The skill to focus on for the month of September is discipline.
An immensely important life changing skill. That is hard to come by.
How many of us make horrible mistakes, don’t have the body we want, don’t study hard enough for the test, spend too much money, and regret impulsive actions we take?
I can bet most people on the planet feel that these things to pertain to them. It’s part of the human condition. Not having enough discipline to do the things the matter and making stupid in the moment mistakes over and over again.
This is why the skill of discipline is so important to cultivate.
How to cultivate discipline
First off you need to challenge yourself to be better. You need to know in your mind that, yes you have some weaknesses, but you can overcome them and become a stronger person by showing yourself that those weaknesses don’t define you.
For example:
If you are out of shape, work out and eat better
If you are addicted to tv, limit the amount of tv you watch daily
If you make impulsive purchases, set yourself a monthly spending limit
If you skip doing work or studying to do something fun, commit to doing these things before allowing yourself leisure time
If you play too much video games, complete one daily task in between each game or simply commit to not playing games until a certain time of day.
These are all difficult habit and lifestyle changes to make, but you want to have the discipline to not let these things control your life. You are in charge not your vices.
Discipline development challenge
My challenge to you when it comes to growing your self-discipline is to “eat your frog” first thing in the morning. This means to take the task you are dreading the most for your day or week and do it first. Once you get that out of the way the rest of the day and week will seem easier. You will find yourself accomplishing more and more. You’ll be Able to do what you need to instead of putting things off all of the time.
Often the thing we dread the most is the most important thing for us to do.
So win the day early and become well disciplined.
I will go over more discipline building exercises at a later date. And don’t forget to read this months book No Excuse’s for more information on cultivating discipline.