Building Self-Discipline to Achieve More Goals
Self-discipline is essential for a successful life. It’s simple. To achieve your goals, you must take action. This requires the ability to push forward and take the necessary steps to get it done. You can’t expect others to accomplish them for you or force you to get it done. It needs to come from you, and only then will you unlock a key ingredient that leads to a successful career or life in general.
Without proper self-discipline, you are likely constantly racing against the clock or wishing you were in a different chapter of your life. However, you need to stop wishing and learn how to increase and improve your self-discipline to live the life you’ve dreamed of or longed for instead. You have what it takes. You just need to learn how to unlock this hidden and natural talent you possess.
Four Strategies for Self-Discipline
The following are four strategies designed to build your self-discipline and achieve more in life:
Define and Understand Your Why
Completely block out your schedule and discover each why to the goals you wish to achieve. You might think you have some understanding, but if you never took the time to fully flesh it out and visualize what your life would be like if you accomplished them, you might likely be missing an important piece to the puzzle, especially if you are struggling to accomplish them on a daily basis.
This is because your truth and your why is not completely understood, or the goal you are trying to achieve actually has nothing to do with it even though you think it might. This is why taking the time to write it down and making a clear plan is so important.
By far, the number one reason people struggle to accomplish their goals is actually due to the wrong reasons, not due to a lack of self-discipline. The goal just simply doesn’t align with your true intentions and aspirations. It won’t be hard to find the discipline or motivation to get it done when you really want something.
Argue Your Excuses
Any time you produce an excuse or reason, you can’t go after something challenge that thought. Argue with yourself and fully dissect the excuse. Are you really incapable, or are you just self-sabotaging yourself?
Avoid Immediate Gratification
Long-term success hardly comes with immediate gratification. Create a long-term and sustainable system if you want to be successful. This means creating steps consistently each day and pushing through discomfort. Immediate gratification is just that, immediate and not something that lasts a lifetime, so why use up all your valuable time to go after something short-term?
Always Plan Ahead and Revise
Create daily to-do lists and stick to them. Develop strict deadlines with real and obvious consequences to keep you motivated. The better you plan, the more control you have over your life in general.
In the end, self-discipline is about pushing through moments of discomfort so you can realize your dreams. If you expect the ride to success to be smooth and comfortable the whole way there, you are already not prepared and need to reexamine your why and dreams in life. You do have what it takes as long as you really want it.