Self-discipline

To be self-disciplined, you need to be able to motivate yourself to meet the goals that you set for yourself. You don't need anyone's outside help to get done what needs to get done. You do what you said you would whether that was said to yourself or someone else, even if you don't feel like it. To get a bigger understanding of what self-discipline is, let's look at some examples.

1. Wake up on time - The ability to get yourself up before work, get properly dressed, be fed, exercise, and out the door on time to get to work is a trait of self-discipline. Sure, if you're late enough, you may get a bad reputation from your job and it may also affect your performance so there is some outside pressure. However, for most people, it's simply self-discipline that gets them going each day to advance themselves also to their jobs as well.

2. Act Respectfully Toward Others – Everyone has thoughts in their head about people they meet during the day. That person who cut you off? That person who is walking too slowly in the store when you're in a hurry? With good self-discipline, you will still be respectful towards everyone regardless of your feelings, hunger, or mood at the time.

3. Eat Healthily – There are so many things out there to eat that aren't good. A person who chooses to eat Healthily 80 to 90 percent of the time is demonstrating excellent self-discipline by saying no today to short-term pleasure in exchange for being healthier long term.

4. Daily Exercise – Some people love to exercise and get a true "high" or addiction to it. But most of us don't. A person who goes ahead and does their exercise anyway each day because they have goals is showing how self-disciplined they are to pursue their goals for the betterment of themselves.

5. Meet Deadlines – Sometimes you'll see the words "self-starter" in a job description, but what they want is a person who is self-disciplined enough to make and meet deadlines without a lot of outside influence.

6. Avoid Temptation – A truly self-disciplined person doesn't allow the temptation to be a factor in their life because they work to avoid it. If they're tempted by doughnuts, they don't walk into a doughnut shop. If they want to save money, they get it taken out of their paycheck; they're never tempted to spend it since they don't see it. Everything is controlled physically, emotionally, and mentally.

7. Follow Through – A self-disciplined person tends to do what they say they'll do. They have follow-through. If they say they'll get done on Friday, they will do what they can to get done on Friday without anyone reminding them. Principles and words of honor are essential for them.

8. Create Good Habits – A person with self-discipline knows that the best way to stick to any goal words is to create good habits surrounding that goal. For example, a person who has the goal to get up an hour earlier to go to the gym knows that it's going to be only willpower the first month, then after that, a habit will be created.

Self-discipline doesn't mean that a person never has fun. The ability to let go of weakness and do what you know is right is the best example of self-discipline. It doesn't matter if you're at work or home; being able to control yourself is essential to your happiness and success.

How Self-Discipline Benefits You At Work

And When You Study Out of everything you learned as a kid growing up, self-discipline is probably one of the most vital skills. If you have learned this lesson, you'll reap the benefits your entire life by reaching for and meeting your goals more easily. Plus, you will be living your life at full blast because you won't have as much stress. 

1. You Won't Be Impulsive – When you can control your impulses, you tend to make much better decisions because you're willing to stop and think before doing so. That means you'll have fewer things to be sorry about at work or school. You won't skip studying to go out and party; you won't quit working on a project to hang out with friends, and you will get things done because you won't create unneeded drama caused by impulsiveness. 

2. You Know Your Priorities – A self-disciplined person is very aware of the priorities they have each day. They are prepared and look over everything in plenty of time to arrange their day to meet those priorities.

3. You Will Meet Your Obligations – Let's be clear. Meeting obligations feel good. It's not a downer or a drag on your life. When you follow through and do something at work or school (or in life) that is important, it feels good, and you want to do it again. 

4. Reduces Procrastination – Procrastination is a symptom of a larger problem - usually a lack of confidence in skills, imposter syndrome, or fear of success. When you have self-discipline, you tend to make a schedule that doesn't consider your mood or anything but getting it done and done right

5. You Don't Need Passion to Finish Projects – One of the biggest myths of life is that you should work or do things when you feel like it. When passion strikes, it is the time to work according to many. However, this is not a good plan. You're not going to feel passion every single day. When you have self-discipline, you tend to get it done regardless of your thoughts and feelings. 

6. You'll Be Much Healthier – Due to not eating everything you see, not avoiding exercise, and working hard instead of avoiding work (which is stressful), you're going to be much healthier. You'll feel better physically and mentally because you're making better choices. 

7. You Have Better Relationships – When you are not just saying whatever comes to your mind, and when you're not selfish but are there for your friends and family, you're going to have better relationships. People know they can count on you. 

8. You'll Sleep Better – When you get up at a normal time each day, go to bed at a normal time each night, and eat right most days - as well as do what you say you'll do - you'll probably sleep a lot better every night.

9. You'll Feel Less Guilt – When you follow through in life - whether it's something you promised to yourself or someone else, you feel less guilt. You won't have any reason to feel guilty due to your good choices. When you have self-discipline, it doesn't mean that you aren't a fun person or that you can't be spontaneous. It simply means that you are reliant on yourself, trust yourself, and show this by doing what you promise yourself and others that you will do.

The truth is, self-discipline makes your life better in every single way. When you work on building your self-discipline in all aspects of your life, you're going to end up happier, more successful, and physically healthier too. There are many reasons why being self-disciplined benefits your health, so let's look at a few.

Your Standards Go Up - When you have self-discipline, you're able to get up on time, get to work on time, and get your work done promptly. You're also able to incorporate exercise, eating right, and making regular doctor visits due to your ability to understand that setting small daily goals will ensure you reach success. When you get that, you can make bigger and better goals with higher standards because you know how to do it.

You Eat Better - You're not going to be tempted by that chocolate cake at the lunchtime meeting with your colleagues. Instead, you'll completely ignore it because you know that you have some apple pie that you'll be eating on Saturday at your family dinner. You also know that eating cake and pie too often will make you fat. You have no problem saying no because you understand the power of small choices.

You Move More - Because you know that moving is something that will make you healthier, give you more energy, and help you get through the day with more power, you exercise intentionally. When you exercise that way, you will be healthier in every single way. Self-discipline helps you create a daily habit of exercise that you make time for on purpose, and that makes you healthier.

You Sleep Well - Self-disciplined people tend to stick to standard days. They get up and go to bed (for the most part) at the same time each day. This is what helps them get on a normal schedule, find ways to fit more into each day, and get to bed on time. They can recommend 7 to 9 hours a night depending on their personal needs.

You Go to the Doctor - You know that being healthy means that you need to get to the doctor for your yearly physicals and so forth. A self-disciplined person will do things on a schedule instead of waiting until they are too sick to get good care.

You Don't Over-Drink - You're not the least bit tempted to over-drink. You keep track of your drinks and switch with water if it's going to be a long night so that you don't drink more than the recommended two or at most three drinks during a party. This ensures you still make good choices.

You Maintain a Healthy Weight - Because you regularly weigh yourself and understand the relationship between body weight and belly fat to health, you stay on top of that. When you maintain a healthy weight, you'll have more energy to get through each day.

Your Emotions Are Steady Because you're not rushed, pressured, or stressed

A no-drama day does that for you - you'll be able to keep your emotions steady and not become a moody person. Even if you do have a moment of anger, you're able to control it because you have such a good handle on your emotions.

You Think Before You Act 

- Because of your ability to think things through, match the situation with your values, and then make a choice based on that knowledge, you tend to make better decisions that benefit your health by avoiding dangerous situations. Before you try any diet, or any portion or pill, try improving your self-discipline. More than likely it will be the main thing that you can point to as the reason for your success. It's probably the reason anyone experiences success regularly.

Is Self-Discipline Always a Good Thing?

It doesn't matter what you're talking about, there is always a way to have too much of something. That includes having too much self-discipline. There is a time when that control is not even self-discipline anymore but has become self-abuse. If you've gone too far, you may end up having some characteristics about your personality that aren't beneficial. Let's look closer into some signs that things may have gone too far.

You Can't Make Decisions

- You're overly cautious when you try to make choices. You can't choose what to eat for dinner, you can't pick which movie to go to, and you can't figure out what to do with your life. You're scared of making the wrong decision, so you tend not to make any. Thus, you make no progress in life.

You Have Become a Perfectionist

Some people think the word "perfectionist" makes them sound smart and important. However, the truth is a person who has become a perfectionist is usually not full of self-confidence. Their perfectionism is an excuse never to do anything or wish for anything due to fear of success or failure.

You Are Too Focused on Rules and Regulations

- Following the law is good and it's great to care about rules and regulations. However, you can take this too far if you cannot play a game or do anything without pointing out the rules everyone else is breaking before you can have any fun. Plus, if you nitpick every little thing, you will never get anything done.

You Can't Take Breaks

While sticking to a schedule is a good thing - especially if you are a manager, a business owner, or a parent, you can take that too far. It's imperative to set up your day so that you have time for breaks and set up your schedule and task list with breaks in mind. A person who is all work and no play will not end up being successful long-term without burning out.

You Feel Lonely

- If you're not taking breaks and you cannot make decisions, you may start to feel lonely and out of touch with others even if they're there with you. You feel detached from others because you must be regimented in everything you do.

Has your quest to have more self-discipline crossed over to become a serious problem of being too controlled to the point that you cannot be yourself, feel stressed out all the time, and cannot make decisions due to being so risk-averse?

If this happens, it's time to get back to normal self-discipline. The point is to learn to retrain yourself now so that you can meet long-term goals in work and life - not end up miserable.

Eight Steps to Mastering Self-Discipline

- Anyone can master self-discipline if they want to do it. Even the process of trying to develop more self-discipline will make a huge difference in your life. 

You learn to control your impulses, desires, and wants so that you can stay focused on achieving your long-term goals. Let's check out eight steps to mastering self-discipline that you can start using today.

1. Know What Self-Discipline Is

- Sometimes it's hard to become self-disciplined for people because they don't know what it means. They think it'll take away all the fun from their life. 

On the contrary, being self-disciplined means that you don't allow distractions or short-term temptations, or desires to get in the way of reaching your long-term goals.

2. Set Clear Goals

- To be successful in anything in life, you must have a reason for doing it. Your reasons, in this case, are your goals. Perhaps you want to start exercising every day? Maybe you need a process to finish a work project. Whatever it is, create the goal using a very specific language. Read all about SMART goals so that you set goals the best way. Your goals, and the results you are looking for, will be your why and your motivation going forward.

3. Know How to Achieve Your Goals

- Once you set a goal, write down exactly how you're going to achieve it. Write down every single step it will take for each goal that you've set, then put it in your calendar. Schedule it as if you're going to do it and schedule it realistically. Keep in mind how long things take and give yourself enough time - as well as a cushion.

4. Know Your Weaknesses

- If there is something that will distract you, now is the time to admit it. For example, if you want to get up an hour earlier each morning so that you can go to the gym before work, but you never can fall asleep before midnight, why not choose to exercise at a different time so that your goal is achievable and works around your weakness?

5. Learn how to prioritize

- The other thing you need to practice and learn to be good at when mastering self-discipline is how to put things in the right order so that there are no bottlenecks. It's sort of like realizing that your toothbrush should be in your bathroom so that you don't forget to brush your teeth. Things should be together simply. This takes practice, as well as trial and error.

6. Track Everything

- To get better at self-discipline you'll need to track everything. That's the only way you know if you're doing better or not. Get a journal of some kind (the kind you'll use is the best kind), and write it each day to record your progress and feelings about various situations.

7. Get Accountability

- One thing about self-discipline is that eventually, you need to be able to provide accountability to yourself. For now, you might want to find a support group or a friend to talk to about your self-improvement goals so that you can work together.

8. Improve

- As you track and measure your progress and are accountable for your promises (to yourself and others), you can find areas where you can make improvements. 

Self-discipline is something you get better at with practice. Truly mastering self-discipline is mostly about understanding what it is, what it means, and the benefits of doing it, and then practicing it every day. You may not be perfect but the more you succeed, the stronger you will become and the better you'll be at being self-disciplined in the healthiest way.

Ten Tips For Avoiding Temptation:

No matter what goals you're trying to achieve in your life, there will always be temptations to stray from those goals. If you're prepared for avoiding temptation, you can create a plan that will get you through and help you stick to your goals. Let's look at the ten tips for avoiding temptation that will help you reach success.

1. Know Your Goals - It cannot be stated enough how important it is to write out your goals in a very specific way. What exactly do you want to achieve? Describe it in as much detail as you can so that you know what type of work will go into it.

2. Give Them a Deadline - When you set a goal, don't leave it without time to finish it and experience success. Instead, set deadlines for each goal that you create, and even smaller goals in between the big ones so that you can not progress as it's happening.

3. Know Your Why - For the most part, your goals will inform your why. For example, if you have a goal to set up a new website in 90 days, why? Do you need it because you're having a new launch? If you want to lose 15 pounds this year, how much do you want to lose each week or month and why did you pick that number? Those details will help you.

4. Be More Self-Aware 

- This means that you know how you feel and why you feel how you feel. You can note that you're extra tired, so you better get a healthy snack before you grab a piece of chocolate cake so that you can avoid temptation in the first place.

5. Keep a Gratitude Journal

- It's hard to fall off a path you've set for yourself when you take the time to be thankful for the journey. You don't have to take a long time. Each evening, just write down three things you're thankful for and why. Most of your promises are going to be to yourself, but some will be too.

6. Be Accountable to Your Promises family, friends, or maybe a boss. It doesn't matter who you have obligations to but it's important to be accountable if you fail - and also to be accountable when you succeed. Taking time to accept success will create more success.

7. Develop Habits One thing to do about temptation is to develop habits over willpower. For example, if you want to drink more water, set up a system that makes it easy to get the amount of water you want in your body. Then do it the same way daily. After a month or so, it'll be a habit and it'll come more naturally.

8. Create a Vision Board

-It always helps to visualize the potential results of reaching your goals. It will make it feel real when you can see it.

9. Create a "What If" Plan

- When you know you'll be in situations where temptation exists, talk to yourself about it. Craft a plan on what you'll do to avoid temptation if it happens.

10. Start Over If Needed

-Even if you realize right in the middle that the goal was wrong, or the plan to get there was awed, it's okay. You can start over. You can tweak anything and fix it so that you can keep going forward. Developing your self-discipline is almost all about avoiding short-term temptations to get off the path toward reaching your long-term goals. When you learn to avoid temptation in the first place, you won't have much of a chance to fall off the path.

Using Self-Discipline to Get Rid of Negative Habits 

Self-discipline is just the act of ignoring and avoiding short-term temptations to do the work needed to achieve your long-term goals and doing it on a regular enough basis that you will reach the goals you set. Once you start using self-discipline to reach your goals, you will realize you can use it for other things too, like getting rid of negative habits.

Set Yourself up for Success

- Identify the negative habit that you want to get rid of in very close detail. Know why you want to get rid of it. Describe why it's negative for you to keep up with this habit. Also, it's important to find something you can do instead or how you can trick your mind into not wanting to do that negative thing.

Know Your Triggers

- If you want to stop something, try to figure out why you do it. Is it triggered by another activity? For example, people who want to quit smoking often smoke and drink coffee at the same time. When they want to quit smoking, they find it hard to enjoy their morning coffee and tend to think about cigarettes. Changing the morning drink too, or the location where you have it can help avoid the trigger.

Start Small

- Don't try to tackle every single negative habit at the same time. Focus on one at a time for a month so that you can replace the negative habit with a good habit.

Schedule Your Actions

- Anything you want to do that requires action should be written down in a calendar. Whether it's walking, eating dinner, or spending time with your family, adding it to your schedule will help.

Incorporate Accountability

- When you don't reach your goal due to a negative habit, you're trying to avoid acknowledging it. Try to figure out how to fix the problem and do better next time. Also, be accountable for success too. Feel the success so that you want to have more of it.

Practice Saying No More

- Often Most negative habits are associated with saying yes when you don't want to say yes. Learn how to say no when it is important to do so, not just to other people but also to yourself. This will help you reach your goals.

Focus on the Positives

- By trying to replace negative habits with positive habits, you may accidentally feel as if you're focusing on the negative. Instead of doing that, once you replace the bad habit, only focus on the good thing you're doing and how that feels.

Be Mindful

- Being in tune with your feelings can help you avoid a negative habit being triggered. Think not only about how you feel right now but also about how you're going to feel in the future when you stick to changing those negative habits. The more you work through the process, the more you'll improve your self-discipline. No one is ever going to be perfect, but you can incorporate these tips that will help you avoid anything negative which can stop you from reaching your goals.

What is Meant by Self-Discipline?

When someone is referred to as self-disciplined, it means that they're intrinsically motivated enough to avoid short-term temptations to achieve long-term goals. They tend to be the person everyone else can count on to get things done. They are highly reliable people who are often very successful. They are people with integrity.

If you're a self-disciplined person, you:

1. Take Personal Responsibility for Your Actions – If you want to demonstrate self-discipline, at its core it's all about realizing you are responsible for your actions and no one else. When things go right or wrong, you look at how your behavior affected the situation and then note what you'll do again and how you can do better next time.

2. Believe You Are Responsible for Yourself 

-A person with strong self-discipline doesn't usually need outside influence to do the right thing. They are very sure of their core values and will put them ahead of what they "want" and do what is right.

3. Understand Your Potential People who have strong self-discipline tend to realize that they have a lot more power than the average person thinks they have. Due to this, they set up their lives in a way that will lead them to succeed because they know they can do it.

4. Know How to Set Goals Properly

- When you know that your actions make a great deal of difference to your success, you'll place a high level of importance on learning how to set goals properly. Learn about SMART goals so that you can set yourself up for success.

5. Set Schedules and Routines for Daily Life

- Everyone is handed the same 24 hours a day. The way highly successful people use that time is the only difference. They tend to schedule everything and do things at certain times ritualistically because it helps them do more in their lives and experience more balance.

6. Feel grateful every day

- Looking on the bright side is a trait of people who have self-confidence because they tend to believe in their life and the world around them. Keeping a gratitude journal can help anyone learn to feel more grateful.

7. Are a Lifelong Learner

- Sadly, most of the world doesn't read after they're finished with school. But a person who has self-discipline is usually a lifetime learner. They like reading and learning and always make time for it.

8. Take Care of Your Entire Self

- The reason self-discipline helps you take care of yourself is that you're able to see how some hard decisions made today (such as not having that piece of cake) will pay you tomorrow.

9. Content, Patient and Calm

- Because you don't feel powerless, and because you know how to make goals and plans to reach those goals, you can feel a lot more content, patient, and calm. There is no reason to get into anyone's drama and even when things are tough, you know you'll make it through if you follow the steps and your schedule.

10. Forgive Yourself and Others for Their Imperfections:

– Since you constantly work on yourself, you realize that no one is perfect and that it's okay. Human imperfections are what make everyone interesting. The most important thing to realize about self-discipline is that you don't have to be perfect from day one. If you want to improve your chances of experiencing success, working on your self-discipline is the key to that success. 

"No one is perfect, but the things you are doing can be perfected."

Why Is self-Discipline so hard 

No one wants to be seen as no fun, too serious, and regimented. When you think of the term "self-disciplined," you may think of a hard-nosed military-type person. That thought alone can be a big blocker in your mind to becoming a self-disciplined person. It's no wonder that people have trouble becoming more self-disciplined. They're not understanding the positive factors of developing this skill.

Let's look at some reasons why self-discipline is so hard 

Lack of Understanding of self-discipline is a combination of skills that are put into effect consistently to achieve the results you want. It's a long-term practice of a lot of behaviors designed to help you reach your goals. Avoiding temptation regularly so that results can occur is required. You'll need to develop all these skills to become self-disciplined. 

Not realizing how important organization is to self-discipline.

As mentioned above, self-discipline is a way to describe many behaviors that lead to reaching goals at a high level. One of the keys to being able to do this is knowing how to organize your schedule realistically, along with putting together logically everything you need to do in a day.

The fact that most people don't know how to break tasks up to make them simpler

A person with self-discipline knows that when they have a goal, they need to break it up into smaller tasks that they schedule in their calendar to do regularly until the whole thing is done. 

They also know that this requires a lot less discipline than most people think. Underestimating the Importance of Consistency One of the real keys to self-discipline is to be consistent in turning down the temptation to achieve the long-term goal. For example, you know eating fewer calories on a regular long-term basis will lead to weight loss. Writing one page of content for your novel will eventually lead to a nice book. Small steps make a big difference, but they also must be consistent.

Knowing That Being Mindful Is a Factor in Self-Discipline.

If you don't know when you're getting ready to give or give in, or when you are reaching the end of your comfort zone and you've never experienced it.