Today we are going to learn about the secret to building self-discipline. Now, let’s begin
1. Surrender Control
When pursuing your goal, you may struggle to make consistent progress toward your ultimate ambitions. Some days, you’re bombarded with new and exciting possibilities. Other days, you question your goals and lose faith in your abilities. For one reason or another, you’re tempted to abandon your ambitions and begin something new. But that’s where so many people go wrong.
The secret to lasting self-discipline is to surrender control of your direction. In other words, you need to reduce the number of impulsive decisions and snap judgments standing between you and your goals. You can do this by creating a detailed, long-term plan. As you steadily progress toward your goals, your plan will keep you focused on your singular object. You will resist pointless temptations and avoid impulsive detours, because you no longer have to make decisions about the direction of your life or your work. Your past self made those decisions for you.
So, all you need to do is follow your plan and it will lead you in the right direction. If you want to develop more self-discipline, put your past self in the driver’s seat. Make a long-term plan. Set concrete goals and definitive benchmarks. Then, let go of the wheel. That way, you can focus on getting work done, instead of wondering what to do next.
2. Simplify Routines
Disciplined people simplify their routines down to a handful of essential habits and simple goals, which gradually develop into larger, long-term ambitions. If you want to live a more disciplined lifestyle, stop trying to do everything at once. Don’t rush to accomplish your goals or suddenly change the way you live. These are shortcuts, which will never earn you the self-control you’re looking for.
Instead, you should rely on simple, feasible habits, which you can accomplish day in and day out. Meeting these goals will not change your life overnight. Rarely are they transformative or glamorous, but these easy, consistent habits are the foundation of any disciplined routine. So, keep your habits simple and set the bar low. Because consistency is your ticket to a more disciplined life.
3. Personal Discovery
There are hundreds of tricks, techniques, and secrets that can help you lead a more disciplined life. Some teachers encourage you organize every minute of your day. Others promote free thinking and creativity. But which one should you follow? Which techniques are the most successful? The answer is simple. The most successful techniques are the ones that work for you. Not anybody else. You. Because every single person works differently. We wake up at different times. We go to different places, interact with different people, and encounter different sources of inspiration. So, a set of tricks that works for one person doesn’t always work for another, simply because we are all different people.
So, if you want to build self-discipline, start by figuring out what kind of person you are. Because the more you learn about yourself, the easier it becomes to find a strategy that fits your individual lifestyle. To get started, think about your hobbies, your learning styles, and your schedule. Think about the times of day when you feel the most productive and think about the places where you feel confident and focused. Each piece of information narrows down your options. They bring you one step closer to a lasting routine, which you may practice for the rest of your life. So, be patient and learn as much about yourself as you can. Experiment with different disciplinary styles. Challenge yourself to make changes to your daily habits. Because the secret to lasting self-discipline is a strong working knowledge of who you are.
4. Positive Reinforcement
Ideally, everyone in the world could easily motivate themselves to achieve their goals. But motivation is rarely that simple. Even if you know something is good for you, you may not have enough self-control to face new challenges or develop new habits. But that doesn’t mean you should give up. Instead, you can and should fall back on more basic motivational strategies. Whenever your self-control fails, use an alternative technique ready to keep yourself working and maintain your routines.
For example, many people re-motivate themselves using positive reinforcement, also known as a reward system. When you do something good, like working for an hour or eating a healthy meal, you should give yourself a small, constructive reward, thereby encouraging your brain to repeat those positive behaviours in the future.
The next day, for example, you may feel more motivated to work or eat healthy in order to gain the reward that follows. This isn’t a long-term solution for lasting self-discipline, but it can be a useful motivator when your bad habits get the best of you.
5. Maintain Standards
Many people achieve self-discipline by setting standards for their lives, which they work every day to meet. In this case, a standard is a requirement or expectation that you create to help you achieve a personal or professional goal. For example, if you want to excel in your career, you may set a standard of excellence, which you achieve by working extra hours or sacrificing your free time.
Outside of your career, you may set a standard for your health or your fitness. Every time you eat a healthy meal or walk around the neighbourhood, you are meeting your standards for a healthy, happy, and productive life. High standards like these can be incredibly motivating, but your standards only carry value if you treat them with respect. Because the most disciplined people treat their standards like gold. To a disciplined person, nothing is more valuable than meeting their high standards every single day. As long as those standards are met, you know that your life is moving in a positive direction. You know that you’re creating the kind of life you want to live. Not only does that give you confidence, but it creates an unstoppable self-discipline you’ll carry for the rest of your life.
6. Expect Resistance
Many people live undisciplined lives, because they underestimate the drive and grit required to learn any new habit or routine. No matter what anyone tells you, learning a new habit is never easy. Why? Because someone is almost always standing in the way of your own success, and that someone is you. In the beginning, you will find every reason to avoid your new habits. You will procrastinate. You will make excuses. You will struggle to build motivation, because, at some point, everybody does. These struggles are not only natural, but they are also necessary obstacles that you must face to develop lasting self-discipline. That’s why the most disciplined people expect resistance. They anticipate obstacles, and they approach each and every challenge assuming it will not go smoothly. Because most of the time, it doesn’t.
As long as you are prepared for the worst, resistance does not have to mean failure. Because you can create backup plans and countermeasures for your lazy habits. You can use alternative tactics, like positive reinforcement, to nudge yourself toward more constructive decisions. The simple fact is… learning a new routine is never going to be easy. But if you expect resistance and anticipate challenges, you can always stay one step ahead.
7. Remove Temptations
The world is full of temptations and timewasters. Between media, technology, and talkative coworkers, there is no shortage of distractors waiting to steal your attention away. Each time you encounter a new distractor, you are forced to exercise willpower and self-control. But eventually, your self-control will run out, and those distractors will take over your life.
So, why put yourself in a dangerous position? If you want to live a more disciplined life, place yourself in distraction-free environments, far away from temptations and timewasters. Every time you spare yourself a difficult decision, you are preserving a little bit of willpower, which you can invest into your work, your habits, and your passions. Living a more disciplined lifestyle often depends less on the habits you create and more on the situations you encounter. No matter how much self-control you have, tempting environments will always be tempting. So, give yourself a break. Remove temptations from your environment. When your space is temptation-free, self-control is a whole lot easier.
8. Flexible Evolution
As the years go by, you may discover that your lifestyle has changed in unexpected ways. The habits and routines that once motivated or challenged you gradually become stale, unproductive, or simply obsolete. But this is a natural feeling that affects even the most disciplined people. When you repeat the same habits for a certain amount of time, those habits begin to lose their lustre. Something that inspired you many years ago, may not hold the same value today. That’s why disciplined people allow their routines to evolve over time.
For example, you may discover that your old routine revolved heavily around your personal image. At the time, your image was very important to you, and the promise of social success motivated you to improve your life. But now, your priorities have shifted. Maybe you found social success, or maybe you discovered something else that is more meaningful to you. Instead of chasing the same outdated goals, your routine should reflect your evolution as an individual. In other words, your routines should grow and improve right alongside you. As you open new chapters in your life, don’t be afraid to expose yourself to new and unfamiliar challenges. Because every new challenge is an opportunity for growth, expansion, and self-reflection.
New habits may change your perspective in ways you don’t expect, allowing you to mature as a person and find different kinds of meaning in the world. So, learn new habits, pick up new tricks. Because a productive, flexible routine should change as much and as often as you do.
credit: topthink
