How does one become disciplined?
There are a lot of people out there that will tell you oh you just have to be disciplined and then you can do whatever you set your mind to… and that might be true if I could just do everything I intend to do and not waste my time on distractions or things are pleasurable, but not productive then I am sure I would be a lot further along then I currently am. Unfortunately I am not very disciplined. Even today after working out and doing a bit of work from home I sat down and watched Stranger Things and could not stop eating snacks the whole time.
My journal had other plans for me today and it also specifically said not to eat junk food or go over my calories. I failed at that so I am probably not the one to tell you how to be disciplined. That being said over the next month I am going to do my research and experiment on myself in order to find the best ways to be disciplined.
What does it mean to be disciplined?
If you look up a simple definition for discipline on google you may come up with this : “(to) “train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way”. If I were to define discipline it would say that discipline is:
The ability to only do what one intends to do and not to be swayed by temptations or pleasures.
To go a little further on this definition I would say this also includes:
To follow your good habits, not partake in bad habits, and to not waste time doing anything that is not what you set out to do.
This i how I would define discipline and I will be using these definitions going forward.
What can I do right now?
While I am experimenting and figuring out the best ways to train myself to be disciplined I want to start with this simple exercise that anyone can practice on a day to day basis.
- Whenever you feel like you might partake in a bad habit stop for 10 seconds take 3 deep breaths and think of the consequences of those actions
- Whenever you feel like skipping a good habit do the same thing
- Each time you do a bad habit tell yourself man I messed up, that’s minus 1 point
- Each time to complete a good habit tell yourself wow I’m awesome I knew I could do it and give yourself plus 1 point
- Set a target goal for each day so for instance you might just shoot to have 0 points at the end of the day, later on you might be shooting for 10 points.
- If you hit your target for the day reward yourself with something you love. Whether that is giving yourself time to watch an episode of tv, eating a treat, buying something you’ve wanted, or simply just congratulate yourself or the day and reward yourself with a smiley face sticker
- Have weekly and monthly rewards as well. Make sure the rewards scale in difficulty to achieve and are reasonable.
- Keep a journal of your progress and write down what works for you!
Some extra tips would be to make sure not to punish yourself if you mess up and don’t meet your goal. Everyone makes mistakes, what matters is learning from them and trying to do better. Another tip is to not reward yourself with something you would put down as a bad habit with and you struggle with. For example don’t reward yourself with a buffet dinner if your goal is to lose weight.