Elders often advise their younger ones to have self-discipline. However, we usually ignore this advice and move on with our lives. If you think about it, inculcating self-discipline in your daily life will be highly beneficial.
When you practise discipline and implement it in your daily life, you notice significant and positive changes.
Personally speaking, since the past year, I have built self-discipline which has helped me achieve a lot of things. Moreover, it helped me grow emotionally, physically and mentally.
I believe, that when you inculcate discipline in your life, you can achieve your goals.
So, in this blog, we will discuss about 7 ways you can inculcate self-discipline in your life, and how doing so will help you grow.
Also read, Handling Peer Pressure: Building The Right Boundaries & 7 Morning Habits To Help You Stay Productive
7 Ways To Build Self-Discipline
1. Set Clear Goals
If you want to bring changes in your life, you must have a clear vision. To achieve it, write down your goals and break them down into smaller tasks that are achievable. Setting unrealistic goals is usually bound for failure. Therefore, ensure that you set SMART goals.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely
Create smaller and achievable tasks that will help you achieve your goal. For example, if your goal is to gain abs, you can set smaller targets like:
- Workout 5 times a week regularly
- Maintain a healthy diet
Breaking your goals into smaller ones will make it easy to achieve your task.
2. Practice Consistency
You may have often heard the famous quote “Consistency is the key to success”. When you are consistent with a habit, it becomes a part of your daily routine. This routine helps you achieve your long-term vision.
Remember, consistency is hard to build. Hence, you need to have a strong will and determination and put in a lot of effort to build consistency. Additionally, you must be patient as consistency is a challenging trait to master. However, being consistent will help you achieve your goals.
3. Discipline Over Motivation
One thing I learned in the past year is that if you work based on motivation, you are setting yourself up for failure. This may seem harsh, but it is true. This is mainly because motivation is not constant, it changes due to various factors.
It is recommended that you bring in discipline. It can be done by pushing yourself to do things even if you may not have the motivation to do so. When you keep doing this, it becomes a habit you will stick to, and this habit will help you inculcate self-discipline.
4. Prioritise Yourself And Your Goals
An important step to inculcate self-discipline is to set your priorities. While trying to succeed at things, some things need to be compromised.
When you set a goal and prioritise it, you are more likely to stick to it. Speaking from personal experience, I would work out during the evening between 7:00-8:30 pm, making it difficult for me to hang out with my friends like I used to do in the evening. It was also a reason I fell out of touch with a few friends. However, I stick to my decision to work out regularly because I believe taking care of myself and my well-being is more important compared to partying with friends.
5. Hold Yourself Accountable
Hold yourself accountable for your actions and decisions. This will help you stay consistent with your goals and stick to them.
When I started working out in 2022, I was told by many around me that it was just a phase, and I won’t be able to manage it with my full-time job. However, I made it my goal, changed my priorities, and also started working out with a friend to hold myself accountable.
Working out with my friend made me enjoy the process, moreover, I knew if I skipped a workout, I would be answerable to my friend. This helped me stay consistent throughout the year, and even after my friend moved cities, I was still able to work out alone with the same consistency because working out has become a habit for me and is a part of my discipline.
6. Avoid Distractions
There may be a lot of things to tempt you and cause distraction. However, you must stay focused towards your goal and avoid such temptations. For example, I would be tempted to skip a day at a gym for a fun party. Nonetheless, I stayed consistent.
Having self-control and determination helps you to avoid distractions. When you can control your temptations, it is easier to stay consistent and be disciplined.
7. Allow Yourself Cheat Days
Now what if you were in my place, and you wanted to go to a friend’s party without missing out on your workout? Another alternative solution is to manage your time. Suppose I have work from 9-5 and a party at 7 pm. I can choose to work out early in the morning to manage my time and allow myself to enjoy leisure activities once in a while.
While focusing on discipline it is important that you also allow yourself to relax once in a while. If you allow yourself cheat days, you are more likely to stick to your routine. Having a rigid routine is not an ideal thing to do. Hence, you must not sacrifice every time.
The Power Of Self-Discipline
Being disciplined has a lot of benefits, some of which are:
1. Helps Achieve Goals
When one inculcates discipline in their life, they are more focused and determined towards their goal. Bringing focus, determination, and discipline allows one to eliminate distractions and helps one to achieve their goal.
2. Improves Mental Health
Once someone starts becoming consistent and noticing results, they feel happy. These results help one feel fulfilled and bring a sense of accomplishment, thus improving one’s mental health. Accomplishing goals also helps increase their self-worth.
3. Increases Time Management
It helps to improve one’s time management skills. Managing your time is extremely essential if one wishes to be self-disciplined. When a person starts to prioritise and work towards their goals, they also unknowingly allocate dedicated time to work towards it.
4. Improves Decision Making
A person who has self-discipline often makes decisions efficiently. Self-discipline also helps an individual to increase their focus, and make better decisions which are important to achieve their goals.
5. Helps Maintain Healthy Habits
Discipline ensures that you are consistently working towards your goal. When one is consistent, they regularly work towards their goal which is a good habit. Self-discipline is an important part of following a healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one can achieve self-discipline by setting clear goals, practising consistency, working with discipline rather than motivation, prioritising goals, holding oneself accountable, avoiding distractions, and allowing yourself to take cheat days. Ensuring these helps one to stay consistent towards their goals and fulfil them.
The power of discipline is such that it has many benefits which include improving mental health & decision-making. Moreover, it also helps one to be more efficient while managing time and helps to be consistent with maintaining healthy habits.