Becoming a person of “focus, commitment and sheer will”.
Let’s be clear, discipline is not a sexy word. It doesn’t sound sexy and as a concept its not particularly appealing. But what is sexy, what is incredibly appealing are the results of your self discipline. It’s the results of your unrelenting commitment and discipline that will create the life of your dreams and thus what you need to be focussed on.
Below are some simple steps which you can take to build your discipline. This is important because people are not simply born with discipline and tremendous will power. They are like muscles or habits which need to be built or created in yourself. The same way you might go to the gym to work on your fitness. If you don’t feel like you are a disciplined person right now then you should know that you have the ability to work on that. Nobody is born with it!
The interesting thing about discipline though is we don’t need discipline for any of the easy things in life. We don’t need D to go to the pub. To sleep in. To eat a pizza. We need discipline for the HARD things. The things you know you should be doing. To wake up early to do your morning routine or to go for that run.
So D is not sexy, but its the results that are sexy!
It’s also not about being perfect. It’s about winning more battles than you lose in this war. It’s an addictive process.
What follows are five simple tips to achieving discipline:
Challenge yourself to finish everything you do - Make your bed. How you do the small things is how you will do everything.
Plan ahead …. how can you make your life easier - remove obstacles.
Design your environment to help you - remove temptation
Progress over perfection - You are going to mess up. It happens. Don’t judge yourself. Make adjustments.
Reward yourself - Cheap day. Reward progress. Acknowledge your progress.