You Need More Than Motivation – 4 Steps to Becoming Self-Disciplined

Hey Guys!

It’s Wednesday, #HumpDay! Hope all is well and your week has been going smoothly. We have two more days until the weekend! Technically you should be enjoying each day and not looking forward to Friday as much, but I know how it is! *me saying this after working 11 hours a day*

How many of us need a little “push” in order to get started with a project or a goal? Don’t be ashamed, it happens more than you know it. Hey, it even happens without you asking for it because (some) people generally love cheering you on or encouraging you. Other ways you may receive that push of motivation is by listening to a podcast daily, repeating affirmations, reading a book or quote. People get motivated in many different ways. However, what happens when neither of those things work?

This is the tough part.

Some days the motivation won’t be there. It’s as simple as that, but are you going to let that affect your goals or plans? In order to fix this we need to develop a specific habit – SELF-DISCIPLINE!

Self-discipline is the ability to control your feelings and remain focus long enough to complete the tasks at hand. Some of you, like myself may find this hard to do since we rely so much on our impulses/feelings for everything. However, even if you didn’t grow up with this ability it is also a learnt behavior.

Have you ever heard of the saying “It takes 21 days to form a habit“? Well maybe we can all learn to be a little more disciplined this year. Matter of fact, you can start this anytime throughout the year as self-discipline is an important trait to have. In addition, you’ll be able to improve your self-confidence, as well as productivity in any aspect of your life.

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How do you gain self-discipline?

1/ Get Rid of Distractions + Prioritize Tasks

Of course this is the first step. One thing with me is I’m easily distracted and often have a billion thoughts flowing through my head. Because of this I’m always thinking of the next thing and can’t concentrate on the task at hand. This is where a prioritization of tasks come into play. I try my best to make daily lists of what I want to accomplish or generally try to get all of my thoughts out on paper. By doing this it minimizes my distraction as to what I’m thinking about. Making lists is a way of looking at what needs attention right away and leaving smaller tasks for after no matter how I feel about them.

2/ Be Clear with Your Intentions

What is it that you need to accomplish? Why do you have to accomplish this task? Thinking about these aspects of the task at hand will help to develop a drive within you to get things done. Another way of doing this is to visualize the outcomes.

3/ Change Your Mindset 

As usual, everything begins in your mind. All your thoughts which become ideas, then plans etc etc. In order to develop this new habit of being self-disciplined, you need to change your mindset. I know how easy it is to go along with the normal behavior of when your mind is made up that’s it. However if you want change you have to decide to make a change. This involves breaking free of your comfort zone; the biggest setback to getting anything done.

[Related: Motivation Mondays // Power of the MIND ]

4/ Reward Effort and Keep Moving Forward 

Just like any other habit you’d try to develop there are going to be setbacks; the trick to dealing with this is to keep moving forward. Fall seven times, stand up eight! Get right back up and continue on your quest. To ensure you keep working towards your goal try to give yourself small tokens as a reward. If I complete certain tasks on schedule I can actually watch Netflix without feeling guilty.

Throwback to 2018: Unapologetic + Unstoppable and my favorite quote: “Resolutions aren’t the problem, your discipline is.”
Do you find your disciplined enough when it comes to executing your tasks/projects?
How do you remain disciplined?