Many people assume that other people’s successes can be attributed to luck or extraordinary skills but that is not the case. Discipline is the only thing you need to start living the life you want. If you have enough discipline to keep moving, keep fighting, and remain patient, you can achieve anything you want in life. You can become whatever you want to be.
It’s as simple as that, there is no magic formula to success, just discipline.
But simple does not mean easy.
Self-control gives you the strength to stand with the decisions you make about your goals. It reminds you of how capable you are to fight for what you want and never change your mind about the good things you want to accomplish.
It is this inner power that gets you up and moving when you don’t feel like it.
Self-discipline is the very thing that causes you to choose to do what has to be done instead of choosing to do what you want to do.
Behaviour management and control is the main reason top athletes reach their goals and remain on top. Getting up at un-godly hours, practicing certain moves over and over again, saying no to certain foods or staying out late. That’s not easy. But they do it. Again and again and again. They never let outside influences deter them from their goals.
You need to adopt such determination if you want to reach greater heights in your professional life, academic life, or personal life. You need to realize that nothing great can be accomplished if you do not have control over your mind and the resulting actions. That sort of mentality only derails you from your path of success. It starts as something that is minor but before you know it, it turns into a bad habit that is hard to break.
For instance, let’s say losing weight is your goal but you make a compromise to eat lavishly just for today. What’s the most natural thing that can happen the following day? You continue with the unhealthy diet again. It will be more difficult not to make the same compromise the next day and the day after next and so on.
Before long, you end up making the “small” compromise four days a week, once every three days, and eventually once a day. In the process, you will fail to notice you are gaining more weight than you wanted to shed off initially.
You must make sticking to what’s required of you to reach your goals top priority. That is the only way you can achieve your goals. Have enough discipline to stop distractions from interfering with your work and be disciplined enough to stand by what you believe in, even when no one supports you. If what you believe in is the right thing to do, the results will show. If it isn’t, you can still learn from your experience.
7 WAYS TO MASTER SELF-DISCIPLINE
1. Have a clear understanding of your goal and how you will benefit from it. I am sure you have heard this before: Know your why. If your goal is to lose weight or save money, why? Do you want to fit into a certain dress or go on a vacation? Figure out your why and then flood your conscious and subconscious mind with it. Write it down. Post up pictures on your bathroom mirror. Record your voice in a message reminding yourself of your why. The more clear your why, the more self-discipline you will have in order to achieve it.
2. Know your weaknesses. Don’t put yourself in situations until you feel like you have enough self-discipline to resist temptation. If you are trying to quit smoking and you know that you like to have a cigarette when out drinking with friends at a bar, don’t do it. Go to a movie or meet up for coffee instead. Make smart choices ahead of time so that you won’t fall victim to your weaknesses.
3. Take care of your body. Being hydrated, eating right, getting enough sleep, and reducing stress will help you stay on track, no matter what your goal is. Doing the opposite of all those things will make you sluggish and depressed. You will not be able to fight the urges to revert back to your old ways. Give your body all it needs to help you have self-discipline.
4. Do not allow people, places, or things to determine whether or not you will keep going. There are a lot of people that don’t want you to succeed. It could be because misery loves company. It could be that they are just negative Nellies. Don’t let what other’s say sway your determination. Remember your why!
5. Understand the cumulative power of self-discipline. Just like the example up above about the cheat day influencing your future choices, self-discipline promotes more self-discipline. It gets easier the more you do it. Getting up early to exercise is really hard on day one. But trust me, by day 30, you will bounce out of bed. Think of it like rolling a boulder up a mountain and then what it is like once you reach the peak and begin the descent.
6. Celebrate small achievements on the way. Your big goal should be divided into several smaller milestones so that you can track your progress. Like losing 5 pounds or running for 5 minutes non-stop. When you acknowledge each step of your journey, the bigger goal seems much more doable. You may even decide to go bigger!
7. Research real-life stories of people who have achieved greatness by mastering self-control. Whatever you want to do, there is probably someone out there who has done it before you. Get inspiration and motivation from their stories. One day, you will pay it forward to others with your story.
If you think you have no self-discipline, you don’t. So stop saying that to yourself and start embracing the power of it. It is mind over matter and it will get easy the more you do it. Just start.