Becoming A Disciplined Person
Discipline: To be disciplined, is to be one who consistently engages in behaviors to fulfill a specific future purpose regardless of present circumstances.
**Discipline is an essential skill to building the life of your dreams. Find out more about essential character skills and how to build your best life here**
What exactly does it mean to be Disciplined?
Someone who is disciplined has a set of rules for themselves that they follow. These rules include things like daily habits, avoiding certain behaviors, and guidelines for things from how they interact with others, to how they eat.
When someone exhibits a large amount of discipline, people who spend time with them will be able to recognize these behaviors. They’ll say things like “They always do this, they never do that, they are so good at sticking to that, they are always so”
Being disciplined can sort of give you a brand. The habits and behaviors you chose to be disciplined in will become things you are recognized for. If you know how to eat healthy, but only do it once in a blue moon, no one is going to recognize you as someone who eats healthy. However, if 95% of your food is healthy, people will notice and refer to you as a healthy eater.
Your disciplines are your habits, and your habits define you. Once you become disciplined in one area, it’s much easier to become disciplined in another. Discipline is one of those character skills that you can literally use to define yourself and create your own reality.
“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day, lead to great achievement gained slowly over time.”
How disciplined are you currently?
Rate each statement 1-5. 1 being you do not agree at all. 5 being you completely agree:
1. I have regular routines that I follow.
2. I have a healthy diet.
3. I rarely find myself doing things I know I shouldn’t.
4. I find I have plenty of time to get everything I need to done.
5. I don’t procrastinate.
Add your scores together for your total score:
Score 0-10: Being disciplined is not a priority for you. You tend to act on your feelings and impulses only and rarely make or follow plans.
Score 11-19: You exhibit an average amount of discipline. Maybe you’ve developed some good habits, but you still give in to indulgences on a regular basis.
Score 20-25: Discipline may be one of your key character traits. It is clearly important to you. You know that you do the things you set out to. You feel confident in your capabilities.
I scored an 11 at the time I’m writing this. Discipline is a skill that I am still working on, but I get a little bit better every day. Like any new skill, it’s a slow process. When I first decided I wanted to become disciplined I sat down and made a minute-to-minute schedule. I was going to work out, and write, and do my day job, and clean, and basically every ‘productive’ thing I could think of every day.
That didn’t happen. But… I did workout the next day, then I skipped a day, then I did two in a row. Now I’ve worked out every day I’ve planned to for over a week. And even after just a month, with three weeks on and off, and one week fully on. I feel so much better physically, and I have more confidence in my ability to continue to develop discipline.
Change happens both slowly and quickly at the same time. It feels like forever when you start out, but then all of a sudden you wake up one day different.
“Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”
Being Disciplined Can Add Value to Your Life By:
1. Allowing you to cross off items on your to-do list
Literally, to develop discipline, you have to do the things you’re supposed to do. Even in just the process of trying to develop self-discipline. Strike through one item after another and become unstoppable.
2. Increasing your confidence in yourself
Confidence comes from actions. The more you do the things you say you’ll do, the more you’ll trust yourself to follow through. The more capable you’ll believe yourself to be of accomplishing hard things.
3. Helping you improve your physical health
Two easy disciplines to work on are your diet and exercise routines. There is no one size fits all when it comes to these, but if you don’t have some kind of guideline for each it’s difficult to stay healthy.
4. Increasing your energy
Energy is one of those weird things, where the more you use it, the more you have it. With the exceptions of when you need fuel, or a night of sleep. But, if you’re lying around all day, I’m sure you feel as if you have no energy. The second you make yourself move to do one thing, I can almost guarantee you’ll find energy to do a second thing.
5. Almost Magically adding more hours to your day
When you repeat tasks day after day, you get good at them. When you get good at things, you can do them more quickly, and more efficiently. Therefore, the more consistency you have in your day-to-day, the more time you’ll have. It’s just logic, or maybe a little magic.
Too Much of a Good Thing: I think this one is a little obvious. Too much discipline, meaning always doing the same exact things, point blank, no matter what, can make you Rigid. And rigid is both boring and dangerous. Everyone needs a little spontaneity and adventure in their life to keep things exciting. It’s dangerous because…. Say one of your disciplines is to run every day, and you sprain your ankle…. And you keep running…. And then you break your ankle…. And somehow you keep running… and then they have to cut your foot off. Okay, so I’m not exactly sure it progresses like that, but I do think it’s common knowledge to let a sprain heal before you start putting a ton of pressure on the joint again. Soo.. as some saying goes, be like a tree, tall and strong and sturdy enough to survive almost anything, but still capable of swaying in the wind.
“Self-Discipline is about controlling your desire and impulses, while staying focused on what needs to get done to achieve your goal”
The Simple Step-by-Step Process to Becoming More Disciplined
1. Think of Something you need to do.
(Make your bed, clean your house, take out the trash, start a diet, go for a run, call a friend, etc.)2. Do the thing
3. Repeat
(Make your bed daily, keep your house clean, stick to the diet, keep in touch with people you care about, etc)
4. Plan out a few things you need to do.
(Make a To-Do List, create a morning routine, plot out learning a new skill, etc.)
5. Do the things
6. Repeat
Tips and Tricks::
1. Focus ONLY on the next right thing.
Don’t think about anything else, just get through the next task in front of you
2. Break Big tasks down into bite size pieces
When my house was a mess, and I had to clean it. Thinking about just getting up and cleaning it was too much. But when I broke it down into tiny tiny pieces like 1. Get clutter out of room A 2. Pick up little items in Room A 3. Sweep Room A. Then I could do one step in just a handful of minutes and it was much easier to think about, and do.
3. Meditate.
Meditation is basically the habit of emptying your mind. Once you can control your thoughts, it’s much easier to control your actions.
4. Use Journals, Gadgets, Apps
Nothing can do the work for you, but there are things to help you organize and track the work. There are even things that can make it more fun. Find Discipline Tools.
Challenge:: Copy the following quotes with your non-dominant hand.
It may seem silly, but that is kinda the whole point is. It is difficult and uncomfortable, but not impossible. Say you’re going to do it and then do it, start to finish. Prove to yourself you can do hard things.
Learn More about Developing Discipline:
-
This book is all about habits. Good habits naturally build discipline.
Find it Here.
Related Character Skills:
Focused
Energetic
