Strategic Discipline Blog

At eight or nine years old, Warren Buffett discovered How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. He was hooked on the first page:

Carnegie’s opening lesson was simple—and radical: don’t criticize, condemn, or complain. Criticism, he explained, puts people on the defensive. It wounds pride, threatens identity, and breeds resentment. People don’t want criticism. They want honest and sincere appreciation—not flattery, but genuine recognition that comes from the heart.

That idea hit Buffett hard.

Criticism was something he knew well. Feeling socially awkward and disadvantaged, he wasn’t looking for inspiration—he was looking for a system. A repeatable way to connect, influence, and relate to people without improvising every interaction.

Carnegie gave him exactly that.

The book outlined thirty principles:

• People crave appreciation.
• The sweetest sound is a person’s own name.
• The best way to win an argument is to avoid it.
• If you’re wrong, admit it quickly.
• Ask questions instead of giving orders.
• Let people save face.
• Give others a reputation to live up to.

To most readers, these ideas sounded sensible—and forgettable.

Not to Buffett.

Just as he would later do with investing, Buffett decided to test the system.

He ran experiments. When he offered appreciation, listened, and avoided criticism, he watched how people responded. When he withdrew, argued, or became disagreeable, he noticed the difference. Quietly, in his own mind, he tracked the results.

The numbers were clear.

The system worked.

But Buffett learned something else just as important: reading the rules wasn’t enough. You had to live them. Carnegie himself warned readers that this wasn’t a trick or a shortcut—it was a new way of being. Unlike most people who set the book aside, Buffett returned to the principles again and again. Even when he forgot or failed, he recommitted and practiced.

That discipline shaped how he communicated for the rest of his life.

Years later, I encountered a similar turning point.

In 2012, after being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia—and given less than a 2–3% chance of survival—a friend suggested Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza.

What I found wasn’t motivation. It was a system.

A system for changing thoughts.
A system for making new choices.
A system for changing behaviors, emotions, and identity.

I learned that lasting change doesn’t happen at the level of information—it happens when we move beyond the conscious mind and reprogram the unconscious. That required meditation, mental rehearsal, and cultivating elevated emotional states.

My body and mind had been locked in stress. Through consistent practice, meditation reduced that stress and helped my nervous system shift from survival into healing and creativity. My mind and body began working together—and against the odds, they healed.

That experience became the foundation for Change Your Mind. Create New Results training.

Most people—and most teams—live in chronic stress without realizing it.

At work, up to 75% of the day is often spent in a stress response. When we’re stressed, our brain operates in high-beta—a survival state that makes real change nearly impossible.

In high beta:

• Trust diminishes
• Creativity shuts down
• Patience erodes
• Emotional outbursts increase
• Learning new skills becomes difficult

When we’re over-focused on the external world, we lose control of our internal one.

Stress feels “normal” because it’s familiar. But as the saying goes: if you’re inside the jar, you can’t read the label.

This is why teams struggle with collaboration, communication, and productivity. It’s not a motivation problem—it’s a state problem. Without a system to break the stress loop, people stay trapped in familiar patterns and predictable results.

So here’s the real question:

What system are you using today to become the person your envisioned future requires?

At Positioning Systems, we help leaders and teams break free from the familiar past and intentionally build envisioned futures—personally and professionally. By reducing stress and increasing self-awareness, organizations unlock higher levels of creativity, clarity, and performance.

Change begins with individuals. It scales through leadership. And it transforms culture.

If you’re ready to rewire your thinking, elevate your emotions, and create new results for yourself and your organization, explore NCS – Change Your Mind. Create New Results.

Challenge yourself.
Challenge your team.
Challenge your business.

👉 Contact us today for a free exploratory conversation—and begin becoming the hero of your own story.

Let’s create your envisioned future—together.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

Recently, I’ve become more aware of just how much my thinking shapes my results.

I’ve been intentionally breaking old habits and conditioned responses. One small example: my nightly sugar “reward.” It’s a simple behavior—but it reveals something bigger about how habits are created and sustained.

Change doesn’t begin with behavior. It begins with thought. If I want a different result, I must first change the thinking that rationalizes the habit: “I deserve this.” “I’ll start tomorrow.”

When the mind and body are misaligned, emotion reinforces the familiar past. The body seeks comfort. The mind negotiates. And change gets postponed.

To create new results, we must become greater than our environment, our body, and time.

In next week’s blog, we’ll explore how your thoughts drive habits—and how consciously changing them is the first step to creating a new future.  

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 the long term, 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 – Why Your Brain Resists Change—and How to Rewire It