Five Easy Steps to be More Self-Disciplined

I don’t think anyone is born with discipline. I think that it is something that is programmed into us either by our parents or ourselves. I see it as a habit. I see it as a muscle. The more you work at it, the more it will grow. I see it as something that anybody can bring into themselves, no matter how lazy or unproductive they are at this moment. You need the discipline to do the things that you need to do to move the needle in your life.

Oftentimes for most of us, discipline has a bad connotation. If your child does something wrong, you discipline them. If they don't get good grades or they don't act the way they're supposed to, you discipline them. What I'm talking about is self-discipline, self-discipline is actually an act of self-love because you always need the discipline to do the things that are good for you such as to wake up early, eat healthy food, and get yourself to the gym.

It's not about being perfect, it's about making sure that the majority of the actions that you take are the actions that need to be taken to get you to where you want to be. It's just about winning more than you are losing.

Get the teeny tiny things done and finish what you started

When you wake up, make your bed. When you have coffee, clean the mug. If you brush your teeth and splatter on the mirror, wipe it off. Wash the dishes every day.?

Remember, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. Force yourself to be self-disciplined with the teeny tiny things, you are going to translate that to all the big things in your life as well. Don’t allow yourself to stop early because stopping early is also a habit.

Plan Ahead

Sometimes one of the biggest pieces of resistance that we have towards doing things is the mental energy that it takes to get ready and prepared for those things. Make it easier by preparing ahead of time and already having those things done, it'll make it much easier on yourself to execute what it is that needs to be done.

If you’re trying to lose weight and get in better shape then take time on a Sunday to plan and create your meals for the week.

If you've got to work out four times a week and that's part of your self-discipline, why don't you plan out what workouts you're going to be doing each day so that when you show up to the gym, you don't even have to think, you just have to take action.?

Have a daily schedule. Take five minutes every morning, look at your schedule and then visualize what you want your day ahead to look like and how you want to feel. Visualize the perfect day.

You'll be so much more productive and it'll be so much easier to be disciplined whenever you've gone through that.?

Design your environment

Create an environment that makes it easier for you to take action and accomplish your goals.

If you are trying to give up on sugar, remove all sugary foods from your environment. If your weak spot is alcohol then just by removing it from your home, the temptation isn’t there. These small things make it easier to be more self-disciplined, which then makes it easier to hit these goals.

Your environment also includes the people you hang out with.?

Rather don’t be around people who will challenge your self-discipline until you are strong enough to stick to your goal.

Focus on progress, not perfection

One of the things that really holds people back the most is that when they screw something up, they literally drag themselves on a glass of guilt, shame, and negative self-talk.?

If they would just stop guilting themselves, it would make it so much easier for them to be more self-disciplined, but also get things done that they need to get done.?

When you mess up, don’t beat yourself up, just make some adjustments. Take a step back and think about how you could have done it differently or what you need to put in place to do it differently next time.

Reward yourself

If you’re trying to stay away from sugar reward yourself with a little bit of sugar once a week. If it’s alcohol, have a cheat day once a week but don’t do a binge drinking number.

Enjoy your life and what you're doing, don't be so disciplined that it just becomes monotonous and not fun. Reward yourself so that you want to go and be self-disciplined again because you can't be self-disciplined all of the time.?

Challenge yourself to build and tone your discipline muscle. Be easy on yourself, treat it as an act of self-love, and soon it will just become a habit, a good one, to help you build your own unique successful life.

Check out new episodes of The Mindset Mentor Podcast every week here.