Five important tips on SELF DISCIPLINE.

IMPORTANT TIPS ON SELF-DISCIPLINE.

In life, it may be hard to achieve anything if we lack a vital life skill called self-discipline. We tend to want to only work on our goals when we are motivated and “in the mood” as we may say. This in turn puts us in a situation where we find ourselves getting frustrated and disappointed in ourselves. More times than not this may lead to depression. To achieve anything we set our minds on, be it weight loss, money making, course work, or anything else, we may need some self-discipline.

What is Self-Discipline? 

Self-discipline, to put it lightly, refers to doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done, especially, when you have no one to be accountable to. This may be a little challenging but, I have prepared five main ways we can work on our self-discipline;

1. Distractions.

When we start working on our said goals, we have things that hinder us. Many times they are things that we find comfort in. For example, people who love reading fiction will find it hard to perform a task due to daydreaming or a person focused on losing weight may stop following their diet for a quick snack. The said temptations act as hindrances to our goals. What we need is to step away from temptations, and if possible, remove them from our lives completely. Being aware of your weakness is the best way to avoid and eliminate the said temptations.

        2. Doubts and Procrastination.

We tend to have so many doubts and overthink when it comes to our goals. We worry about what to do, or where to start and end up putting it off and waiting for the “right time” or “when it feels right” to finally start working on them. We make excuses on why we can't try doing what we like which then leads to procrastination and more often than not we forget our said goals. What we need to tell and affirm to ourselves is that failure is a path toward success. We know that no famous, rich, or successful person tried once and succeeded. They all failed, multiple times before they ever achieved what they wanted in life. Try the three-second rule, whenever you feel doubt creeping up or when you find yourself overthinking. Count to three and immediately start doing the task. This keeps you from overthinking and overanalyzing things and when you finally start,  you won't realize when you are finally doing it.

       3. Reasonable and Achievable Goals.

Setting goals is a good way of setting direction towards what you want to achieve. During goal setting, it is advisable to be realistic. Although you can categorize setting goals into long-term and short-term, It's always better to make goals that are small, realistic, and achievable. Small goals build up into bigger ones and help in the self-affirmation and the joy of completing them gives you the will to keep going. Creating deadlines for the goals also helps you to be disciplined enough and hold yourself accountable until you achieve your goal.

      4. Productive Routine/Habits.

Our routine affects how productive we are and how we build our discipline. Waking up early, Making your bed, reading a book, listening to an audiobook, cleaning your room and all those little things build up the willpower to be disciplined and productive. A bad routine will leave you in the same place where you started and stranded or more often than not, burnt out. When you create new productive habits, they feed into your will to finish what you started, and are reflected in your discipline.

      5. Journaling/holding yourself accountable,

We tend to drift away from what we want because we have no one to be accountable to but ourselves. When this comes into play, the best thing to do would be to start journaling. Record what you did, compliment yourself on what you achieved, and mostly take notes of your mistakes and learn from them by asking what could have been done differently to achieve better results.

In conclusion, the best way to learn is through experience. Take time to learn what your weakness is. Eliminate it or learn to live with it by avoiding it. Take one day at a time. Understand that you will fail but that's not a bad thing since it is a lesson learned.

Continue trying and learning what best works for you.