WTP Admin | 28-10-2016 03:50:08
PS: Feel free to mention any typos or grammar mistakes in the comments section.
This book has actionable information on how to catapult yourself to your next level of success by mastering how to build your self-discipline.
Aspirations are one of the key aspects of being human. In fact, aspirations are what make every life pursuit worthwhile. For instance, my life’s ultimate aim is to educate my children and live a happy, fulfilled life. My friend Margo has different goals; she aspires to become an entrepreneur; she aspires to start her own clothing line. Similarly, your life has something you intend to actualize; perhaps you aim to lose weight, save X amount of dollars within Y amount of time, save for a vacation, and education, etc.
Think of that one goal or any goal you want to achieve and ask yourself how far along you are from accomplishing that goal. If the answer is a disappointing one, and that goal is one you have nurtured for a long time, this clearly shows you lack the basic element you need to objectify your goal: self-discipline.
The key to achieving your aims and missions is to stick to them until the very end and do everything possible to achieve them. Unless you are self-disciplined, it is very unlikely you will achieve any of your goals.
If you are sick of lagging behind, and truly want to accomplish all your goals and the success you desire, you need self-discipline. Luckily, you are reading the ultimate self-discipline blueprint. This guide will help you understand how self-discipline helps you achieve your goals; after that, the guide shall show you how to use 7 easy steps to develop immense self-discipline.
Thank you for downloading this book; by reading it, you are committing yourself to creating a better, richer, and fulfilled life.
Table of Contents
Self-Discipline: Why We Need It
How Self-Discipline Benefits You
Step 1: Be Clear About Your Objectives
Step 2: Alternate the Pleasant and Unpleasant Jobs
Step 3: Befriend All Things Positive
Step 4: Eliminate Distractions
Step 6: Track and Evaluate your Performance
Step 7: Relax and Reward Yourself
“If you set goals for yourself, and you're like a lot of other people, you probably realize it's not that your goals are physically impossible that's keeping you from achieving them; it's that you lack the self-discipline to stick to them.”- Daniel Goldstein
This beautiful quote by one of the most celebrated cognitive therapists clearly shows the seemingly ‘complicated’ nature of goals is not what makes them appear difficult to achieve; no, your lack of self-discipline and self-control is what places obstruction in their fulfillment.
What exactly is self-discipline and how does it make you powerful enough to objectify every goal you set? Let us discuss answers to these questions:
The best way to describe self-discipline is through an example; let us assume you intend to become a fitness trainer. That means you need to have a specific degree of physical fitness. To achieve this fitness, you need to routinely exercise every day, eat healthy, and use some muscle building supplements (if bulking up is your goal).
Your exercise routine is extremely taxing and to achieve your goal, you have to give up many unhealthy eating vices such as chocolate cakes, a sedentary lifestyle, and failing to exercise. Despite these difficulties and the fact that you have to practice self-control, you persevere and stick to your set routine; gradually, you build a muscular and physically appealing body that shows the effort you have put into it. Moreover, the exercise and health regimen teaches you how to train others. This goal was not an easy one to accomplish but despite the odds not being in your favor, you did it because you did one thing: exercised self-discipline.
Self-discipline refers to the ability to practice self-restraint and stick to the pursuit of any worthwhile undertaking until you fulfill it. In this case, although you wanted to eat chocolate cake daily and avoid rigorous exercise, you denied your indulgent behavior (gave up immediate gratification) because accomplishing your goal demanded it.
The reason you stayed strong and committed to your goal was because you remained focused on the goal and thus, did not let anything hinder its accomplishment. If you had lacked this virtue, it would have been next to impossible to achieve your goal.
You now know what it means to be self-disciplined; do you know how self-discipline benefits you?
Here is how having self-discipline benefits you.
Imagine you are pursuing a specific goal. Despite having the talent and skill to achieve it, you experience a few difficulties down the road. The severity of the challenges is high and this intimidates you causing you to quit the pursuit of your aim. In this instance, your self-discipline is lacking.
As opposed to this, if you have self-discipline, you know you have to stay true to your mission; thus, you will not abandon it until you accomplish it. This perseverance comes courtesy of self-restraint, the element that helps you move past the obstacles on your path to success.
Grit is one of the characteristic that has the power to make you highly prosperous and successful; this is because it gives you the strength to pursue your goals and shape them into reality regardless of what may stand in your way.
To acquire grit, you need self-discipline because when you have self-discipline, you know what you must and must not do to accomplish a specific goal; this ensures you stick to what you need to do to strive for excellence. When you are gritty, you do not lose hope when the going gets tough; instead, you push past the obstacles and push yourself to objectify your goal.
After helping you acquire grit and perseverance, self-discipline then instills optimism into your mind and life. When your self-discipline is lacking, when an adversity strikes, you quickly lose hope and experience a strong urge to quit pursuing your aim.
When you acquire self-discipline and self-control, you know you must pursue your goal, and ultimately, achieve it. This commitment helps you stay strong in the face of adversity, which in turn, makes you hopeful of a better tomorrow.
When you know you must move forward, you start looking for new ways to battle the difficulty and eventually defeat it. Hence, self-disciplined infused positivity provides you with amazing strength and resilience.
You can only become self-disciplined when the goals you want to achieve are clear. To discipline yourself, you need some motivation; motivation comes from having something desirable to achieve such as a lifelong goal. To exercise self-control, you have to know what you desire to achieve; this ensures the pursuit of self-discipline clarifies your goals, which then makes you feel motivated to achieve them.
When you exercise discipline, achieving your goals and successfully geting past obstacles becomes easier. This ability helps you discover and polish your abilities. When you polish your strengths, you reach and unlock your full potential. Hence, self-control is a tool that helps you unleash your full potential, fulfill it too, and use it to live your best life.
Key Takeaway: When you develop self-discipline, you develop grit, perseverance, motivation, and an optimistic outlook towards your goals and life in general; this helps you become successful and achieve every goal you set. To enjoy these and many other benefits self-discipline has in store for you, read on to discover the key steps you need to cultivate an impermeable sense of discipline.
The first step to acquiring self-discipline is to define what you want to achieve. As stated before, to build self-discipline, you need motivation. You need to know why you are disciplining yourself because knowing this (what we call defining your goals) encourages you to strive hard to achieve that goals, which makes it easier to condition the habits and behaviors you need to develop to achieve the prescribed goal.
To build self-discipline, you must have a strong ‘why.’
Let us find out how you can easily find and define your goals and objectives.
In a study focused on motivation, researchers found that abstract thinking helped develop self-discipline, which means ‘dreaming big’ keeps you motivated to achieve your goals. Moreover, the self-determination theory shows that being internally motivated to do things is a good way to build habits that stick.
This means that if you somehow find a balance between developing good habits and daily routines, and thinking of your long-term goals, you can easily develop self-control. This is where macro and micro quotas come in.
Your macro quotas are the ultimate and lifelong goals you want to achieve aka the bigger picture; micro quotas are the daily activities and the helpful habits you build in order to move closer to your goals.
For instance, if your ultimate goal is to become the CEO of the marketing firm where you currently work. This is your macro quota- the big dream you aspire to achieve. Your micro quotas are all the activities and routine tasks you need to perform to move closer to your ultimate objective.
In the above instance, micro quotas would be to submit project reports on time, thoroughly examining the marketing team, create new and effective marketing strategies, help the company market their products in a better cost effective manner that has results, and gradually receive different promotions that eventually, help you climb up the ladder to CEO.
The things you do every day in order to meet your goal are your micro quotas and together, the combination of micro and macro quotas help discipline you because they help you understand what you must do to get closer to your goals and actualize them.
Knowing your macro quotas and determining the micro quotas you need to complete to fulfill the macro quota is the very step you need to exercise to strengthen your discipline.
To accomplish this, here is what you need to do:
Grab a journal and pen and sit somewhere peaceful. Once you settle in, focus on the one thing you want to accomplish right now- something that motivates you to strive hard and beat all odds standing in your path. You could have more than one goal. Focus on whatever encourages you to achieve it.
Once you have a few things in mind, jot them down, and then identify the most appealing task of the lot. For instance, when I was working on developing the self-esteem, I needed to lose weight, I constantly thought of the goals I wanted to achieve. I came up with; lose 10kg, become a good painter, and learn French. Three years ago, those were the goals I wanted to achieve and of that lot, I felt most motivated to lose weight, therefore, I picked it as my macro quota.
Do the same: select one objective you feel most ambitious about; you can set and achieve other goals, but only after accomplishing that particular one because once you fulfill one macro quota, you develop self-restraint, which makes pursuing other aims super-easy. Make sure the goal you want to accomplish is clear and make it as specific as possible.
For instance, if you want to become an affiliate marketer, define your niche and be clear about what you want to fulfill. Once you figure out your specific goal, write it down, and set an intention to achieve it. For instance, if you want to publish a book, say, “I am going to become a published writer.” Once you set your intention, you will experience a surge of motivation to achieve your aim. Hold on to that motivation and then work your way towards your micro quotas.
A macro goal is inspiring; it gives you the motivation to pursue your goal, which makes you feel good. However, when you set to achieve your macro goal, you may feel overwhelmed and intimidated especially if at first glance, the goal seems challenging.
To reduce the severity and challenging nature of a macro goal, break it into smaller, actionable goals aka micro quotas. The micro quotas are simple day-to-day activities and tasks you complete so you can move closer your macro goals.
For instance, in the case of becoming a published author, you would first need to polish your writing skills; to do that, you would need daily writing practice. Once your writing skills reach a level of brilliance, you would then have to research a good book topic to write on and then extensively research the topic to gather sufficient information.
Once your research is complete, you would have to look for a publishing house, decide to use Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, or other similar platforms to publish your book. Next, you would have to write the book and then get it published.
Key Takeaway: As you can see, the process includes setting micro quotas that lead you to fulfilling your ultimate goal. By giving you something relevant to do every day, micro quotas detail a plan you have to follow to stick to your goal.
To determine your micro quotas, simply think of what you must do to achieve your goal and then create a series of steps. After identifying all the steps, break each into even smaller doable tasks that make the pursuit of that goal super easy for you. Once you have that marked, move to the next step.
Once you have your list of tasks you need to complete to reach your macro quota, complete them using the ‘alternating enjoyable tasks with dull or unpleasant tasks’ technique. This amazing technique gets you started and helps you easily discipline yourself without falling in the procrastination trap.
Let us find out what it is and how you can carry it out.
When you set out to fulfill a goal, you have several tasks you need to complete to achieve your goal. Many of these tasks may be unpleasant, boring, or too complicated; thus, they may fail to instill the motivation you need to pursue them and move farther.
At all these points, you can undergo a strong urge to quit your goal pursuit. To prevent this from happening, it is essential to have something desirable and exciting, something that pumps your motivation and helps you stick to your goal and complete the unpleasant tasks. This is where the ‘alternating pleasant and undesirable tasks’ technique comes in.
The alternating technique requires you to arrange your tasks in a manner that allows you to complete an unpleasant task immediately after completing a pleasant one. This way, you create a series of pleasant and unpleasant tasks wherein you know a desirable task will follow an undesirable one.
When the arrival of the unpleasant task demotivates you, you look at the pleasant task lined up next and feel motivated to reach it; because of that, you feel ready to move past the unpleasant job.
Here is how to practice this highly effective technique:
To practice this tactic, simply gather your task list or your micro quotas and observe them. Many of them may not have a direct connection with each other, and you can accomplish them at any time.
For instance, to receive a promotion as the Marketing Executive, you may have to create a new marketing plan for a new range of products the company intends to launch, lead a marketing project, or meet a new client. All these tasks need completion in a month but in no order. Because you find meeting new clients pleasing, the last task is exciting, but leading projects is exhausting; therefore, it is an unpleasant task and you also enjoy crafting strategies.
In this instance, place ‘meet the prospective client’ as task #1 followed by leading a project and then creating a marketing plan. This way, you successfully alternate between a pleasant and unpleasant task and will not feel the urge to quit once you start completing the unexciting task.
By using this strategy, you create a list of tasks that take you closer to your goals without feeling demotivated. As you work towards reaching your goals, you further condition your discipline. However, some tasks need completion in specific orders.
For instance, to become an engineer, you have to send applications to different colleges, take their entrance examination, and then get admission in a college that accepts you. These tasks have a specific order, but you also need to break down each of these micro quotas into smaller tasks. For this, you can implement the ‘alternating’ technique to those tasks so you can stay stimulated to accomplish your goal.
For instance, to apply to different colleges, you have to visit different colleges (virtually or for physically), ask friends or relatives about these colleges, seek their admission forms, and then apply.
If visiting the colleges seems appealing, but consulting friends and relatives is a somewhat boring task, then do it before going to the colleges so you know an exciting task awaits you.
Key Takeaway: Practicing this effective technique will help you stick to the fulfillment of your macro quotas and gradually develop self-restraint.
After implementing the last two steps, move on to the next important step: exposing yourself to everything positive and influential. This may sound bizarre especially if you are aware of the internet rumors stating to develop self-discipline; the only thing you have to do to is stick to your ultimate goal and do nothing else.
Yes, you do have to do that, but to instill self-discipline in your being, that is not the only thing you have to do. To stay put on the path to self-discipline, you also need a constant flow of positivity so you remain motivated to pursue your goal and accomplish your identified micro quotas.
This is only possible when you expose yourself to all things positive and inspiring. When you surround yourself with influential, optimistic, and motivational things, your focus stays on your goal, which keeps you from straying away from your goal.
When you pay your goal complete attention, you pursue it with zeal; gradually, this shapes your self-discipline. This means to practice self-control, you must create a positive environment.
Here is how you can make that possible:
According to Jim Rohn, a renowned American author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker, the quality of our life is the average of four to five of our close friends.
Therefore, if you hang out with happy people, you are going to think and feel happy and consequently, live a happy life. However, if negative people surround you, your life will be negative. Hence, to be truly positive inside out, ensure your social circle comprises of positive people.
Because your aim is self-discipline, hang out with goal-oriented, result-driven, positive, and disciplined people who pursue their goals with optimism, resilience, perseverance, and commitment. By doing this, you will actually be doing yourself a huge favor because when you interact with such people, you constantly feel encouraged to match their gusto, which motivates you to stick to your path.
As opposed to this, if negative people who lack self-discipline surround you, they will exude a negative aura that will negatively influence you thus causing you to lose interest in your goals and eventually dump them.
To achieve your goals and progressively build self-control, identify all the people who have a negative or positive influence on you and those have an immutable discipline. Slowly distance yourself from the negative lot and spend more time with the right sort.
You should also find a role model- someone who has already accomplished what you are trying to accomplish. This person could be a famous celebrity or someone from your social network. Once you find an ideal role model or someone who inspires you to follow your dreams and remain disciplined, follow that person’s example and get to know their story.
If the person is world-famous, you will easily find that person’s talks, interviews, and lectures online; if you have a personal relationship with that person, even better. Connect with that person and ask him or her to share his or her journey, the difficulties he or she faced, and the tactics he or she used to overcome those odds and accomplish the mutual goal.
This story will help you understand that everyone goes through a rough patch before achieving something amazing and if your role model can push past the adversities and achieve his or her goals, so can you. When you understand this, you stop perceiving fear and adversities as stopping stones; instead, you view them as stepping stones that create a bridge leading to your achievements.
This instills courage in you and stimulates you to face all your fears and challenges.
Instead of listening to rock music and reading mundane fiction novels, listen to inspirational discipline and success talks and read influential books and articles on the same topic. The idea is to eliminate the pointless from your life and enrich your life with positive, valuable, and meaningful things so your mind stays fixed on your goal 24/7. When your objective remains in sight, it becomes easier to stay motivated to pursue your goal.
Key Takeaway: Positivity will sieve in you the strength and courage you need to stay firm as you walk the self-discipline path, and eventually build the self-discipline you have been yearning for.
While ensuring positivity surrounds you, also eliminate all sorts of distractions that may cause you to falter as you trod the path to self-discipline. Distractions are all things, people, and ideas that sidetrack your goals and obstruct the pursuit of your goals.
Due to their distracting nature, all these things can overpower you and cause you to waver, which is why you need to remove all distractions from your life.
Here is how you can achieve this important task.
Start by creating a list of all the things, people, ideas, and thoughts that distract you from pursuing your goal and cause you to lose sight of it. Distractions can take many shapes. For instance, a television near your work table that often causes you to give in to the temptation to switch it on and binge watch movies, or a friend who constantly organizes parties at his or her house every weekend and invites you, or distracting thoughts about your past or future.
Discover all things that distract you and enlist them.
Once you know what distracts you, start eliminating one distraction at a time. Here is what you can do to get rid of different distractions:
Electronics: Get rid of televisions, video games, and any electronics or gadgets that divert your focus from your goal. Place these things in a room or a big box, lock it, and tell yourself you can only use them after completing a certain task. This is what we call the punishment technique; it uses something punishing to persuade you to complete your task.
When you know you will only use your Xbox when you write 1000 words, you will automatically feel motivated to complete the task.
Social Media Platforms: Log out of all social media platforms that send you notifications; if logging onto these sites is unintentional, you could temporarily block these sites; because unblocking them each time you need to access them would mean going through a long procedure, gradually, you will lose interest in these platforms and instead, be attentive to your goal. You can practice the punishment tactic on your usage of social media forums.
Use some blocking tools like Self Control, LeechBlock, and StayFocusd (among others) to keep off the various time sinks- YouTube, Facebook etc.
Negative Thoughts: To escape negative thoughts and the habit of ruminating on negative ideas, memories, and thoughts, you can practice two effective techniques.
The first is to let these thoughts flow out of your mind just as rapidly as they enter it. To do that, spot a negative thought as soon as it enters your mind. When you understand a thought is negative, take a deep breath through the nose and then, as you exhale deeply through your nose, count to seven and create a mental image of that thought flowing out of your mind.
As you do that, gently bring your focus to what you were doing and continue doing it as if nothing happened. Practice this tactic with every unhealthy thought you experience and in a matter of days, you will find it super-easy to eliminate negative thoughts. In addition, when you recognize a negative thought, quickly find something positive to replace it with; for instance, speak and write a positive thought.
For instance, if you think, “It is impossible to write 1000 words daily” then replace it with “If I try, I can definitely write 100 words and accomplish my goal.” Feeding your mind positive suggestions and encouragement and swapping unconstructive thoughts with healthy ones is what we call positive self-talk. Positive self-talk is a fantastic way to breed a positive mindset that removes all sorts of temptations and distractions from your mind and life.
De-Clutter and Organize Your Workplace: Facebook and a negative mindset are not the only elements that distract you. A cluttered and disorganized workplace can be extremely distracting too. Whenever you sit to work, you may find an old document or a book that causes you to lose focus. This is why you must de-clutter your workplace and eliminate all aimless items. Next, clean your workplace and neatly organize important items so you can easily find everything whenever you need it, which will help you work efficiently and conveniently.
Detach Yourself from Negative Friends: We have previously discussed the negative impact distracting and negative friends can have on your life and goal pursuit; therefore, determine this lot of people and slowly reduce the time you spend with them. If it works, switch off your phone and do not log on to social media forums for a while so these people cannot easily contact you.
Key Takeaway: A positive mindset will multiply your motivation and your perseverance. By practicing the above positivity-strategies, you can avoid all distractions and negativities and when these are no longer part of your personality, you are in a better position to strengthen your focus on your goal.
At this point, you have cleansed your life of all distractions, built a positive atmosphere, and created an easy to follow plan detailing your macro goals and micro quotas. Nonetheless, you find yourself standing or sitting feeling puzzled, thinking of whether or not to start completing the very first task in your action plan. Relax, this happens to many individuals; it is part of the process.
When I decided to lose weight, it took me two whole days to start the first step on my plan of action despite the fact that the action was simple: drink honey and lemon tea in the morning.
Nonetheless, this does not mean you should continue staying idle waiting for the right moment to arrive because the right moment never comes. To discipline yourself and achieve your goals, you have to start completing your listed tasks and to accomplish; to do that, use the famous ‘just do it’ technique.
Here is how this strategy works:
This technique demands getting up, understanding the task, and doing it without overthinking. The more you think about a task, the more ideas and options you get; when that happens, you experience analysis paralysis, a state of mind where you become incapable of making a decision.
In addition, by overthinking a task, you let procrastination kick in; as we saw earlier, procrastination and self-discipline are sworn enemies. To ensure you stay safe against the evils of analysis paralysis and procrastination, just do whatever you have to do.
You can try the ‘2 Minute’ hack to get started. This hack requires you to do a task for two minutes at full attention. This hack works because when you fully involve yourself in a task for even two minutes, you continue doing it after the two minutes lapse and end up completing it.
Key Takeaway: Set your timer to two minutes and complete the first task on your list. Once you engage in the task for two whole minutes and feel like leaving it, tell yourself ‘just do it for another two minutes.’ Keep saying that and extend the duration to 20 minutes. Before you know it, you will feel fully engrossed in the task and eventually, you will finish it.
Use this technique on all your tasks and in a few weeks, you will complete all the tasks on your action plan. Check off the tasks as you completed them; this will help you know how you are faring on the journey.
After you start completing tasks on your list, engage the next step: tracking and evaluation your performance so you can learn your mistakes and strengths and improve your performance.
Here is how this tactic works:
As you complete a certain task, write it on your journal. Jot down what you did, how you did, the time it took to complete the task, the problems you faced while completing the task, the mistakes you made, and the things you did right.
Once you write this detailed description, go through it. If your work has a few flaws, find out why and the factors that caused you to err; then, look for ways to eliminate those issues. If you took two days to complete a simple task, find out why that happened and what you can do to avoid the same error.
For instance, if you wrote 1000 words in two days instead of one because you met an old friend, next time, start to write, do nothing else so you avoid distractions and failing to accomplish your goal.
Key Takeaway: Assess how well you are doing and then find ways to improve your performance. Keep this journal safe and go through it every day you can view your daily performance and evaluate it.
After going through with this step, move to the last and final step of this plan.
The final step of the seven-step plan is to break and reward yourself for all the hard work.
Here is how this step works.
Yes, hard work is a prerequisite to achieving your goals and completing tasks on your action plan; however, an equally important part of this process is taking a break, and relaxing.
When your action plan is ready, schedule breaks, and time-outs after every hour or two, which will help you avoid working for incredibly long periods. This ensures you stay fresh and active and easily work on your goals.
In addition, set attractive rewards and reward yourself after accomplishing each goal. Set rewards that match the difficulty level of a task. If a task is highly complex, set an incredibly amazing reward for its completion so you feel truly stimulated to achieve it. Praise and reward yourself on completing every task so you can feel motivated to keep moving forward.
Key Takeaway: After this step, return to the fifth step and start completing a new task. Steps five to seven have to be in order and you must loop their engagement so you never stay stagnant constantly move towards your goal.
Self-discipline is vital to the fulfillment of your goals; as this book has shown you, although it does require some work, commitment, and ambition, becoming self-disciplined is not rocket science: YOU CAN DO IT.
Please implement the seven steps and the various strategies and tips discussed in this book. If you do, nothing will stand on your path to discipline and immense success.
I hope this book was able to help you to understand how to build massive self-discipline to do anything you want to do in life.
The next step is to implement what you’ve learnt.
Thank you and good luck!
You can download the pdf file here or the word doc here
Murugi M. Nyaga
7 years, 9 months, 3 weeks, 34 minutes, 31 seconds ago
Good read; I found some few typos though...
When you exercise discipline, achieving your goals and successfully get past obstacles becomes easier.
You could have more than one goals.
I came up with lose 10kg weight
As opposed to this, if you negative people who lack self-discipline surround you,
Here is what you can do to get rid of different distraction:
By practicing the above positivity-strategies, can avoid all distractions and negativities; when this aspects are no longer part of your personality,
WTP Admin
7 years, 9 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes, 15 seconds ago
Thanks for the highlight. We fixed that.
Sofia
6 years, 11 months, 2 weeks, 4 hours, 54 minutes, 8 seconds ago
i have learnt more than just the skill, very educative.
