Many of us struggle with cultivating and maintaining change. Think about it for a few seconds:
- The new year’s resolutions that never make it past the last week of January;
- That failed diet plan that didn’t survive past the first few weeks of initial motivation;
- The gym membership card you rarely use.
You get the drift.
The common tie between each of these examples is discipline. Or a lack of it, to be precise. But don’t feel terrible; many people struggle with completing tasks. The ones who get the work done have mastered the art of self discipline.
The good news is that you can too, and here’s how in 5 short steps.
Define and Breakdown Your Goals
Cultivating discipline is a practical exercise, so you’ll need to start with goals and learn the power of self discipline in achieving them. Big, unrealistic goals would set you up for failure.
Use this trick instead.
- Set an ultimate big goal;
- Set a long-term goal;
- Set a medium-term goal;
- Set short-term goals;
- Set micro-time goals.
This might seem a lot at first but think of your dream goal as the finish line and the other goals in-between as checkpoints. These smaller goals break the bigger goal into bite-sized goals that you can easily overcome. Keeping true to them would get you to your final goal.
Find Your Why
Motivation is an essential part of self discipline. Most people wrongly categorize it as the most important part, but it isn’t. It’s the initial fuel that gets you going. However, if utilized well, it can also be a driving force for cultivating endurance to complete your goal.
Find your why. It helps keep you on track!
Have a Plan
Now that you’ve set your goals and drawn up a motivation board outlining your ‘whys’, the next step is to make an actionable plan. Self discipline thrives on plans and routines. But while making a plan, remember the golden rule; be as realistic as possible.
You can’t go from eating an unhealthy amount of carbs to 48-hour intermittent fasts. It’s an unstainable plan that’ll only set you up for failure. Make a realistic plan that you can follow through.
Stick to the Plan
Habits and routines; this is where self discipline is built, and this is also where many people get it wrong.
When the first surge of motivation goes away, as it would, every day becomes a struggle. Some days, you wouldn’t even remember why you’re going on that diet because it’s gotten harder and harder to stick with.
Adopt the Kelly McGonigal “The Willpower Instinct” mindset and keep to the plan regardless of how you feel.
Fail, and Re-strategize
Yes, fail. Part of learning and building new muscles is failing. You’ll fail many times if you’re trying to build new discipline muscles. Making peace with this allows you to see failure as part of the process and not as a reason to stop.
Even the most disciplined people you know around you fail at it every once in a while. The difference is that when they fail, they evaluate and re-strategize to ensure they don’t fail again.
Rinse and repeat. Show up day by day, giving no excuses. If you follow these steps, you’ll build the self discipline required to knock your goals out one after the other.