Discipline
Discipline is a part of every good effort. It is a highly valuable skill and one that will earn you great success where others might fail. Discipline is based in will-power, something that grows and develops very similarly to muscles in the body. Just like you might train your body, you can train your self-discipline. As you practice self-discipline, your skill will grow and you will become stronger. The earlier you start this building process, the stronger you will be over time.
Discipline is what allows you to stick with a particular task or duty, no matter how difficult or unwanted it may be. It is what helps you overcome temptations or beat back weaknesses that threaten to crimple your long-term efforts.
Many of the world’s most successful individuals have succeeded due to their personal discipline and will-power. Steve Jobs is an easy example. When he was forced out of his own company in 1985, he did not give up on the dreams he had for Apple. He kept himself disciplined, focusing on his goals. He kept moving forward and came back to the company as its champion, making Apple one of the most successful companies in the world.
When someone pairs their natural skills with strong discipline, they can do immense and powerful things. Think about some of the things you want to accomplish, what you want to be known for in the world. What are some of the skills that you need to learn? What are the goals you want to meet? You will need discipline to develop these skills, to apply these skills, to accomplish each of your goals.
So how do we build our discipline?
Think realistically. One of the easiest ways to fail at building discipline is to dream without coming back to reality. It is great to dream, necessary even. But if we stay in our dreams, refusing to acknowledge our own natural and understandable limitations, we will often fail. The best successes come from dreams that had a reality that helped them move forward. It does not mean ignoring our dreams, but rather finding ways to use our skills, talents, and abilities to achieve our dreams.
You do not need to be the very best player on the field or the smartest in the room. You should have some capacity, or potential capacity to do some of the basic tasks involved in your ideas and dreams. You can figure this out by setting up step-by-step goals to reach your destination. Look at the steps that you can see in your future and break things down. Simplify your goals and then set plans in place to attain these goals. Then go. Take the first step and keep challenging yourself to reach the next goal, the next rung in the ladder.
Striving in consistent effort toward your goals builds discipline and forges you in iron.
Take care of yourself. It’s easy to go all in on your goals. You put in the long hours or late nights and are excited. But then you start to grow tired. The consistent effort wears away at our resolve. And this is where discipline comes in and why it is so important. Discipline will help you continue forward through some of the hard times. But if you are not taking care of yourself, no amount of self-discipline will keep you moving forward. If discipline is the oil that keeps your car driving smoothly, your basic needs are the gas that moves you forward. When you run out of gas, it doesn’t matter how great of shape the rest of the car is.
One solution, a way to refuel, is to take breaks. It is not a weakness to get rest and adequate sleep (6-8 hours is best). Eat healthy meals and keep yourself active. When you take care of yourself, you will feel better about yourself. But more importantly for this discussion, it will give you the fuel you need to keep disciplined and focused on the tasks at hand.
Remove temptations. There is no sense making the process more difficult for yourself. Discipline builds over time. You don’t need to do a sprint at the very start. It is better to let yourself become more and more challenged with your goals, rather than facing them all at once. If you are wanting to stop eating chocolate, don’t leave a bowl of Hershey mini’s on the table to look at.
One way people fail on removing temptations is that they fail to adequately identify them. Look through your life and think realistically about your situation and goals. Don’t lie to yourself and don’t assume that you will always rise to the challenge. Allow yourself to overcome your challenges, but don’t make things harder than they need to be.
Give yourself reminders. Reminders are a great way to motivate you to continued action, supporting your discipline when it might be weak. Set alarms on your phone to remind you of why you have set particular tasks for yourself. Leave encouraging notes for yourself to keep moving forward. Change the background screen on your phone to reflect what you are striving toward.
Reminders can also help you overcome weakness. In your places of greatest temptation and weakness, be proactive and set positive reminders on top of them. To go back to chocolate, set a reminder of what your goal is in the cabinet to keep yourself from reaching in and grabbing some candy. This helps build self-control in a way that allows you to set things in place while you are strong and full of energy, in order to help you in you are getting tired and your discipline muscles are needing support.
Discipline is essential for most of life’s most worthy tasks. You can and do build it in everything that you set your mind to. But when you actively pursue a developed core of self-discipline, you will grow stronger every day. It will set within you a core of iron that will not be shaken by struggle or adversity.
Embrace discipline despite its challenges.
Pursue it and be strong.