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Contributing Author: Oluwaseun Babajide
Do you find yourself doing things that you really do not want to do, or you find yourself not doing the things that you ought to do…until the very last minute.
Let’s face it, discipline is a trait that most people imagine they have; but it can be VERY difficult to invoke.
What is discipline?
Discipline simply involves dragging yourself from those activities that you find to be highly pleasurable (such as, playing video games, watching television, or gossiping) but actually ends up wasting your time – time which may have been spent doing things that you ought to be doing.
I have found that learning the art of self discipline often involves a lot of determination.
Getting into the habit of being self disciplined will require you to try out a couple of easy self inspiration tricks.
3 Things to Know BEFORE You Embark on Your Journey to Self Discipline
Image Credit: Income Therapy
1. You should not put yourself down for not being disciplined.
You need to understand that putting yourself down will not help you, as it could actually make you unmotivated and maybe leave you feeling more depressed (this actually depends on the extent your being undisciplined has caused you).
Rather, keep in mind that it is not unusual – rich and famous people also have to deal with problems that comes with not being self disciplined. You can learn and master the ability to be disciplined.
Although, it may take some time, but IT CAN BE DONE!
2. Understand the reason why you are learning to discipline yourself.
Are you trying your hardest to reach a particular goal of yours and you feel that there are different types of obstacles in your way?
For instance, may be you want to lose some extra weight, but you are way too lazy to go to the gym or commit to your exercise schedule.
Or you are interested in changing your career path and need to go back to school or get more training in the area you plan to have a successful career in.
3. Know how to create an action plan list.
You can choose to create your action plan in a table form, use your computer package like Excel or MS Word, or do it the old fashioned way….pen to paper.
You should not worry your head about completing the form at this point.
You should add your relevant goal(s) title at the very top of your action plan list, for example “Lose Weight”.
After you have done that, you should include these columns:
a.) Action
b.) Time to Start
c.) Likely Problems that I Might Face
d.) Tactics to Overcome these Problems and lastly
e.) Progress Report
Now that you know the aforementioned 3 things that you ought to know before embarking on your self-disciple journey, you can then proceed to knowing how to discipline yourself.
5 Steps to Learning How to Discipline Yourself
Step One
You will need to make certain that you focus your entire mind on your desired outcome – when you do this, you will be able to settle down to doing the tasks that need to be done.
You can post an image or reminder of your goal, task or vision somewhere in your home where you get to see it several times of the day.
Each time you look at the reminder, you should take a second to envision yourself doing, being or getting your object of your desire – when you do this, you will be provided with the incentive to take the steps that will help you realize your goal.
Step Two
You need to make sure that you take absolute control of your desire to simply ignore the tasks that you need to do in order to make the goals on your list come to pass.
Make a list of the tasks that you need to accomplish in a day or week.
Writing down the things that you need to do will bring a strong feeling of accomplishment when you check it off. I have discovered that this step works tremendously. I write down all the details of the things that I needed to do in order to accomplish my task.
Step Three
You will need to also set a deadline. I find that setting deadlines gears me to work harder towards achieving my goals…I become much more disciplined.
I remember there was a time when I needed to lose a few extra pounds to fit into an attire I had to wear to friend’s wedding. I gave myself 2 weeks to lose that extra weight around my midriff.
I was able to shed that extra weight because I stuck to the tasks that needed to do in order to meet my timeline of getting in to great shape – I went to gym, ate right etc.
Step Four
As soon as your list and deadline are complete, you should make sure that you start working on your first task ASAP!
This will help to boost your confidence in your capability to disciplining yourself.
Step Five
You should reward yourself when you accomplish the task(s) that you have set for yourself; you can decide to buy yourself a nice present (that is connected with your desired goal).
By doing this, your mind will associate hard work with gratification.
Image Credit: ccbcmd.edu/jlutz/
Helpful Hints from Me to You
You need to make sure that your rid your heart of emotional extremes such as spite, self pity, hatred, anger, jealousy, sorrow etc.
All these negative emotions are utterly useless and will only distort your judgment.
For instance, if your goal is to start your own business and you want to be disciplined enough to start your company, stay clear away from people who only have awful things to say about entrepreneurship!
You need to surround yourself with people who are interested in changing the world and not waiting for someone else to effect the change that they want to see on the world.
Just give it a shot, and you will see that it would be a whole easier to master the art of self discipline.
About the Contributing Author:
Oluwaseun Babajide is the CEO & founder of Sbabzy.com & the Islottery Generator App. He loves working on the internet, golfing, researching, writing articles, blogging, and meeting new people.
Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Google+
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