How These 4 Things Will Destroy Your Self-dicipline?
By: Al Pallino
Tags: Motivation, Feelings, Self Improvement, Dicipline, Personal Development

How These 4 Things Will Destroy Your Self-dicipline?

Photo by Nicolas Cool on Unsplash

We all try to accomplish our goals and become successful in our lives. So self-discipline is an important skill to have as it will help you keep you on track and it will help you to take all the necessary actions. It helps you focus on your objectives.

“… With self-discipline all things are possible. Without it, even the simplest goal can seem like the impossible dream.” — Theodore Roosevelt.

According to Marcus Aurelius, to build your self-discipline, you have to find your purpose; be fully committed to your goals; take actions towards your goal every day; do the uncomfortable things; be patient and take your time; find like-minded people; review and reflect each day.

Self-discipline is not just about doing things, it is also about doing things in moderation and knowing when to stop.

So, here are the 4

1. Motivation

“Motivation gets you going, but discipline gets you growing.” — John C. Maxwell

Motivation is overrated. It will show up very quickly and will disappear. It is very easy to get yourself motivated, but it is also very easy to lose that motivation. So motivation is good as it helps you get more enthusiastic about your goals, but It’s unreliable and therefore should not be relied on.

So the question is not how to get yourself motivated, it is how to stay committed to achieve your goals. Motivation will definitely help you to put on your gym clothes and go for training. But, the real deal is not about doing things when you are motivated, because most of the time you will not be motivated. On the other hand, commitment will let you put on your gym clothes after 10 hours of work; It will make you wake up early in the morning to go out for a run. Commitment will help you establish some good habits and no matter how you feel, you will do what needs to be done. Stopping to rely on motivation is one of the major steps you would take towards being a self-disciplined person.

2. Willpower

“Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don’t talk back.” — W. K. Hope.

Most of the time a lot of failures are linked to having a small amount of willpower. “I couldn’t give up smoking, because I didn’t have enough willpower”, “I failed my test because I didn’t have enough willpower to study” and so on. But the reality is, none of us, even the most successful, self-disciplined people have enough willpower.

Just like motivation, willpower is another unreliable resource on the way to mastering self-discipline. It is an emergency brake that will be activated when it’s needed. It usually kicks in when you face temptations and distractions. But, if you push the willpower to its limits, it will lose its effect and will become completely useless.

Self-disciplined people are known to create their own environment for success. They keep themselves away from temptations and distractions.

3. Feelings

“You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.” — Pearl S. Buck

We trust our feelings and allow our feelings to rule our lives. We take our feelings seriously. But often our feelings can be wrong. Your feelings can trigger negative thoughts as well as positive ones.

What you feel is not always the right thing to do. You might feel like staying in bed instead of waking up at 5 am, but if you wake up at 5 am, you can get ready for the day ahead and you can get a lot done before even starting the day.

Our thoughts and feelings don’t usually allow us to move out of our comfort zone. They go for easy and safe decisions. Therefore by just following our feelings, we deny ourselves the potential transformation of our life.

Self disciplined people recognize their thoughts. They acknowledge the existence of the feelings and the thoughts, but they say the final word. If they feel like watching their favorite TV show, they choose to finish their task and do what needs to be done.

4. Worrying

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying …” — Dalai Lama

If you fell in love with the process, you will eventually reach your goal. We all make the mistake of falling in love with the result. But, we don’t think or realize how much work and dedication that is involved to achieve that result.

You want to lose weight, but you don’t want to go through the process of training and healthy eating. You want to become a good athlete, but you are not willing to sacrifice your leisure time. You want to ace your exams, but you don’t want to dedicate time and effort to your studies. We all want to do something or become someone, but to do all these require a process of hard work and dedication. A lot of us give up, once we realize how difficult the process is. We want to become a good guitar player overnight, without spending time practicing.

Self-disciplined people are more focused on the process instead of the product. For example, your goal is to lose weight, so instead of checking every single day to see if you lost any weight, you can just focus on your exercise routine and your eating habit for the day.

Conclusion

Without having self-discipline, none of the skills that we possess can help us reach our goals. Just like every other skill, we can develop and improve our self-discipline. First, you can start by setting your environment by removing any distractions and temptations that may prevent you from focusing on the task at hand. Second, you need to practice doing things when you don’t feel like it. Once you master this habit, you don’t have to wait for the right moment to do things. Third, don’t get over-excited with goal setting. Set realistic and achievable goals. Fourth, build yourself a routine and stick to it.

Finally, take action