Feeling demotivated? Can self-discipline help to stick to your goals?

Everyone desires to be successful including me but only a few attain it. Many important qualities contribute to success, but what is the one quality that helps us sustain and maintain long-term success in all aspects of life? 

What I have realized over the years is that phenomenally successful people are highly self-disciplined, and they did not achieve their success overnight, rather worked hard at their goal with grit for many years. They were able to push forward, stay motivated, and take action regardless of how they felt or how things got in their way. And that is what self-discipline is all about – pushing yourself to do good work, overcoming tough challenges, and remaining focused despite distractions or hurdles. You need to visualize your goals and work on them with constant motivation, perseverance, and zeal to progress. This will help you achieve the extraordinary success which is not just a temporary affair but should be a long-lasting one.  

In my view, self-discipline and willpower are two crucial foundational components that help you reach the top and be successful in life. On the road to achieve success, the other four elements - hard work, grit, self-belief, motivation is equally important (as shown in my representation of success given below) to keep up the pace and continuously do what you want to get in life. 

Pic credit: Sreenivas Midatala  

Let us have a look at the success stories of few highly self-disciplined people:   

? Oprah Winfrey – Best known for her talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, Oprah achieved her level of success as she rose from the depths of poverty to become successful and earn wealth and accolades from fans across the globe. This iconic self-made woman’s journey and to be the only black woman to reach the list of 400 richest people in America with a worth of $2.6 billion is commendable. She faced lots of turbulence physically, financially, and emotionally in the initial years of her life. The main turning point of her life was hosting a low-rated morning talk show named AM Chicago followed by a job in a local black radio station while studying in school. After few years, it became the highest-rated talk show and was renamed the famous ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. The lady never looked back from there onwards and became a successful entrepreneur with founding her own Harpo Productions, negotiating ownership in her award-winning talk show garnering around $300 million a year at its peak level, publishing her magazine - The Oprah Magazine, starting a radio channel - Oprah Radio, partnering with Disney Communications to launch a cable channel – The Oprah Winfrey Network. The girl whose clothes were once addressed as potato sacks has come a long way with lots of struggles that came along with each step, she took towards achieving her success. And, with each step, she continued honing her key skills and persevering to achieve the life she has always dreamt of herself. Her self-discipline, strong willpower with a risk-taking attitude to work hard towards her goals, no matter what the result would be, is what made Oprah achieve her goals. 

? Henry Ford – One of the most inspiring stories of success is of Henry Ford, a renowned entrepreneur of all times who innovated means of transportation and changed the US automobile industry. However, the success he got was a bit hard to achieve as he faced failures back-to-back, but he kept going till he achieved his goal. To get his project started, he reached out to William H. Murph, a renowned Detroit businessman for funds. He agreed to fund Ford’s project. After one and a half years in 1901, the board was not satisfied as the company did not meet expected profits. Hence, it was dissolved. 

After recalibrating his efforts, Ford convinced Murphy to give him a second chance. Murphy gave a nod to the project but pressurised constantly by unrealistic expectations for automobile production which led him to leave the job. He then partnered with Alexander Malcomson who gave full authority to fulfil his production objectives and launched pilot Model A in 1903 and as it says the rest is history. This motivational story teaches us that successful people are not the ones who get success easily but the ones who deny quitting in difficult situations and relentlessly follow their passion.  

? Walt Disney – The man who made us laugh with his awesome creativity of a variety of cartoons was once regarded as a failure. As a kid, he was very fond of drawing and liked to create cartoons. In 1921, Walt Disney established his first very own company named ‘Laugh-O-Gram' studio. But, in the long run, the enterprise was unable to generate revenues to keep its position intact in the market. After years of failures, Disney finally came up with his patent creation of ‘Mickey Mouse’ which was approved after being rejected 300 times. Even after ‘Mickey Mouse’ was a hit, he faced several challenges to drive his business for the long term. Having seen so many ups and downs in his life, he did not give up and made himself strong to face these unexpected situations that would come his way.  

After taking a break and recuperating himself, he came back and boomed the screens with his full-length animation feature called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) which was a huge success then followed by Pinocchio in 1940, Fantasia in 1940, and Bambi in 1942 – all of these became box-office hits. Disney’s tenacity, self-belief, and hard work helped him clear his previous financial debts and write his own success story. He worked on his weaknesses to make a comeback with a bang and secured his name on the list of successful entrepreneurs of the world. 

Here are some of the tips I suggest for one to achieve success in life:  

o Make your goals smarter  

Having a realistic goal is practical like acquiring a qualification or pursuing a career where the chance of achieving the goal is considerably high, unlike unrealistic goals that become unfruitful at the end. You must find your destination in the form of a goal and divide it into small targets, then set a time limit to achieve it. It helps you become disciplined and move forward in transforming your dream into reality.  

o Create a sustainable daily routine and be mindful of counting each day 

For me, each day is valuable and so should it be for everyone. Athletes are aware that skipping one session of training could leave them behind; they may lose a competition scheduled three months later if they don’t follow their plan during the entire journey of preparing and winning the competition. For example, start your day early, have a plan and make each day count and work towards each goal. You can do this every day to turn your dream into reality.  

o ‘You can do’ attitude must be set in your mind  

There may be some setbacks that will disappoint you. But it’s not that we don’t fall; it’s how we rise from there, recognize our mistakes and come back with a stronger than ever mindset, and move forward towards achieving our goals.  

o Devise a routine plan and commit to it  

Plan a list of tasks to be taken daily and make it a habit. For instance, if you are most productive in the first half of the day till 12 P.M., devise your complex activities during the morning hours and keep the easier ones later in the afternoon. I used to follow the same to plan my daily activities as per my productivity in the morning/afternoon/evening. When you have an automatic planned routine for yourself like this, you can prepare yourself for whatever you want to accomplish.  

o Keep calm and trick your mind 

You have to understand, this is not one-day magic and will require your continuous efforts and time. There will be days when you will feel lazy and not take up tasks – it’s natural, but it should not dominate, and you need to trick your mind to give constant motivation with your thoughts and power to fight. Start imagining yourself as a beautiful machine and you are the one giving a high force from above to operate it like playing a computer game where you are commanding your body to complete tasks. 

o Enjoy the journey  

Concentration should always be there in your work activities and this time more efficiently than previously. Slowly and gradually, you will learn to complete your tedious tasks in a set amount of time and most importantly in a perfect way.   

Conclusion 

We often lose motivation and lose focus on our goals. This is when self-discipline and willpower kicks in to keep you directed at goals and remotivating back. You must understand that many people never reach their full potential through their life unlike highly successful people. You should take responsibility of your life and control it through self-discipline, keeping your mind focused and motivated. Wrapping up, I would like to say self-discipline is a key trait one must inculcate which acts as an invisible bridge to connect your goals with achievements. A sense of self-discipline, determination, willpower, and passion can give constant motivation to stick to your goals and work hard, and relish the taste of success once you attain it.