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How to Build Self-Discipline

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5% Summary - Source: pickthebrain.com

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Concepts:

self-discipline, discipline, goals, courage, commitment, act, awareness, highly recommend, struggle, life, ability, freedom, self-knowledge, wake, gym.

Summary:

For many people discipline is a dirty word that is equated with the absence of freedom.

As Stephen R. Covey once wrote, "the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions".

And in the longer term, the undisciplined lack the freedom that comes with possessing particular skills and abilities -e.g. to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language.

Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment.

Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life.

In the past self-discipline has been a weakness of mine, and as a result today I find myself lacking the ability to do a number of things which I would like -- e.g. to play the guitar.

For example, it is only in the past two years that I have trained myself to wake early.

Discipline means behaving according to what you have decided is best, regardless of how you feel in the moment.

Therefore the first trait of discipline is self-knowledge.

I highly recommend taking the time to write out your goals, dreams and ambitions.

Dr. Covey has an excellent Mission Statement Builder on his site.

Self-discipline depends upon conscious awareness as to both what you are doing and what you are not doing.

As you begin to build self-discipline, you may catch yourself being in the act of being undisciplined -e.g. biting your nails, avoiding the gym, eating a piece of cake or checking your email constantly.

You must make an internal commitment to them.

Otherwise when your alarm clock goes off at 5am you will see no harm in hitting the snooze button for "just another 5 minutes...."

Or, when initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away from a project you will struggle to see it through to completion.

Moods, appetites and passions can be powerful forces to go against.

Therefore self-discipline is highly dependent on courage.

After all, it is self-talk that has the ability to remind you of your goals, call up courage, reinforce your commitment and keep you conscious of the task at hand.

When I find my discipline being tested, I always recall the following quote: "The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret".

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