Unleashing your potential: A guide to self-discipline and success
From Procrastination to Productivity: The Power of Self-discipline. Learn how to achieve your dreams with the help of self-discipline
People tend to quit what they determine firmly that they will do because they face challenges and lose motivation. In that case, if you have self-discipline, you will follow through even though you don’t want to.
In this article, we’ll explore what self-discipline is, why it is important, and how we can build self-discipline to succeed in our careers and achieve our goals.
In this article, you will learn
- What is self-discipline?
- The importance of self-discipline: Why it's crucial for success
- How to develop the self-discipline you need to get what you want:
- Discover your ambitions: You need to know what you want
- Make goals more action-oriented: Take small steps and push your limits
- Seize the moment: Why waiting for the right time is a mistake
- Embrace discomfort
- Create a clear vision to stay motivated and focused
- Think about the consequences
- Learn to forgive yourself and move forward
- Think like the person you want to become
- The benefits of having an accountability partner:
- Start a growth journal
- Get enough sleep
- Key Takeaways
- Final words
What is self-discipline?
To discipline your daily routine so that you will continue to work hard to achieve your objectives even when you run out of motivation. Self-discipline does not mean doing challenging tasks.
It means doing the same things repeatedly, even if you are bored or don’t feel like doing work.
Whether you want to set a goal of exercising daily or learning a new skill, your self-discipline will push you to work for your dreams and be consistent.
We can’t resist our desire to do something fun, such as watching movies, because we are addicted to short-term pleasure. Disciplining yourself means opting for delayed gratification.
For instance, Abdul wants to watch many of the movies his friends have recommended to him. He is so tempted and desires to grab his popcorn, sit on a sofa, and start watching the movies.
That is immediate gratification, but on the other hand, if he gets excellent marks in the exams, he can get into a good university. This goal has a delayed reward and delayed gratification.
Abdul refuses to watch movies and instead focuses on his studies all day to accomplish his goal of getting an A+ in exams. This is self-discipline, in which you sacrifice comfort and cravings to work instead and achieve your goals.
You discipline yourself to choose delayed gratification instead of immediate rewards, like watching movies.
The Importance of Self-Discipline: Why it's Crucial for Success
A study by Duckworth and Seligman published in Psychological Science in 2005 found that students with higher levels of self-discipline outperformed their more intelligent peers. (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005)
Without self-discipline, you will quit and return to your regular routine. Success requires consistency and hard work.
You may become motivated for a short time and work enthusiastically to accomplish what you want, but motivation won’t last long.
Building your self-discipline means clearing your mind of the temptations of doing what is fun and instead doing the same things with the same amount of focus and for the same length of time daily, never skipping a day.
You won’t see a highly successful person who doesn't have self-discipline. It is to control your mind and be a master of your cravings rather than a slave to them.
If you can't defeat your desires, you can't beat procrastination. If you can't beat procrastination, you can't reach your goals. As Brian Tracy says
Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor
How disciplined and crazy you are about achieving something can determine your chances of success. Very successful people aren't lucky; they didn't have special advantages when they were born but didn't accept their limitations.
They are successful because they have self-discipline, worked hard, and fought for it. Stephen King said that.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
No hack or strategy will work without self-discipline. It’s you who are stopping you from achieving what you want.
Geoff Colvin, in his book "Talent is Overrated," explains, "World-class performers are not born with exceptional abilities. They develop their skills through years of deliberate practice" (2010, p.6)
He elaborates on deliberate practice, which means to give the focus attention and work hard. Deliberate practice is required to achieve excellence and expertise in any field (Colvin, 2010)
Furthermore, in chapter three of the book, he teaches that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and focused work to become a master of your area of interest. Deliberate practice is all about working, identifying weaknesses, and growing gradually. (p.44-66)
That is why, to implement deliberate practice and fight your temptations, you must build your self-discipline so that even if you don’t have motivation, self-discipline will help you be consistent.
Developing self-discipline can bring about a variety of benefits, including:
- Get that achievement you want for yourself, even long-term goals:
Achieve your goals, both short-term and long-term.
- Build your self-confidence:
Be more confident in yourself and your abilities.
- Make you efficient and productive:
Be more efficient and productive in your work and personal life.
- Maintain your health:
Live a healthier lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight.
- Create good habits:
Develop good habits that will benefit you in the long run.
- Continiously improve yourself:
Become a better version of yourself every day.
- Improve your focus:
Be more focused and less easily distracted.
- Fight with your temptations:
Resist temptation and make better choices.
How to develop the self-discipline you need to get what you want
If you are a university student and study daily with focus, you start to learn more and discipline yourself. It is boring in the beginning. But once you get used to doing something, it becomes natural.
Making small but significant changes to your daily routine is the first step toward developing self-discipline. Let’s discover the steps you need to follow to gain control of your life.
Discover your ambitions: You need to know what you want
First of all, find a direction for yourself. Knowing what you want is crucial when it comes to building self-discipline. Without a clear direction, staying motivated and focused on your goals is difficult.
How would you like to improve your life? Do you want to become better at something or want to start learning a skill from scratch?
Maybe you slack off in studying for university, so you want to be disciplined so that you will study for 3 hours.
Find a purpose or a new career you want to pursue. It could be that you work more for your organisation, so you’ll get a promotion.
Whatever it is once you have a clear picture of what you want. Then you can kick off disciplining your life.
Make goals more action-oriented: "Take small steps and push your limits
The truth is, no one can become disciplined in one day and quit bad habits in one week. It takes time to be that disciplined to work daily.
When I started building self-discipline to learn English and study for college, it took me two months to stop wasting my time and work. During that period, I set small goals. I studied a grammar book for just 30 minutes. That was easy to follow, and I followed it daily.
I increased it to one hour. Gradually, I started watching movies in English. Today after two years, I work and learn all the time. I increased my capacity for goals.
After you’ve discovered your goals. Start with small steps. If you have a big goal you wanna accomplish, break it down. Make it easy to follow daily. Start working on your goal just for 20 minutes. If you can’t do something for 20 minutes, you can’t do it for hours.
After some time, you will feel that 20 minutes is effortless, and then you can increase it. Don’t try to work for hours now. Just start with small goals.
You can start reading a book for 20 minutes with focus or do your assignments.
Seize the moment: Why waiting for the right time is a mistake
If you always wait for the right time to come so that you will start doing something. Then change your perspective because there’s no right time. The best time to do this is now. If you always put it off for tomorrow.
Your goal will be stuck in a loop. You will never find that tomorrow. I was always afraid of writing online and thought I would soon start when I felt ready. But I never felt ready. There were always doubts.
Until I just started writing. I have been learning along the journey. My level of confidence has significantly increased now. I am writing this article to help others with my journey. Mark Twain said:
There are a thousand excuses for failure, but never a good reason.
Today I always regret that I had started it a year ago. The best time is the time when you think of doing something.
You’re taking the most significant risk if you’re waiting for the right time. Will you wait for the right moment if I tell you you will succeed? Yes, you can succeed if you work hard. Start now and keep learning, disciplining, and growing!
Embrace discomfort
Increase your threshold of tolerance. For instance, if your goal is to jog daily for 15 minutes. You may not feel like getting out when it's time for jogging.
Give yourself no wiggle room. Set clues, such as setting the alarm. Don’t think and just do it; if you think, you will be tempted toward distractions and may make excuses or procrastinate.
James Clear explains in his book “Atomic Habits (2018)" that:"If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment." (Chapter 2, p. 60)
James emphasises that cues can lead to habit triggering, and he suggests designing your environment with cues that will make it easy for you to build the habits. (p.60)
We eat daily, and we never skip. Why? We know it is necessary for our energy and to stay alive. What is the cue to eat? Hunger. When we feel hungry, we go and eat.
We have the biggest clue about hunger. That’s why we don’t even skip one day of eating. Make an obvious clue so your brain will recognize it as a clue for taking action. Once the action becomes a habit, it will be natural for you to take action.
Create a clear vision to stay motivated and focused:
Keep reminding yourself of how you would feel when you achieved what you wanted. Two years ago, when I started learning English, I would always repeat this phrase “Nobody will stop me from achieving fluency in English but me”
Because I knew I might quit. I would always remind myself of the benefits of learning English. This helped me stay disciplined, so I felt motivated whenever it was time to study.
What would you feel like when you achieved your goals?
Why do you want to achieve it?
Still, today, when I am in doubt, I just answer these questions in my mind, and I feel energized to keep working. So make a direction, write down your reasons, and remind yourself of the reasons every time you have self-doubts.
Ask yourself these vision questions daily. So you can train your mind to feel guilty when you procrastinate.
I feel so much guilt when I slack off. Why? Because I have trained my brain that work is necessary by constantly reminding myself that work is necessary to achieve my dreams.
Think about the consequences
Whenever you can't muster up the energy or discipline to do your daily goal, take a moment to think about your vision questions.
Think about the consequences of quitting. How will you feel after some time? Will you be disappointed in yourself? Will you regret not giving yourself a chance to succeed?
Disciplining yourself isn’t easy, but regret is worse than the effort of working for your goals.
Once, I procrastinated, and I felt remorse. I wasn’t satisfied or happy. As I mentioned above, your brain will be trained to feel guilty.
So feel guilty, and that will push you to work!
Learn to forgive yourself and move forward
You may skip one day or try to break the routine. But in the words of James Clear, “Never skip twice."
He says never to skip two days in a row. Even if you've been consistently practicing a habit for a year, there may be times when you skip it accidentally. If this happens, don't get sidetracked, and stay consistent by doing it the next day.
Self-discipline takes time, so don’t quit; skipping one day accidentally is okay. Determine to do it the other day. The key is staying consistent, which will help you achieve your goals and build your self-discipline and resilience.
Think like the person you want to become
"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become" said James Clear.
To become a disciplined person, you need to change your identity and start thinking like one. This means eliminating any limiting beliefs that hold you back from being disciplined.
Believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your goals through hard work, and you will become disciplined. Don't let fear hold you back - with the right mindset, you can accomplish anything.
When you think like a disciplined person, you will start working like a disciplined person. You will improve over time.
The benefits of having an accountability partner
An accountability partner, such as a friend or sibling, can hold you accountable and provide constructive criticism to help you overcome procrastination and avoid quitting.
To help you build your self-discipline more effectively, find a friend or someone close to you and ask them to be your accountability partner.
Knowing that someone is counting on you to take action can help you stay committed and avoid letting others down.
If your accountability partner also strives for self-discipline, you can reward yourselves for accomplishing tasks together.
Accountability partners are also called external motivators. They can encourage you when you're struggling and back you up.
Don't hesitate to reach out to someone and experience the benefits of having an accountability partner.
Start a growth journal
Keep a journal in which you write about your journey of self-discipline and learning experiences, your challenges, tough times and about your performance.
I’ve been writing a journal for one and a half years. It helped me be more resilient when I faced setbacks and helped build my self-control.
Journaling is a great way to improve your self-discipline and learn from your experiences. It can help you to:
Journaling is a great way to improve your self-discipline and learn from your experiences. It can help you to:
- Increase your self-awareness: When you write down your thoughts and feelings, you can see patterns and learn more about yourself. Journaling helps in self-reflection and helps you become more self-aware and identify your strengths and weaknesses.
- Eliminate stress and depression: Journaling can help you process difficult emotions. According to the studies, journaling helps you calm down and eliminate anxiety and depression as you write down your emotions.
- Stay motivated: Writing about your successes and small wins can boost your motivation and keep yourself on track. Journaling can also help you to identify areas where you need to improve and set new goals.
When you write about your goals and progress, you are more likely to stay motivated and committed to achieving them.
- Be more creative: Journaling can help you tap into your creativity and develop new ideas. It can also help you to process your thoughts and feelings more productively.
It could be your first step to start disciplining your life. You can either write in a notebook or on a computer.
Get enough sleep:
When well-rested, you have more energy and focus, making it easier to stay on track with your goals. You are also less likely to make impulsive decisions as you have more time to think things through.
On the other hand, sleep deprivation has significant adverse effects. When you don't get enough sleep, you're more likely to experience fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating.
So make your sleep routine, sleep late, and wake up early. Waking up early has a lot of health benefits as well.
Key takeaways
- Self-discipline means discipline to do the same things repeatedly to achieve your goals, even if you are bored or don’t feel like doing work.
- To achieve more success and incorporate the deliberate practice required to get expertise in a particular field. You will have to develop self-discipline.
- Developing self-discipline requires making small but significant changes to your daily routine and commitment to continuous improvement.
- Make goals for yourself. Knowing what you want is crucial when it comes to building self-discipline.
- Don’t take a leap. Start with small goals. Make a routine and stick to it. You can begin with 20 minutes of focused work and then increase it
- Don’t wait for the right time so you will take action. The best time to take action is now!
- Get used to change and discomfort. Your body will resist the new routine but will have to tolerate it.
- Write the answers to the vision questions and remind yourself of those questions so you’ll feel motivated and energised to work.
- Whenever you feel like quitting, think about the consequences. Won’t you feel guilty after a few days?
- Forgive yourself when you procrastinate for one day and keep going.
- Change your identity, act disciplined, and train your brain to be disciplined.
- Find an accountability partner who will hold you accountable, so you will take action because you don’t want to disappoint them.
- Start keeping a journal, write down your feelings, and track your progress.
- Make your sleep routine and get enough sleep.
Final words:
I hope my article helped you gain knowledge about self-discipline. Leave your comments below and share your feedback.
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