Generally, when most people think about a very disciplined person they think about martial artists, pro athletes or musicians, these people have practiced the same thing for years and years until they have completely mastered it.
But self-discipline is more than just training and competition in fact many of the most disciplined individuals are just normal people who have just gradually developed enough self-control to accomplish their goals
These individuals have started companies, lost weight or stopped watching too much tv.
Self-discipline is an incredible skill that keeps you motivated, clear headed and focused on your objective
What is the secret?
Despite what most people will say, you don’t necessarily have to meditate though it can help.
Time and consistency are essential for anyone wanting to live a more disciplined life.
The real key is moderation and doing something in moderation means having the power to stop yourself when you’ve had enough.
For example, if you want to have a more controlled diet or reduce the time you play video games you shouldn’t try to make extreme changes in your lifestyle, instead you should look at moderating your behavior.
Reducing your bad habits gradually will help you develop the self-discipline that will last a life time
You might be wondering “How do I put this into practice?” here are 7 ways you can use to help master self-discipline.
1. Find your weaknesses
No matter what kind of bad habits you may have, the first and most important step is to identify and accept your weaknesses.
The simple truth is that everyone has a weakness to something.
This could be eating junk food, drinking too much coffee or spending money you don’t have.
While some are more destructive than others, self-discipline isn’t about getting rid of those weaknesses but instead recognizing what they are and controlling them.
Most people don’t even get to this stage as the have very little control over their own actions
This kind of denial can lead to addiction, so its important to address these issues before they take over your life.
For most people the idea of moderation is much less intimidating than cutting yourself off completely, so instead of removing your bad habits think about which ones you’d like to lessen.
2. Create easy habits
On this road to becoming a more disciplined person your going to need to develop some new and improved habits, but this is not going to happen overnight
Imagine trying to lose 20lb, you’re not going to be able to run for 30 mins when you haven’t run in years.
Your going to end up sore, exhausted and unmotivated, so you need to start slow and work your way up towards your goal over time
Ideally you would plan your workouts to be manageable and easy leaving you feeling optimistic and proud about what your trying to achieve
Remember the goal is not to lose all the weight in one day as that’s impossible but it is to create genuine habits that you enjoy doing that way you will keep doing them after you have achieved your ultimate goal
3. Use rewards
Positive reinforcement is a great way to make sure that these new habits stick around, so don’t be afraid to reward yourself after improving.
Similar to when you are training your dog when they sit. People are more likely to behave in a certain way when they know there is a reward on the line.
Rewards will also motivate them to work harder by giving them something positive to look forward to, this is particularly true for people that are having a hard time getting their new habits started because they haven’t developed enough self-discipline to push through at the beginning stages
Let’s say you were wanting to reduce the sugar in your diet and are struggling to keep it up, by using a reward system you can look forward to your chocolate at the end of the day making it easier to avoid breaking your new diet otherwise
This way you are always in control of your habits instead of letting them control you
4. Personal standards
Disciplined people often push themselves to a strict set of standards for their own life.
Standards are basically personal limits that they put on themselves, these are the limits that you put on yourself. But these standards only work when you hold yourself accountable for them
This is where most people struggle, they often set really high standards that are impossible to meet consistently.
Its important to remember that standards and goals are not the same thing.
Goals are what you work for and reach for over time, you should be able to reach your standards every single day
For example, writers might aim for 3000 words a day but have a standard to write about 2000.
Why is this useful?
Most people have an all or nothing approach to their goals, either they get it done immediately or they give up, so by setting standards you give yourself a reason to keep working even when you aren’t able to achieve your goals
5. Plan ahead
After you have identified what your weaknesses are it is important to realize when you are putting yourself in dangerous situations.
You should recognize situations were your weaknesses might get the best of you and avoid them
Imagine you are trying to reduce the use you of mobile phone at work, turn your phone onto airplane mode at the beginning of your shift or leave it in your bag so that it can’t distract you even if you wanted to.
There will be certain times where it will be impossible to avoid your weaknesses so make it easier on yourself by planning ahead
Figure out what you are going to do if you fall back into old habits and find a way to reward yourself for resisting temptations.
This kind of planning will not only help you stay on track but will also give you a sense of control over your life
6. Setting alarms
If you tend to watch too much tv, play too many video games or waste hours on social media, you know how easy it is to justify a few more minutes to watch another video on YouTube but a few minutes will turn into hours and before you know it your entire night is gone
So how can you use moderation to make sure this doesn’t keep happening? Most people tend to focus on removing the tv or video game even though they weren’t the problem to begin with.
The real problem is how much time you spend on them. In other words, you can keep playing the games as long as you set a time limit.
Solution
Next time you start playing a game be sure to set an alarm for one hour and put the volume all the way up, the goal is to acknowledge that you have hit your limit so that you can stop then and there.
To take it another step further place the alarm on the other side of your room that way it will force you to get up and turn off the alarm. This will give you the chance to reset your thinking so that you know what your priorities are.
7. Adjusting
Every person’s path towards developing self-discipline is different. There are a lot of different methods which have worked wonders for other people
But this doesn’t mean it is going to work for you.
You can write yourself a full schedule hour by hour for you days and try to stick with it but for most people this is not achievable for them
You should build a routine that is designed for your individual goals, strengths and weaknesses.
If you know that your particularly energetic at night don’t force yourself to go to the gym first thing in the morning just because other disciplined celebrities are doing this.
As long as you are setting and achieving goals, you’ll develop your own kind of unbreakable self-discipline that you’re looking for