12 Ways to Develop More Self-Discipline to Achieve Major Goals
Ruzanna Krdilyan Hernandez, Ed.D.
High School Assistant Principal - Alvord Unified School District
Questions
If you answered yes to any or all these questions, keep reading!?This article may help.
Introduction
Being self-disciplined means having control over your thoughts and actions to accomplish what you set out to do; achieving short-term and long-term goals.?Your short-term goals can involve getting up and getting to work on time, finishing a semester of school with an A, or going on a weekend getaway.?Long-term goals include saving to put a down payment for a home to purchase, earning a college degree, or changing careers.?Each day, we set our minds to doing things.?Do we actually do them??That depends on how?self-disciplined?we are in the process.
What is Self-Discipline?
Mindtools.com describes self-discipline as?" the ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, and take action, regardless of how you're feeling, physically or emotionally."?Sigmaassessmentsystems.com describes self-discipline as, "Self-discipline is the ability to resist impulses, maintain focus, and see projects through to completion."?Even the most minor task you want to accomplish in a day, like getting up and making your bed, can be considered a goal.?Many times, how likely you are to accomplish that goes depends on self-discipline.?If you have?
You will be able to achieve and accomplish a lot more in life than you expected.?More achievement means?living a more fulfilled life!?Having self-discipline makes a difference and helps you stand out from the crowd in all aspects of life, including:
For example, if you have strong self-discipline, you will accomplish your assigned tasks in your career or profession and help your organization succeed.?If you have self-discipline in personal finances, you will have less debt and more financial freedom.?In education, you will set out to finish assignments and projects in a timely manner and earn the grade you seek.?Even in personal life, how well your living spaces are kept,?how well you eat, and how healthy you are, are all determined by your sense of self-discipline.
领英推荐
Advantages of Becoming More Self-Disciplined
If you talk to anyone who has achieved great success in life, such as a renowned author, a gifted athlete, self-made company owner, successful business owner, they will all tell you one thing:?They go there because of hard work and dedication.?Hard work is the byproduct of being self-disciplined.?If you have self-discipline, you will focus on doing what matters to achieve your major goals in life, whether they pertain to your personal life or professional life.?Self-discipline will allow you to:
How to Develop More Self-Discipline to Achieve Major Life Goals
Here are 12 ways you can build and improve your self-discipline to achieve more goals, become more successful, and be happier in life.
1)?Visualize and believe in your success.?
Seeing yourself succeed will push you forward to making that vision a reality.?Here is an example:?Imagine your goal is to save enough money to go on a 2-week European trip.?You have to actually visualize yourself in Europe.?How you look, how you feel, what you are eating, what you are seeing.?That vision will help you believe that you will succeed at raising enough money by becoming more self-disciplined with money to save for the trip!?Whether your goal is to go on vacation, complete a degree, move to another state, or change jobs, visualize yourself succeeding.?If you believe in that vision, you will become more disciplined in doing the things you need to do to achieve that goal.
?2)?Create a vision board.?
Having a vision board allows you to put your dreams, ideas, and goals into writing - something tangible that you can see and feel.??Put the vision board somewhere prominent that you can see all the time to serve as a motivator.?By looking at the board each day, you will keep focused on achieving the little steps necessary to become successful at what you want to accomplish.?For ideas on how to create vision boards, visit:
3)?Break big tasks into smaller tasks.?
Doing this makes the achievement process more possible in a step-by-step fashion.?With long-term goals and plans, you have no choice but to break them into small parts and do some?backward planning.?With short-term goals, taking smaller and incremental steps is the only way to survive the difficulties involved with getting through a big project or task.?This is often the case with professionals who work in high-demand, very stressful jobs.?Unless they take it "one day at a time," or one hour at a time, or a few minutes at a time, they will not be able to get through the entire day successfully.?Being able to fight through the challenges and come out the other side successfully requires self-discipline, determination, and grit.