Self Discipline Mindset: Why Self Discipline Is Lacking in Most and How to Unleash It Now
This book contains practical advice that can help you boost your self-discipline and achieve great things in life.
We all have a lot of goals in life that we aim to achieve. Unfortunately, many of us lack the discipline to follow through on what it takes to make our dreams a reality. After creating goals, we seem to lose our motivation and drive to complete the task at hand. Consider this: every year, we all make New Year's resolutions in the hopes of improving various elements of our lives by the conclusion of the calendar year. We begin the year unduly optimistic that our lives would be transformed by the conclusion of the year. However, for many of us, this is not the case.
As you are well aware, you will not progress far in life if you do not put in place all of the necessary steps to turn your dreams become reality. If you are not determined, strong-willed, and have the ability to regulate emotions, desires, and feelings that derail your goals and their achievement, you will not be able to pursue your ambitions and achieve your goals. To be successful, you must master your ideas and emotions, as well as patience and endurance, both of which are essential self-discipline components. Cultivating these character traits may appear tough at first, but by the time you reach the last page of this book, self-discipline will be second nature to you, and exercising s will be second nature to you.
Read Here full Book: -
Note:: formatting is not as per book.
Self Discipline
Why Self Discipline Is Lacking In Most
And How To Unleash It Now
By Curtis Leone
Introduction
I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book, “Self
Discipline: Why Self Discipline is Lacking in Most and How to Unleash It
Now”.
This book has actionable information that will help you to supercharge your
self-discipline to achieve great feats in life.
We all set many goals in life and hope that we will achieve them.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t have the discipline to follow what it takes
to transform these goals to reality. We somehow lose our passion and drive
to do what needs to be done after setting goals. Think about it; every year,
we all set New Year’s resolutions with the hope that by the end of the
calendar year, we would have changed different aspects of our lives. We
start off overly excited that by the end of the year, our life would be
completely different. However, that doesn’t happen for many of us because
we lose our focus and passion for whatever it is that we want to achieve.
As you well know, you cannot go far in life if you cannot implement
everything needed to transform your goals into reality. You cannot chase
your dreams and actualize your goals if you are not determined, strong
willed, and have the power to control emotions, desires, and feelings that
derail your goals and their achievement. To achieve success, you must boss
your thoughts and emotions as well as exercise perseverance and
endurance, which are extremely important self-discipline ingredients.
Cultivating these character traits may sound challenging right now, but by
the time you reach the last page of this book, self-discipline will come easy
to you; you will find no difficulty in exercising self-discipline, and going
after everything you desire.
This book is the ultimate self-discipline master guide: it aims to teach you
how to develop the self-discipline you require to pursue your goals, while
avoiding distractions that tend to derail your goal pursuit. Make the best use
of this wonderful opportunity and learn how to unlock your self-discipline
right now.
This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information
in regards to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the
idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially
permitted, or otherwise, qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or
professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.
- From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved
equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee
of Publishers and Associations.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this
document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this
publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not
allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights
reserved.
The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in
that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse
of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and
utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any
legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any
reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either
directly or indirectly.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely, and is
universal as so. The presentation of the information is without contract or
any type of guarantee assurance.
The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication
of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner.
All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only
and are the owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this
document.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Self-Discipline 101: Its Importance, And Why It Is Lacking In
Most
Step 1: Determine ‘Why’ You Want to Gain Self-Discipline
How to Determine your ‘Why’
Step 2: Do Not Wait to Feel like It, Dump All Your Excuses
Do Not Wait For the Right Feeling or Time
Chapter 4: Take Action with your Action Plan
Chapter 5: Work on Overcoming Temptations
Chapter 6: Motivate and Nurture Yourself
Chapter 7: Exercises for Developing and Boosting Self-Discipline
Conclusion
Self-Discipline 101: Its Importance, And Why It Is
Lacking In Most
Self-discipline refers to the control you exert over yourself i.e. the control
you have over your emotions, feelings, behaviors, actions, and thoughts. It
means avoiding unhealthy excesses of everything that can result to negative
consequences. When you are self-disciplined, you easily control your urges
to indulge in any unhealthy or unconstructive activity that can affect your
productivity, and easily stick to your mission and goal.
From the above definition, it may seem very easy to confuse self-discipline
with willpower. So what’s the difference between the two?
What is willpower?
In its simplest terms, you can think of your willpower as your ability to set
a course of action then say ‘engage’ then be certain that you will get started.
It is your ability to control any harmful or unnecessary impulses, the ability
to overcome procrastination and laziness as well as the ability to arrive to a
decision then follow this with all the perseverance until you see its
successful accomplishment. You can also think of it as the inner power that
helps you to overcome inner emotional as well as the mental resistance to
take action.
What’s the difference with self discipline?
While this may even have confused you the more in trying to understand
how will power relates to self discipline, the two are quite different. While
will power is necessary to get you started, you need self-discipline if you
truly want to realize your true potential. Willpower simply catapults you to
action and as such is likely to be powerful but temporary, which means that
you need something that can keep you going until the very end. This is
where self-discipline comes in. Self-discipline gives you the stamina to
persevere in whatever you do. It gives you the ability to withstand
difficulties whether they are emotional or mental. Additionally, selfdiscipline
gives you the ability to reject instant gratification for greater good
(for something better) even if this requires a lot more effort and time. As
you can see, self-discipline is the companion of willpower.
Therefore, if you are to develop strong self-discipline and willpower, you
ultimately become conscious of your inner subconscious impulses and gain
the ability to reject them whenever they are not for your own good. In
essence, with self-discipline coupled with strong willpower, you are able to
choose your behavior and reactions instead of being enslaved by them. You
feel more powerful and in charge of yourself and your surroundings when
you muster self-discipline.
Self-discipline is critically important if you want to get things done in a
timely manner especially because it helps you stay on the path to achieving
your goals. So how can you build your self-discipline? Well, before we start
discussing various ways and methods you can use to develop this ability, it
is important to first touch on the importance or significance of selfdiscipline
to success, and discuss reasons why most of us lack important
amazing ability. Delving into these two aspects will help you understand the
importance of developing self-confidence.
So Why Do You Need Self-Discipline In Life?
When you lack self-discipline, you lack self-control. This means that
when working on something, you easily get distracted and give in to
your desires, urges, and feelings. You do not stay dedicated to your
missions and easily lose sight of what is important and beneficial to you.
Self-discipline seeks to reverse that; it helps you to stick to whatever it is
you have planned to do no matter the level of discomfort or difficulties
that you face along the way.
In the absence of self-discipline, your chances of becoming sidetracked
are enormously high, which means, you can bid farewell to your utmost
desires and dreams for good. On the contrary, if you adorn your
personality with this sparkling jewel (self-discipline), you do not have to
say goodbye to your utmost desire, and anything you want to achieve.
It, self-discipline, allows you to exercise control over yourself and
avoid thinking or feeling negatively. When you are self-disciplined, you
think before acting, brainstorm easily, think lucidly, focus on important
tasks, easily complete all the chores you have started, and successfully
carry out your plans and decisions despite obstacles, hardships, and
inconveniences that come your way.
In addition, self-discipline helps you make the right choices by
evaluating things by weighing their pros and cons; when you are selfdisciplined,
you seldom make erratic impulse decisions.
Moreover, self-discipline helps you become happier and more
peaceful. A study conducted on the subject in 2013 by Wilhem Hoffman
showed that those who had high self-control were happier as compared
to those who lacked this ability. According to the study, self-disciplined
people deal with their goal conflicts a lot better, waste less time in
unhealthy behaviors, and are able to take positive decisions easily. This
in turn enhances their levels of inner peace and happiness.
Self-discipline can help you to avoid making decisions in a rash or
on impulse, make you fulfill promises that you set for yourself and
others and continue working on a project even when your enthusiasm
has faded away. It is the one thing that will make you wake up every
single morning to do some of the things that you feel you shouldn’t be
doing because of your lack of enthusiasm
With self-discipline, it is easy to build character, inner strength, and
stability as well as control your impatience, anger, instinctive reactions,
and appetite. With self-discipline, you can be sure that you will build
relationships, command respect from others as well as control your
thoughts, reactions and ultimately achieve everything you’ve set
yourself to do.
From all the pros that come with strong self-discipline, it is clear that
nurturing this habit can be the right step towards transforming your life in
many ways.
But Why Is Your Self-Discipline Lacking?
Although self-discipline is an important element that needs to be a part of
our personality, many of us lack it and are infinitely far from acquiring it.
The question is; what makes you:
What makes you choose to watch TV instead of going for a walk despite
the fact that you know walking is good for you and you’d feel wonderful
after the walk?
What makes you keep procrastinating on doing something important like
starting a business or asking for a pay raise despite the fact that you know
that this is what you want?
What makes it so impossible to overcome laziness, stop excessive eating,
stop smoking or to stop your lack of assertiveness?
Well, the answer is simple; you don’t have the self discipline to do what
needs to be done to realize your goals and desires. But why is your selfdiscipline
lacking anyway? Do you often say to yourself; “I wish I could
have the will power and self-discipline to get things done”? Well, we all
want to have self-discipline but unfortunately, many of us still don’t have it.
So why is it lacking?
Let us discuss a few reasons why this amazing quality is lacking in most of
us:
Self-Discipline Is Not an Inbuilt Ability
Self-discipline is not something you are born with; it is something you work
on and develop. The disciplined have worked hard to build this strength and
those who do not have it need to put in effort to acquire it.
Negative Mental and Emotional Programming
Not all of us have a positive and healthy programming (mental
programming). In our childhood and throughout our life, many of us go
through various terrible incidents that induce negative thinking in us, which
shapes negative behaviors and keeps us from gaining self-discipline.
Negative Environments
A positive environment is mandatory in the development of self-discipline
and willpower. If the people around you are not supportive and constantly
demoralize you, you will never be able to discern right and wrong, and
discipline yourself. If you are not lucky enough to reside in a positive
environment, you need to work on creating one for yourself in order to gain
self-discipline.
Fear of Failure
The fear of failing at something often keeps us from taking an initiative.
When you cannot initiate tasks and activities, you cannot move towards
your goals. This lowers your inner strength, an integral and essential part of
developing willpower.
Laziness
If you are incredibly lazy, you never feel like doing anything and are always
procrastinating. Where there is procrastination, there cannot be selfdiscipline.
To develop self-discipline, laziness and procrastination have to
go: it is that simple.
Low Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
When you are not sure of yourself and do not highly value yourself, you
cannot be confident of your abilities. When you are not aware of your
strengths and lack confidence, developing the discipline to actually get
things done can be a great challenge. This is especially hard because if you
have low self-esteem and low self-confidence, it will seem pretty easier to
procrastinate something even if it is critical to your attainment of certain
goals.
Easily Falling Prey to Temptation
If you easily fall prey to different things that lure you away from your goal,
your self-discipline is lacking. To gain restraint and self-will, it is essential
to overcome your weaknesses and temptations.
A Lack of Purpose
To be self-disciplined, your life must have a purpose, a goal you look
forward to, and stay dedicated to. On the contrary, if you do not know your
lifelong objectives, and have not realized them yet, you are likely to have a
lacking self-discipline.
From the above list of factors that make your self-discipline to be lacking,
you probably have noticed one or several reasons why your self-discipline
is wanting. As you are well aware, if your self-discipline is lacking, your
chances of achieving whatever it is you want in life will be slim. So what is
it you can do to transform your life? That’s what we will be learning in the
subsequent chapters.
Chapter 1: Determine Why You Want to Gain
Self-Discipline
The first step to developing self-discipline is to find out why you want to
build your self-discipline in the first place. Failure to have a reason that’s
good enough to keep you going will probably make it hard for you to stick
to your goal of becoming self-disciplined. So how do you determine your
‘why’?
How to Determine your ‘Why’
In all honesty, there is no one best way of doing things and this includes
determining your ‘why’ when it comes to building self-discipline. Here are
a few ideas on how to define your ‘why’ when building self-discipline.
Visualize Your Objectives (Specify Your ‘What’)
You cannot achieve much in life if you don’t know what it is you really
want. If for instance you want to lose weight, you need to be very specific
on what exactly you really want. How many pounds would you want to lose
and within how long? How will you measure your progress? For this to
work, you will definitely need to use the power of visualization to give you
a good picture of the version of yourself that you want to become.
To visualize what you truly want, set a specific time when you can sit
peacefully undistracted. Relax and then begin envisioning your goals. Use
every sense you can use to make the vision you see of yourself as real as
possible.
Once you have successfully visualized accomplishing your goals, practice
simulation, a helpful technique that can help you achieve your set
objectives. To exercise it, imagine engaging in all the steps necessary to
achieve your goal instead of solely envisioning the result. For example, in
the weight loss scenario, envision eating healthy, exercising regularly, and
tracking your performance.
Visualization and simulation can help you to realize, as well as envision
what you want. When you know your ultimate or even short-term desires,
and imagine yourself achieving them, you become enthused to go after
them.
As you know, you need self-discipline to achieve your goals. Visualizing
and simulation alone may not help you go far in your quest towards
achieving what it is you want. If anything, you probably have envisioned
being a version of yourself that you’ve always wanted to become but often
give up along the way just because you lacked the discipline to get started
and keep going until the very end. To create the needed spark of selfdiscipline,
you will need to ask yourself one very important question;
“WHY” do you want whatever it is you’ve envisioned or simulated? WHY
do you need self-discipline to make that goal a reality?
Ponder On Why You Want To Develop Self-Discipline And Why
You Want What You Want
Do you have a goal that you want to achieve but have noticed that you lack
the discipline to get going and to fulfill your desires?
For instance, have you noticed that you have stagnated greatly career wise
because you just don’t seem to have the motivation and self discipline to
consistently search for new opportunities? Have you been wanting to
consistently wake up early but find it hard to do that because you just
cannot help but sleep late quite often? Do you find it hard to follow any
weight loss program simply because of your soft spot for desserts?
All these are signs of a lacking self-discipline. To overcome that, your
greatest booster is to have a strong enough reason as to why you truly need
to transform yourself. Start with sitting alone in a quiet, peaceful place and
think about why you truly want to be self disciplined. From the above and
similar questions, you can come up with reasons that are convincing enough
to get you going. The best way to get started is to come up with a list of
positive reasons that come with being self-disciplined; this regards to how
you stand to gain when you build your self-discipline (to make this
possible, you should define your goals, reasons, or ambitions for being selfconfident).
On the other hand, you will need to come up with the negative
effects of doing nothing. How do you stand to lose when you do nothing
about your current situation? These two lists will give you a good feel of
what exactly drives you to take action.
When you have a clear understanding of why you really want to build your
self-discipline, it becomes a lot easier to customize it to suit your needs.
After you have a clear understanding of why you really need self-discipline,
you need to learn how to overcome your excuses.
Chapter 2: Do Not Wait to Feel like It, Dump All
Your Excuses
After identifying your goals and objectives as well as determining your
‘why’, you need to get rid of all extremely unhealthy behaviors you
commonly practice: waiting to ‘feel like it’or waiting for the right time.
This is by far the most destructive habit that keeps many of us from
completing our tasks, let alone doing them on time. To become 100 percent
self-disciplined, you need to stop this behavior and stop making
unnecessary excuses that keep you from working hard to gain selfdiscipline.
Do Not Wait For the Right Feeling or Time
It isn’t uncommon to come across advice that tells you to do something
when it feels right and stop when you don’t feel good about it (we are told
to follow our gut). Well, unfortunately, this bases our actions on emotions,
which can be quite unstable and unpredictable. We all have a rollercoaster
of emotions. However, developing self-discipline is about learning how to
get past the barriers that we put for ourselves like waiting for a perfect time
to do something.
As you noted from the first chapter, self-discipline is what keeps you
focused on a goal even when you no longer feel enthusiastic about it.
Obviously, this simply means that emotions shouldn’t be a determining
factor on whether you will get started at something or not. As such, waiting
for the right emotion or time is a wrong approach to developing all the selfdiscipline
that you need in life.
Choosing to work or not to work on a task based on the comfort it offers is
the wrong approach to doing anything and a tactic that can prevent you
from gaining self-discipline.
If you tend to have the thought of waiting for a good time and the right
emotion to do something, counter that by revisiting your ‘why’. Of course
when you were developing your ‘why’ list, you never factored your
emotions in that so why should they be a determinant factor when it comes
to getting things done? But how can you overcome the habit of waiting for
the right feeling and time?
Use Your Decision Making Skills
Charles Duhigg, who is the creator of ‘The Power of Habit’ clearly explains
why it is difficult for us to discipline ourselves. He states that basal ganglia
is a portion of your brain responsible for your habitual behaviors. This part
of your brain is related to memories, patterns, and emotions- all the
elements necessary for making your habits. The decisions you take are
created in your prefrontal cortex. As soon as a certain behavior turns into a
habit, we stop making use of our decision-making ability and start
functioning on ‘auto-pilot’ instead, which is your basal ganglia.
This means that if you are to break a bad habit and build a new or healthy
habit, you need to start making decisions very actively. When you do that, it
will definitely feel wrong, since your bad behavior has become deep-seated
in your personality and you have become accustomed to practicing it. Your
brain won’t easily accept this change and will resist it from developing.
However, you need to keep going if you really want to replace your bad
habits with good habits. If you stick to it and accept it as a part of yourself,
your mind will soon embrace it without resistance.
For instance, if you have to exercise to become fit but laziness has become
engrained in your personality, then you won’t feel good and right when you
decide to workout. But if you don’t let your emotions to be a determining
factor as to whether to exercise or not, it will be easy for you to build a
habit of exercising regularly and ultimately achieve your goal. One way of
keeping yourself going is to chant a mantra to motivate yourself to keep
going.
Use Mantras
Mantra refers to a positive suggestion or chant that you create and say
repeatedly. When you say something frequently, it influences your mind and
thinking pattern thus shaping it in that direction. A good example of
understanding this is your undesirable behavior of not exercising at all.
You enjoyed being lazy and fed negative suggestions, such as ‘lazy feels
good’ or ‘I hate workout’, or ‘I just can’t exercise’ into your mind. This
suggestion took over your thinking pattern and soon made you feel that
being lazy is the best feeling ever. If negative suggestions can affect you, so
can the positive ones. Mantra chanting is based precisely on that.
Create a mantra related to self-discipline and a goal that you want to
achieve and then chant this mantra day in and day out until you feel that
whatever you say is the ultimate truth. This will easily help you make the
right decisions required for gaining self-discipline. One way of making
yourself to remember to say the mantra is to have it printed and a copy
placed strategically at literally everywhere you can see it; including the
fridge, the bathroom door (both inside and outside), your phone, your TV,
your remote control, the entry door, office desk, work computer, your car,
your bedroom door etc. The idea here is to ensure that you remember this
mantra as often as possible.
Dump Your Habit of Making Excuses
Next, you need to discard your unhealthy behavior of making excuses for
delaying a task. This has everything to do with procrastination. You cannot
go far in your quest towards building your self-discipline if you constantly
procrastinate. The reason you’ve been struggling over the years to achieve
your goals is probably because you make excuses for not starting (which
amounts to procrastination).
Let me give you an example of the form that excuses take. “I won’t be able
to go for a jog because my jogging partner will not be coming” or “I won’t
go to the gym for 30 minutes today because I want to go for 1 hour next
time”. Well, all these are excuses. However, if you want to transform
yourself to a version that gives no excuses, you will need to be very honest
with yourself to determine real reason why you don’t want to do something
that needs to be done in order to achieve your goal.
For example, if you come up with the excuse, ‘I won’t go out for a jog now
because it’s too cold outside’, then you need to be honest with yourself and
state the real reason of not jogging. Tell yourself, ‘I am not going jogging
because I am extremely lazy and lack the will to do something healthy.’
Ouch! Did that sting? Of course, it did. That’s what honesty does. It pinches
you and makes you realize your wrongs.
No one wants to admit that they are lazy. That’s why this realization will
push you out of your self-defined comfort zone of laziness to prove to
yourself that you are actually not lazy. With time, it will be easy to
transform your life when you stop giving excuses for your inability to take
action.
Chapter 3: Take Action with your Action Plan
The next thing you need to do to develop self-discipline is to work on your
goals by preparing action plans for them. So how do you go about it? Let’s
discuss some of the things you need to do to make this happen:
Make Your Action Plan
You can create a tabular action plan or use Excel or MS Word to make one.
Find out what steps you need to carry out and in what order they must be
performed to do what needs to be done to achieve a certain goal.
Make sure to make important columns or sections, such as ‘action to be
taken’, ‘time to start the task’, ‘potential problems you can face’, ‘strategies
you can adopt for overcoming your issues’ and ‘progress report.’ Next, you
need to fill the columns with appropriate content.
Prepare Yourself to Take Some Action
Once you’ve filled all the necessary information on what needs to be done
to achieve a goal, the next step is taking action. But before you do that,
ensure to go through the information keenly to ‘absorb’ everything that’s in
that document. You should also use this review to identify any flaws in the
document and if you find any, ensure to make the necessary changes.
Next, you need to prepare yourself to take action. In this case, actions refer
to the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. For instance, your
actions could include such activities like finding a good yoga class and
enrolling in one to start your journey to losing weight with yoga if that’s
what you want to achieve. And as you do this, you should let your action
plan to guide you to action. But if the action plan is not too detailed such
that it has the specifics on even the smallest of details, you can get someone
to help you come up with ideas for taking action. Get as many ideas on how
to take action then decide on the most viable approach. From then on, go on
to set a start time i.e. when you want to do whatever it is you need to do.
Keep in mind that setting time is part of the important elements of setting
SMART goals because it gives the task a sense of urgency and instills the
necessary commitment for you to do what needs to be done. This is an
important step because you cannot discipline yourself unless you start being
punctual and regular. Starting something at a specific time daily helps you
become regular and makes you stick to that routine, which helps shape up
your self-discipline.
As you will realize in your journey towards developing self-discipline, there
will be many temptations or distractions that may derail you. To overcome
these, you need to plan early on what you will do whenever you face any
difficulties in executing your action plan. Let’s discuss this in detail.
Anticipate Potential Issues and Find Strategies to Fix Them
You need to consider any potential problem(s) that you are likely to face
when working on your action plan and devise strategies that will help you
to overcome such problems. For instance, if you worry you’ll switch off the
alarm when it rings at 5am and drift off to sleep again, then a potential
problem could be ‘I will probably fall asleep.’ Then identify any workable
solution that could help you tackle this issue. For instance, you could ask
your partner or your roommate to wake you up and ensure that you don’t go
back to sleep. You could have an accountability partner who ensures you
follow your action plan. They could call you at your exercising time and
keep ringing until you actually wake up. Think of similar strategies like
these to instill respect in your action plan. We will discuss more on this in
the next chapter.
Track Your Progress, Review Your Plan and Make Necessary
Changes to It
You cannot know how well you are doing if you don’t track your progress.
This means that you won’t be able to tell whether you are really following
your action plan. Therefore, it is important that you make the necessary
plans on how to know how well you are performing with regards to
following your action plan. For instance, if you wanted to lose weight (say
15 pounds in two months), you will need to determine how often you will
weigh yourself to determine your progress. If you notice any flaws in your
action plan, this is the best time to fix that. This will increase your chances
of following the plan and nurturing your self-discipline.
Reframe the Mistakes You Make
You are likely to make a few mistakes, or maybe more in the beginning.
But, that’s completely fine. You must not put yourself down, or practice
self-hate or self-criticism upon making a mistake. You just need to get up,
motivate yourself and continue pushing. According to research studies,
when you make a mistake, you are either likely to shut down or strive to
resolve the problem. If you concentrate on your flaws and work on
correcting them, you are likely to succeed as compared to those who
overlook their flaws or don’t pay any heed to them.
When you discover your mistake, simply take some time to reflect on the
mistake as objectively as possible and avoid blaming yourself or criticizing
yourself for any wrongdoing. You want to encourage yourself to action not
put yourself down for your flaws. Reflect on the positives and the benefits
that will come with nurturing self-discipline. This will give you a glimpse
of the bigger picture hence increasing your chances of feeling motivated to
action as opposed to feeling bad for making mistakes.
Chapter 4: Work on Overcoming Temptations
As you work towards building self-discipline, you should definitely
anticipate facing many ‘temptations’. Changing yourself from the person
that you are from the beginning (who lacks self-discipline) to one who has
great self discipline is definitely going to take some time and will have its
learning curve. You shouldn’t expect to move from one end to the other end
of the spectrum instantly without facing any temptations to go back to the
habits that you are so much used to. Here are a few strategies on how to
overcome temptations and stay committed to your goal.
Detach Yourself from the Attractions
A good tactic to overcome your temptations is to detach yourself from
whatever tempts and excites you. For instance, if you are disciplining
yourself to stop smoking, you could stop meeting your smoking buddies
(people with whom you smoke frequently) for awhile until you have gained
complete restraint, or you could stop visiting the spots where you smoked
frequently.
Similarly, if you know you are likely to binge watch television even when
you know you have to prepare for your college examinations, then you
could cancel the cable subscription for a month.
Envision Resisting the Temptation
Another helpful technique for overcoming a temptation is to envision
yourself resisting it. For instance, if you want to control your intake of
sugary treats, you could visualize yourself picking up a candy bar, enjoying
its aroma, and then putting it away. Do it several times until you feel
confident you’ll do the same when a real candy bar actually appears in front
of you. This method can help you to gain control over your emotions since
these tend to be very volatile whenever you are faced by a temptation. The
more you overcome temptations (even if they are imagined), the more you
will feel empowered to overcome them in real life. This in the end boosts
your self-discipline.
Weigh Immediate Gratification against Long term
Consequences
Mostly, what lures you into giving in to a temptation is the immediate
gratification you experience. Unfortunately, the immediate gratification
only lasts for a short period and instead leaves you feeling guilty. A useful
tactic to overcome your temptations is to always weigh immediate
gratification against the long-term consequences of giving in to your
temptation. For instance, smoking may give you a sense of satisfaction for a
few moments, but the long-term consequences of this habit are severe and
include fatal diseases such as lung cancer. One great way of overcoming
immediate gratifications is to think about the worst-case scenario for giving
in to the temptations. For instance, if you’ve been trying to develop the
much needed discipline to exercise in order to lose weight, you could
probably think about what would happen if you don’t exercise and lose
weight. What do you think is the worst that can happen if you are
overweight? Whatever it is you fear most, think of it more often when you
are about to give in to your temptation.
Distract Yourself
Giving too much thought to whatever is tempting you can make it pretty
hard for you to overcome it. Don’t think too much about how much you are
missing out when you don’t succumb to your temptations. Instead, you need
to distract yourself as a way of ensuring you don’t put too much focus on
the temptation and what you are missing. Research shows that doing
something enjoyable or anything that keeps your mind occupied can help
you fight your temptations easily. For instance, you could go for a walk,
call a friend, or help your sibling with a chore the moment you find yourself
becoming attracted to your temptation.
Chapter 5: Motivate and Nurture Yourself
Self-discipline isn’t only developed by removing temptations from your
life, making the right decisions, following your action plans and dumping
excuses. There’s something else you need to do as well: nurture yourself
and keep yourself motivated.
Gaining self-discipline can be quite challenging for you, especially if you
are not used to that. You’ll make mistakes in the beginning and probably
even consider giving up. But since this mostly happens when you don’t
encourage yourself, you need to come up with creative strategies that you
can follow to keep yourself motivated as you work towards transforming
your self-discipline.
Motivate Yourself
You need to motivate yourself every step of the way. For instance,
whenever you accomplish a certain goal that helps you become more
disciplined; you should praise and reward yourself. Make sure that the
reward isn’t something you are trying to resist, but is something that
encourages you to stay dedicated to your goal. For instance, if you have lost
5 pounds, then instead of treating yourself to a piece of cheesecake, you
could buy a dress that shows off your new, slimmer figure. In so doing, you
will definitely motivate yourself not to give up on your goal. Besides,
studies have proven that you cannot really stay committed to anything if
you don’t feel motivated to keep going.
Take Care of Yourself
You should also do some other things in a bid to build your self-discipline.
Let’s take a quick look at some of these:
Stabilize the Glucose Concentration in Your Body
Studies have shown that low blood sugar level is closely related to
diminished self-discipline. That’s why you are likely to give up on your
quest to losing weight if you starve yourself. Hunger actually makes
focusing hard in addition to making you grumpy and pessimistic. This in
turn is likely to make your self-control and self-discipline reduce thus
increasing your chances of giving in to temptations. However, that doesn’t
mean that you should eat as much as you can just to be self disciplined. You
want your blood sugar levels to be stable thus the need to eat healthy
protein and fats regularly (in small amounts of course).
Sleep Well
Getting enough sleep (about 7-8 hours of sleep) can help you develop selfdiscipline.
Research shows that when you sleep less, you water down your
ability to stay focused on certain tasks. Here are a few ideas on how to
ensure that you get enough sleep.
Drink lavender tea twice a day, especially an hour before
sleeping. Lavender calms down your nerves thus helping you
sleep a lot faster.
Dim the Lights: Often, people sleep with all lights switched on.
Studies have shown that bright lights distract you and disrupt the
production of melatonin (the hormone that controls the circadian
rhythm). To maximize melatonin production and minimize
distractions, ensure your bedroom lights are off or dim. The
darker the room, the better.
Sleep on a Comfortable Bed: You might not realize it but it is
probably your hard and uncomfortable bed that makes it difficult
for you to sleep for seven consecutive hours. If that’s the case,
you need to get a new, softer mattress that is comfortable to sleep
on.
Overcome stress
Stress is known to negatively influence self-discipline i.e. if you are
stressed, you are likely to have a hard time staying self disciplined. Here are
a few ideas on how to overcome stress:
Get enough sleep
Exercise regularly: Exercise helps regulate any hormonal
imbalance that triggers stress and insomnia. Additionally, exercise
boosts the production of serotonin, which is a mood enhancing
neurotransmitter and reduces the levels of cortisol, which is a stresstriggering
neurotransmitter in your body. With more serotonin and
less cortisol, you are bound to feel less stressed, nervous, and anxious
than before. As a result, you are able to stick to what you started,
control your desires, and become more disciplined than ever. There is
no one size fits all kind of exercise. However, keep in mind that
various studies have shown that those who exercise regularly tend to
be more disciplined than those who don’t.
Chapter 6: Exercises for Developing and Boosting
Self-Discipline
If you’ve been implementing what we’ve been discussing in this book, you
should definitely be in a better position to control your impulses. To cap it
off, here are some more exercises that will help you put your self-discipline
to test while building it at the same time.
Give Up Your Seat
If you are travelling in a train or a bus, or are attending an event, and are
comfortably sitting on a seat, then an elderly person or a pregnant lady
walks in, try to give up your seat. Get up and ask that person to take your
seat even if you don’t want to get up. Although this seems like a polite
gesture, it is actually putting your self-discipline to test. If you can control
your impulses of saying no, then you will be one step closer to becoming
the version of yourself that you want. When you do something that doesn’t
excite you, or you’re hesitant to do, you control your emotions and desires
and discipline them.
Do a Chore Right Now
If there are dirty dishes lying in the kitchen sink, or there are clothes in the
laundry basket that need to washed, just get up and do that chore right now.
Don’t postpone that task. Say, ‘I can do it’ and get up then do the task.
Taking immediate action helps you overcome laziness and consequently
improves your self-discipline.
Make a Big Change to Your Routine
This exercise is excellent for promoting self-discipline in your personality.
You need to make one big change to your daily routine. For instance, if you
drink tea or coffee with some milk, then you need to give up the milk for
one week, or if you have the habit of drinking four cups of tea daily, then
cut down to two cups for one week. Exercises of this sort help you
understand that if you can change your habit for a week, you can change it
for good. This can in turn boost your self-discipline and the confidence you
have on your ability to follow whatever you’ve committed yourself to do.
Find out that one habit you are used to the most and bring a drastic change
to it. You’ll feel cranky for the first two to three days, but you need to keep
going and by the time the fifth day arrives, you’ll feel good about yourself.
This will give you the courage to make bold changes in your life in a
disciplined manner.
Choose Stairs Over Elevator
If you take the elevator to reach your office, then try taking the stairs for
one week. You need to stick to this routine in order to control your desire of
taking the easy route. Self-discipline is all about making tough choices and
choosing the right thing so this exercise will certainly help you control your
desires. Moreover, it will help you burn more calories.
These practices help you slowly discipline yourself, give up your
unnecessary desires, and control your emotions, which is very important in
your quest to building your self-discipline.
Conclusion
Thank you again for downloading this book!
I hope this book was able to help you to understand more about selfdiscipline
and how to separate yourself from the pack.
The next step is to take these lessons with you!
Finally, if you enjoyed this book, would you be kindly leave a review for
this book on Amazon?
Thank you and good luck!
To Buy Click here this book on Amazon!
0 Comments