The most important ingredient for personal effectiveness. Anyone who achieved anything has developed this virtue.
Self-discipline works like the rudder of a ship, which you use to steer the vessel into your destination. It is necessary when planning life for the long term. It's what keeps you on track for your goals.
Without self-discipline one is merely controlled by unconscious urges for instant gratification and can never hope to achieve anything meaningful for him or for others.
So what is self-discipline?
Self-discipline is defined by the ability to delay gratification.
When you counter your urges, so they don't control you. It requires sacrifice in the pursuit of something better. An athlete sacrifices years of his life in training, for a few hours of competition. Not even knowing if it will be worth in the end. Yet those who excel are the one who sacrificed more for practicing.
When we look at people who achieved something, we tend to look only at the achievement itself but never really consider the hard work and sacrifices needed to achieve it.
Will power.
Discipline requires will power although with time and the condensation of the habit, the will power required to maintain self-discipline decreases.Or, at least, it will become an unconscious effort.
Awareness.
To be able to instill discipline in your life, modify behaviors or create habits you need, first, to be conscious of your current routine.
Initiative
Understand that you and only you are responsible for your habits and actions, your life is a mirror of your choices.
Commitment.
Discipline is commitment to your previous decisions. Self-discipline without commitment cannot exist. Its like building a house without the pillars or walls to support the ceiling.
Change one thing at a time.
When we want to change behavior we use will power which is a finite resource, so when you want to instill discipline in your life, instead of trying to change everything at the same time, focus your will on one change. Until it becomes a habit and you have will power to spare.
Start small
When you want to start a new habit start by doing something small, for example if you want to start exercising go for a run, if you want to cut on sugars drink only water during the day.
Build it up
After breaking the inertia, as your small new habit starts to settle in your daily life, increase the difficulty progressively until you reach the desired result.
Motivation
When instilling discipline we have to keep in consideration motivation. When you want to change a habit its very easy to get discouraged when you look at the big picture. If you want to start waking up earlier and try to wake a up at 5:30 am everyday you are bound to fail. But if your goal is to wake up at 5:30 then aim to waking 30 min earlier over the course of the next days, until you reach 5:30.
Take the steps one at the time and don't bother to look up.
It doesn't get easier you just get stronger
Every time you practice discipline you are practicing sacrifice. And that hurts to some level. Choosing to study instead of partying is a sacrifice, specially when everybody has had a great time and you choose to be alone studying the night trough. Every time you delay gratification you feel an urge wanting to break your will, but with time, as your self-discipline becomes stronger, that urge becomes smaller but never totally fades away.
When you counter your urges, so they don't control you. It requires sacrifice in the pursuit of something better. An athlete sacrifices years of his life in training, for a few hours of competition. Not even knowing if it will be worth in the end. Yet those who excel are the one who sacrificed more for practicing.
When we look at people who achieved something, we tend to look only at the achievement itself but never really consider the hard work and sacrifices needed to achieve it.
Will power.
Discipline requires will power although with time and the condensation of the habit, the will power required to maintain self-discipline decreases.Or, at least, it will become an unconscious effort.
Awareness.
To be able to instill discipline in your life, modify behaviors or create habits you need, first, to be conscious of your current routine.
Initiative
Understand that you and only you are responsible for your habits and actions, your life is a mirror of your choices.
Commitment.
Discipline is commitment to your previous decisions. Self-discipline without commitment cannot exist. Its like building a house without the pillars or walls to support the ceiling.
Consider these 5 principles, when instilling self-discipline.
Change one thing at a time.
When we want to change behavior we use will power which is a finite resource, so when you want to instill discipline in your life, instead of trying to change everything at the same time, focus your will on one change. Until it becomes a habit and you have will power to spare.
Start small
When you want to start a new habit start by doing something small, for example if you want to start exercising go for a run, if you want to cut on sugars drink only water during the day.
Build it up
After breaking the inertia, as your small new habit starts to settle in your daily life, increase the difficulty progressively until you reach the desired result.
Motivation
When instilling discipline we have to keep in consideration motivation. When you want to change a habit its very easy to get discouraged when you look at the big picture. If you want to start waking up earlier and try to wake a up at 5:30 am everyday you are bound to fail. But if your goal is to wake up at 5:30 then aim to waking 30 min earlier over the course of the next days, until you reach 5:30.
Take the steps one at the time and don't bother to look up.
It doesn't get easier you just get stronger
Every time you practice discipline you are practicing sacrifice. And that hurts to some level. Choosing to study instead of partying is a sacrifice, specially when everybody has had a great time and you choose to be alone studying the night trough. Every time you delay gratification you feel an urge wanting to break your will, but with time, as your self-discipline becomes stronger, that urge becomes smaller but never totally fades away.
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