Most people know what to do – they just don’t do what they know.

This is why so many fail to achieve success with their business, with their weight loss program, with quitting smoking – just about anything that requires discipline.

And there’s the rub: achievement requires discipline.

Even discipline is not the magic ingredient of achievement, however; because disciple requires strength if it is to be sustained.

Strength cannot be faked. This is where people get stuck.

As Warren Buffet said, “When the tide goes out it’s easy to see who was skinny dipping.”

In life, the “tide goes out” whenever we start pushing against resistance. Pushing against a heavy weight is how we build strength in our muscles, and we build that strength by pushing against the weight on a regular basis. If we have not been meeting resistance on a regular, consciously created and purposely planned basis – we won’t be able to move the weight when it’s crucial to do so.

When it comes to achievement, the same principles apply.

Achievement flows from discipline, which requires strength.

Here’s the part that makes this all seem a mystery to most: strength on the outside only comes after you develop strength on the inside.

Mental strength comes first; take every thought captive and make each one serve your purpose.

This is the genesis of achievement.