A Simple Trick to Master Self-Discipline

“There are no coincidences in life.  What person that wandered in and out of your life was there for some purpose, even if they caused you harm.  Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense the short periods of time we get with people, or the outcomes from their choices.  However, if you turn it over to God he promises that you will see the big picture in the hereafter.  Nothing is too small to be a mistake.”  ―Shannon L. Alder

I’m currently experimenting with a crazy diet that consists of fasting for 18 hours and getting to eat whatever you want for the remaining 6 hours.  It was introduced to me by one of my workout buddies and something I immediately noticed was the unwanted urge to have a midnight snack or a meal at 3 in the morning. 

And not taking a bite from my hidden bag of chips or eating a California Burrito after drinking was a challenge by itself.  You’re forced to fight with your inner critique that has one side telling you it’s okay to give in to the dark side and be bad as the other side begs you not to break the goal you made to yourself. 

You’ve probably dealt with other struggles that caused a central conflict in your brain.  Trying to lose weight but suddenly get the urge to not care about exercising?  You never realize how comfortable your couch is until the idea of working out comes to mind. 

Self-discipline is a beast by itself and something you’d expect a karate master to tell you when you beg him to teach you.  It’s a wild dog that moves its savagely head back before it finally submits to you, and even then you’ll occasionally have a few battles with it. 

Self-help nuts like to show off how easy it is to keep under control, but it’s only a show front they use to make themselves appear as super humans.  Everyone struggles with self-discipline.  The word itself has “Discipline” to it.  If controlling your urges was easy, it would be called self-pleasure (but we all know what that implies). 

To be self-discipline is to know your own limit and knowing how to avoid overwhelming yourself with simple tasks.  There are many factors to consider too depending on what makes you happy and the lifestyle you prefer. 

What REALLY matters is how you control your mentality and emotional state.  Whether you want to lose weight, change careers, or find love it’s going to require a certain level of self-discipline. 

I know, bummer.  But you’re not going to get that cute girl’s number if you don’t discipline yourself into getting up and approaching her. 

What makes self-discipline a sexy skill to master is because it surpasses the importance of an IQ.  Though someone may have the intelligence of a scientist, if they can’t control their own habits, they’re just a burden to others. 

Throughout our lives, schools, our parents, that random neighbor, and television has taught us that if want to be successful, we need to be intelligent, have a high IQ, or get a PHD.  But success is more than just relying on your skills or intelligence.  If that was the case, you wouldn’t have people who can’t read run major companies and be successful. 

This sick game of life couldn’t care less if you were a world-class genius who could learn anything fast.  You can hand a child 1 Million bucks, but that doesn’t mean the child is destined to use it responsibly. 

They could end up buying an insane amount of candy that goes to waste.  You see it all the time where Hollywood parents waste their child’s acting money on stupid items, bringing them back to square 1 on the financial scale. 

It’s having self-discipline that prevents you from buying a boat when you can’t support the payments.  It’s having the ability to tell yourself to complete a task because you want to get out of the ghetto or afford good food. 

There a crap ton of studies that prove students who have a sense of self-discipline score higher on tests than those who received a higher IQ.  Keeping firm to your actions is WAY more important than solely relying on your own intelligence. 

It’s easy to assume you got life in the basket when you’re repeatedly told you’re smart, you’re going to be rich because of your intelligence, or you’re going to rule the world one day.  But what happens is that we start to live in that strange fantasy people drafted for us and we live in the fantasy for so long that we become too scared to actually put ourselves out there to implement our ideas. 

When you’re thriving towards your goals, you’ll encounter moments where you’ll be excited to start them immediately and can work from morning to night.  However, there will be other moments where you won’t be motivated to even think about your goals. 

You think someone losing weight like the idea of waking up to eat plain oatmeal and boiled eggs?  They repulse that idea and would rather want a triple stack of chocolate chip pancakes. 

Self-discipline sucks.  Not even going to hide it.  But it’s necessary. 

Which is why you shouldn’t use motivation for any of your goals.  Motivation is like a cheap candle that looks pretty but quickly goes out when a little bit of wind hits it. 

To push yourself towards any of your goals, you need to create a productive habit of entirely changing your daily actions not to acquire a quick change, but a permanent change. 

I had a buddy who’s been losing weight like crazy within these last few months.  But her goal isn’t to lose a certain amount of pounds.  It’s to live a healthier lifestyle where she becomes more active, eat healthier, and limit her consumption of toxic foods. 

Instead of going on some crazy diet where she lose weight quickly, goes insane because of the sudden change, and eat herself back to her original weight, she’s taking the time to remove the negative habits from her life in exchange for some good ones. 

Does it suck?  It wouldn’t be self-discipline if it didn’t suck.  But does she love the results and how she feels about herself, TOTALLY! 

What makes self-discipline so dang hard is that it’s demanding your conscious to behave a certain way despite what your emotional state wants.  When we wake up in the morning, our emotional state begs us to stay in bed and hit the snooze button.  But it’s the conscious decision to not miss school or work that lets us escape our way too comfortable bed. 

Last week when I woke up in the morning my first thought was to turn off the alarm and continue sleeping.  But, despite what my emotions begged, my conscious part knew my boss wouldn’t like that excuse for not showing up to work. 

So why is it difficult to maintain self-discipline when we want to accomplish something?  Why can’t you stick to any life changing goals you think about daily? 

Most problems that haunt society are the ways we carelessly use self-discipline everyday.  Whether it’s overeating, harmful addictions, facing debt, or laziness a lack of controlled discipline has slowed the national growth of our society. 

We use willpower everyday whether we’re aware of it or not.  When people think about self-discipline, they immediately assume it only regards the big tasks we set for ourselves.  Like losing 150 pounds, making $1 Million, or dating 100 women. 

But in reality, we use it for every single choice we think of.  We use it when we’re tempted to eat a piece of cake in the morning, but decide it’s not the best decision to make.  We use it when we decide not to chase down that person who cut you off on the freeway.  We even use it when we decide not to slap a customer because they’re being a jerk.  And with every battle with self-discipline, it makes maintaining our overall willpower difficult. 

To break down the ways to master self-discipline, the process starts off by:

1.  Eating More Often

Imagine the brain as a powerplant that needs to be frequently replenished.  People who often eat always show better signs of self-discipline than those who choose to starve themselves. 

That isn’t to say that overeating is encouraged because that develops unnatural bad habits.  What this means is that the human body needs a balanced level of glucose which carries energy to the brain and other vital organs. 

In other words, imagine glucose as the fuel for your brain for it to continue operating efficiently.  With a low level of glucose flowing through your bloodstream, you make poor decisions that makes you regret them in the future.  That’s why it’s encouraged to start the day off with a healthy breakfast or to eat lightly before a test. 

When you feel your body slightly irritated, take the time to eat something small.  What normally helps me are fruits, small meals, or even a drink. 

But as a word of caution, always avoid environments where you’re surrounded by unhealthy foods.  You may have the self-discipline to resist them, but it chips away your willpower to continue resisting other temptations later on that day. 

2.  Build Your Decision Making Skills Like A Muscle

It’s like going to the gym to work on your muscles.  Building your self-discipline works the exact same way.  The way willpower and self-discipline work together is when you use them towards a variety of different tasks, it slowly drains your energy bit by bit. 

The bigger the decision or temptation you fight off, the more energy it drains from you to commit to other tasks that require the same willpower. 

When you make the decision to whether you should drink water or soda, you’re slowly draining yourself.  Depending on the amount of conscious decisions you make within a day will determine how much energy you have left for personal tasks you personally desire. ( Such as losing weight or learning a new skill.) 

To build self-discipline so you have the energy to perform other goals means you have to engage in extra activities throughout the day.  Start small by making the choice of taking a walk around the neighborhood instead of sitting on your couch.  Cook a meal instead of buying one. 

The buildup will be as difficult and tedious as lifting weights for the first time or running a mile.  But overtime, as you subconsciously become aware of your self-discipline, it makes other activities you strike for much easier. 

3.  Change Your Concept About Willpower

According to a 2010 study by Stanford University, they discovered that the amount of willpower a person has is predetermined by their beliefs.  For instance, if someone believed they only had a limited amount of willpower, they’re bound to meet those limited requirements. 

However, if someone didn’t place a limit to their willpower they were less likely to exhaust themselves before meeting their goals.  Although scientists are still arguing about the basic principle of willpower, it can be heavily suggested that your concept about it will make it true. 

Give yourself a limited belief and you’re going to set obstacles in your way because you’re already setting your limits.  Without realizing, you’re telling your mind that you are going to fail, which removes that extra boost of motivation to keep going. 

4.  Use the Out of Sight Out of Mind Rule

A useful method to master self-discipline is avoiding any temptation you know will entrap you.  When you’re continuously surrounded by objects that tempt you, it brings unnecessary battles into your mind. 

You’re constantly fighting whether or not you should eat that bowl of candy sitting on your table or if you should watch a television show you see playing.  Those difficult decisions then drain your decision making skills and energy to make future proper choices. 

If you know you have other tasks to do in the house, turn off small temptations such as your television or the internet.  A method I use is forcing myself to get off the internet, avoid all social networks and continue my work at Starbucks.  There, I can raise my willpower to complete my assignments without little to no interruptions. 

5.  Give Yourself a Backup Plan

A technique that psychologists like to use in regard to willpower is “implementation intention.”  That’s when you take situations you normally face and give yourself an alternate way out of it. 

For example, suppose you’re working on eating healthier and you go to a party with some friends.  But before going to the party, tell yourself, “If anyone offers me any fatty foods to eat, I’ll just deny it and ask for water instead.” 

This gives you a self-intention mindset so you’re not blindly jumping into a situation.  It saves you the hassle from simply going with the flow and making bad decisions.  You save energy by not having to make any sudden decisions based on your emotional state. 

You know yourself better than anyone else in the world.  You know your weakness and natural habits.  So to avoid falling for any bad traits, give yourself an alternate way to back out of it.  Tell yourself what your actions will be if you already know the obstacles that’s heading your direction. 

If you know you’ll ignore exercising when you get home, declare that when you get home you’re going to immediately put on your workout shoes and exercise.  When you set a plan for yourself, you’re more likely to complete it. 

6.  Stick to One Goal at a Time

What hurts a lot of people from remaining committed to their goals is giving themselves too many goals to handle.  It’s why people fail to follow their New Year’s resolution. 

You may be excited when you start your project but overtime as you’re thriving towards it, your conscious becomes aware of how much work you’re putting into them.  You then get worn down and drained, no longer interested in the project you once loved. 

Work on one goal at a time to maintain a self-discipline mindset.  This makes maintaining your willpower much easier because you won’t constantly feel overwhelmed with ongoing tasks that adding to your other decisions. 

7.  Monitor Your Progress

After setting a clear goal for yourself, an effective strategy to stay committed to it is continuously monitoring where you’re going.  For some people, they don’t need a tracker to see their progress because they spent years mastering their willpower and self-discipline. 

However, for most newbies it’s essential to begin tracking every step you make towards a goal.  Because without it, you’re more likely to give up and eventually forget about it. 

What I learned during the time I kept a journal was that I never realized how much work I actually accomplished until I tracked it.  It gave me a proud feeling to see what I achieved at the end of the day.  I may have not reached my dreams yet, but I knew I was always closer than the day before. 

For more resources and ways to master your self-discipline, here are a few top rated books:

1.  Self Discipline: Willpower, Self Control, Power Of Habit (Habits, Willpower Instinct, Willpower And Self Discipline)

2.  The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness

3.  Self-Discipline in 10 days: How To Go From Thinking to Doing

4.  Self Discipline: Unleash The Power Of Self Discipline, Influence And Willpower In Your Life To Achieve Anything (Self Discipline, Willpower, Time Management, Discipline, Influence)

5.Self Discipline: Unleash The Power Of Self Discipline, Influence And Willpower In Your Life To Achieve Anything (Self Discipline, Willpower, Time Management, Discipline, Influence)