Strategic Discipline Blog

In my blog Cancer Cured – Chapter II – Life Insurance, under the subtitle Dr. Zenk’s Diagnosis, I shared how I responded to learning I had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. What I didn’t share in detail was the torrent of self-condemnation, curse words, and mental self-flagellation that seemed endless to my family.

I beat myself up.
Relentlessly.

It took my son Josh to finally silence my verbal barrage—but even then, the self-punishment continued internally. I didn’t need anyone else to criticize me; I was my own harshest judge.

Most of us know this pattern: destructive cycles of self-criticism we believe will atone for our perceived failures. But here’s the truth—being you is punishment enough.

How the Cycle of Self-Punishment Works

When we react to circumstances, we trigger a chain reaction of thoughts and emotions:

• An angry or fearful thought sparks neural activity in the brain.
• That thought generates neurochemicals—peptides—that send signals to hormonal centers.
• The body feels anger, bitterness, or insecurity.
• The brain checks in: “Yes, I feel this way,” and generates more thoughts to match.

The result is a feedback loop—thoughts fueling emotions, emotions reinforcing thoughts—until they hardwire into the brain. The end product of an experience is an emotion, and over time, that emotion becomes our identity.

For me, it was fear and anger: fear of bankruptcy, anger at failing my family, doubt about my worth. Decades of conditioning made self-punishment my default response.

The Body Becomes the Mind

Dr. Joe Dispenza explains it well:

• Thoughts are the language of the brain.
• Feelings are the language of the body.
• How you think and feel creates your state of being.

When the body repeatedly feels anger, fear, or insecurity, it begins to think for the mind. This is why people can live in the same emotional state—resentment, guilt, anxiety—for 20, 30, even 50 years.

I was nearly 50 years into it myself.

Breaking the Habit

Through meditation and the work in Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, I began to dismantle this cycle. By learning to:

• Interrupt negative conditioning with awareness.
• Practice elevated emotions like gratitude, inspiration, and joy.
• Mentally rehearse my envisioned future.

I shifted from being trapped in fear and self-punishment to envisioning a future where I was free of cancer.

Meditation became my tool to think greater than how I felt. Instead of letting my body’s old emotions dictate my state, I used intention and attention to condition my brain and body for a new future.

Moving Beyond “Being You Is Punishment Enough”

I won’t pretend I’ve completely silenced my inner critic. I’m still my own toughest judge. But today, I know how to step out of the loop. Through meditation, mental rehearsal, and disciplined focus on my envisioned future, I’m no longer bound by the old identity of punishment.

And neither are you.

When you stop thinking equal to your old feelings and start feeling equal to your envisioned future, you begin to change. You create new possibilities for yourself—and for everyone around you.

👉 In Change Your Mind. Create New Results, this is exactly what we teach: how to stop being defined by the past and begin designing your future with elevated emotions.

📞 Contact Positioning Systems to discover how to:

• Build a high-accountability culture
• Align everyone around results
• Stop explaining—and start executing

Schedule a free, exploratory conversation and discover how to build a high-accountability culture that aligns everyone around results.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

Next week, I’ll be in Nashville, Tennessee, attending a weeklong Advanced Retreat with Dr. Joe Dispenza. While I’m away, I’ll be resharing one of my most impactful blogs: Change Begins with Self-Awareness – Attention and Intention.

This post is a powerful reminder that true transformation starts within—by aligning what we focus on with the future we want to create. Don’t miss this essential foundation for growth.

Building an enduring great organization requires disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action, superior results, producing a distinctive impact on the world.

Discipline sustains momentum over a long period of time, laying the foundations for lasting endurance.

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic Disciplines: Priority, Metrics, and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.

Let Positioning Systems help your business achieve these outcomes on the four most Important Decisions your business faces:

Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $500M+) businesses Scale-UP. We align your business to focus on Your One Thing! Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.

NEXT BLOG – Change Begins with Self-Awareness – Attention and Intention