Why Sometimes All We Need is Self-Discipline To Achieve Our Goals

When you were a child, you always needed your mom or parental figure to remind you to do certain things in order to make your life productive, like doing your homework, cleaning your room and other basic chores that are usually on a child’s to-do list.

However, if you relied too much on your parents (and other factors), you would realise that the side effects would start to show up as you age. You might face difficulties in managing your time and procrastinate, thus showing a lack of self-discipline and affecting your life. And in the recipe of a successful life, the first and one of the most important ingredients to achieve it is self-discipline.?

Like all things in this world, self-discipline is a habit. It can be trained and cultivated by people with the intention of wanting to change themselves to bring out the best version that is in them. Like the wise words of Michael Jackson, “Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

You have the power to change your mindset

Our lives consist of variables that are sometimes constant, and sometimes, for the sake of adventure and unpredictability, there would be some manipulated variables. This is where self-discipline comes in handy. Because no matter what life throws at you,?you are the one standing in the face of tribulation and temptation to keep going and improving?on whatever goals that you have set for yourself.

For instance, you have a goal of wanting to eat more healthily. Once you get started, you will soon sense the trickiness of achieving it due to all the junk food traps in your life—from your well-meaning parents getting you banana fritters to your friends asking you out to “mamak sessions”. A self-disciplined person would be determined to stick to the importance of the goal of eating healthily and thus would decline such offers. It would be awkward at first, but once you have gotten through the awkward phase, the world will become much simpler and convenient.

?A routine helps you to stay motivated

Besides that, self-discipline also comes in handy when you are alone in the fight of wanting to achieve your big dreams. There will always be people who would purposely (sometimes accidentally) pull you down and demotivate you by telling you 1001 reasons why you cannot achieve X, Y and Z. This is understandable because in their eyes, why would someone stubbornly want to achieve something that is deemed impossible? Imagine this, there is a circle of people and you are standing in the middle, listening to their reasons to give up on your dream. What would you do? Would you shout back and tell them to back off? Or?would you walk out of the circle and let the naysayers corrupt your thought process?

During such times, self-discipline is a powerful guardian for you and your goal.?The habit of being persistent and disciplined would make you work harder and smarter.?It will make you ignite the sparks of determination into flame and all you have to do is activate your self-discipline to continue fuelling the fire in you—to keep going and finally achieve your dream. As the saying goes, “Action speaks louder than words.”

The result from your hard work would shut the mouths of the naysayers, and eventually and hopefully, they would use you as an example to motivate themselves to achieve greatness in their own respective lives as well. Thus, the initiative that you had taken would create a ripple effect that would eventually bring about change in the world. All one has to do is “look at yourself and change”, just like what Michael sang.