take Time Off (and not think about work the entire time)…it's the not thinking about work the entire time that gets people.

 

Say No Often…people don't have their boundaries clear, they have FOMO, they don't want to disappoint people, so they say yes to most things (in professional and personal lives).

 

Question: Which of the 10 Disciplines did you find the most difficult to master?

 

Gino: Know Your 100% takes intention and awareness. You have to pay close attention to how many hours you're working and what you're doing during those hours to gauge what is raising your vibration or energy and what is draining your energy/having you working at a low vibration.

 

There is a tipping point when the driven entrepreneur is not effective but because of their driven nature, just keeps pushing through. This push is the lower vibration/lower energy and is not making the kind of impact in the world that we hope for them.

 

Question: Why did you feel comfortable sharing so much of your personal life journeys with readers?

 

Gino & Rob: We are them and we hope our vulnerability will inspire others to share their inner stories. This is part of letting go or shedding, as we like to say. When you let go, you are free. When you are free, you SHINE.

___

 

An entrepreneur since the age of 21, Gino has always had an obsession for learning what makes businesses and entrepreneurs thrive.

 

At 25, he took over the family business, which was deeply in debt and in need of help. After turning the company around and running it for seven years, he and his partners successfully sold the company.

 

Gino then set out to help entrepreneurs and leaders get what they want from their businesses and lives.

 

Based on his years of real-word experience, Gino created the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness.

 

For over 30 years, Rob has been thriving as a purpose-driven entrepreneur. He is the co-Founder of Imagine One, which has won dozens of awards for its people-first and purpose-driven culture.

 

Rob is also the author of Donothing: the Most Rewarding Leadership Journey You Will Ever Take, the host of the Leading with Genuine Care podcast, and host of the Do Nothing Leadership Retreat in Colorado.

 

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

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