Lead Yourself Well - 5 Ways to Improve Self Discipline

"The first and best victory is to conquer self" - Plato

How do you define self-discipline? I was once asked like this.

"Can you wake up early tomorrow and jog 3 miles?"

I said "Yes, of course"

"Can you do that again the day after that?

I said "Sure, why not?"

"Can you do that everyday for the rest of your life?"

I said "............"

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know where it's heading. If you know you have talent, and you moved a lot but seldom deliver - you may just lack of self discipline.

Take a look back to last week for example. How much of your time did you devote to regular, disciplined activities? Did you do anything to grow and improve yourself professionally? Or dedicate yourself on savings? living healthy life?

If you put them aside and told yourself you will do it later, you need to work out these 5 action plan.

1. Develop and Follow Your Priorities

Anyone who does what he must only when he is in the mood or when it's convenient is NOT going to be successful. All you need is a good plan. If you can determine what's really a priority and free yourself from everything else, it will be much easier to follow through on important things. This is the essence of self discipline.

2. Make a Disciplined Lifestyle Your Goal

Discipline can not be a one time event. It has to be a lifestyle. One of the best ways to do that is to develop systems and routines, especially in areas crucial to your long term growth and success. If you want to be a good basketball player. Practice every hour, every day, all year long and beyond.

3. Challenge Your Excuses

This is an unfortunate habit of human. Giving excuses. However, to develop a lifestyle of discipline, you need to challenge yourself for not making excuses. If you have several reasons why you can't be self disciplined, realize that they are really just a bunch of excuses - all of which need to be challenged if you want to go to the next level of achievement.

4. Remove Rewards Until the Job Is Done

Don't have desserts before finishing your vegetables.

There is one experiment like this:

One hundred kids were gathered to be offered one marshmallow for each. They are elligible of having another marshmallow if they can wait long enough not to eat the first. End up only 5 of them made it for the 2nd marshmallow

If you want to be a successful person, you have to 'torture' yourself for not having short term reward. This is very powerful for cultivating your self-discipline.

5. Stay Focused on Results

Anytime you concentrate on the difficulty of work instead of its results or rewards, you're likely to become discouraged. Never focus on the hard part. Imagine what it's like at the end of the tunnel. This can boost your motivation in making yourself discipline. A good cause.

Have a nice day!

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