A recipe for success in business has been drawn up by a New Zealand-based international sports coach who believes self discipline is the key.

John Shackleton has come up with a ten-point plan, based on his experience in the world of sport.

He said: " If there's one thing that my coaching and my own participation in sport have taught me, it is this: you will never achieve any modicum of success without being self-disciplined.

"It would be ridiculous to think that you could go to the pool once and suddenly become a world class swimmer.

"I believe the same is true for success in any activity, however, many people in business baulk at the idea of repeating an activity that they aren't very good at, over and over again in order to perfect it.

"A top athlete knows that if they want to win then they have to be disciplined with all the areas of their life that affect their performance which often means doing things they don't like.

"If you want to be the top sales person in your company, a world class communicator or a great manager you will need the same levels of self discipline."

He believes anyone can achieve these levels if they remain focused and try to adopt ten of the mental habits shared by top sports people.

1 COMMITMENT. An athlete will often decide on a three or four year training plan to achieve a relatively small increase in performance. The key to their success is the discipline to stick to that plan.

2 A "DO IT NOW" MENTALITY. A sports person knows that they cannot make up for lost time. If they do not go training, compete in the race or take the action NOW, that opportunity is lost to them forever.

3 A BELIEF IN "PAYING THE PRICE". Because of their commitment to training all athletes know that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Anything that is worth achieving will require hard sustained effort.

4 CONSISTENCY. A sportsman keeps a training diary which logs every action he takes, no matter how small, and what result that action produced. How else can he discover which of his actions are working and which ones are not and therefore what to modify in the plan?

5 CONTROLLING FEAR. You will rarely hear a sport person say something like "That goal is too hard" or "I'm not good enough to achieve it". You will usually hear them say things like "What do I need to do in order to get my goal." To an athlete there can be no such thing as failure, only learning. If they have a poor performance or lose a race then they MUST learn from the event or they will never correct the mistake.

6 FAITH IN THEIR COACH. Every sportsman will decide whose comments and advice he will be using and whose words he will ignore. There are many people in this world who seem to enjoy finding fault in others efforts and achievements and we need to consciously decide whose advice we will listen to.

7 CONTROLLING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS. How stupid would it be to stand on the start line and be thinking "This is going to hurt" or "I'm not going to win this race"? Forcing positive thoughts into the mind is one way we can control our negative thinking.

8 FOCUS. How much mental focus does an athlete need in order to perform at their best? What happens to their performance if they get distracted and are not concentrating?

9 DECLARING GOALS. All sports men and women have well-defined, accurate goals that are constantly discussed and modified with their coach.

10 SELF BELIEF. How well does an athlete perform when their self belief is low? How hard do the athlete and their coach work on that self belief?

For more information about John Shackleton and his work visit www.JohnShack.com