How to Build Self Discipline for Higher Performance in Everyday Life
Nobody likes to say “NO” to their favorite ice cream. It’s hard to get up and go to the gym when you are all warm and tucked into your bed on a winter night. And yet, people would tell you that the key to happiness, is self-discipline. The reason being that self-discipline enables you to make stronger and better decisions that are practical for you in the long run. People with self-discipline are in charge of their feelings and emotions that help a great deal for them to keep their focus on maximizing their performance every single day. As a consequence, such people find more contention and satisfaction in their lives.
If you truly believe that you are destined to something greater than what you are at right now, self-discipline may be the way to go for unlocking your true potential. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, however, then adopting self-discipline as a habit would be like changing your entire personality. It is going to be every bit as difficult as it sounds. Understanding the importance of support in going through such a transformation, therefore, we would like to introduce you to a few strategies that you can put to use in an attempt of making yourself more disciplined for higher performance in everyday life.
If you are ready to take control of your desires, temptations, habits, and feelings, then follow the tips which pave the way to your ultimate destination of success.
- Meditation And Workout
Nothing teaches you self-discipline as following a meditation and workout regime like a religion. Make one for you or hire an instructor, whatever works for you. Practicing mindfulness and physical exercises will be your first step towards being self-disciplined. Of course, there are health benefits that you will get to relish in the meantime. But more important than that, it will slowly start to sensitize your brain to a disciplined lifestyle. Dedicate a particular time for meditation, most likely in the morning before leaving for work, and dedicated time for physical exercise, most likely in the evening once you get back from work. Now commit yourself to follow the routine at least 5 days of the week. Both of these practices are known to open your mind, sharpen your focus, make you calm and peaceful which eventually translates into enhanced motivation and inspiration as well. This is why meditation and workout deserve to be the first step of your journey towards beings self-disciplined.
- Accept Your Shortcomings
One of the counterproductive things that you can do in life is being in self-denial. What’s unfortunate is that a good proportion of us are in one. We take pride in successfully hiding our flaws or running away from our shortcomings, denying their existence in the first place. Remember, the whole point of self-discipline is to improve yourself as an individual at all levels. And there is no way that you can improve yourself unless you have to guts to confront your shortcomings and accept them. You can’t fix anything if you refuse to accept its existence. Once you are familiar with the shortcomings, you can begin to devise a strategy that can help you overcome them. Therefore, for your transformation into a self-disciplined individual, get a pen and a blank piece of paper and take your time to craft a list of your shortcomings.
- Keep Your Eyes On The Bigger Picture
Keeping your eyes on the bigger picture, having an ability to free yourself of the trap that your momentary feelings, emotions, temptations build around you is the very definition of self-discipline. Self-disciplined people are [restrict] focused on what they wish to achieve in the long run, and not what may temporarily relieve them now. For this purpose, it is imperative to have a plan, a clearly laid out strategy of what you wish to achieve, and how do you plan on going about it? Remember, your mind needs reassurance and sensitization from time to time. It is, therefore, recommended to remind yourself of your goal every morning before you leave for work. The more you stay in touch with your ultimate goal, the easier it would be for you to achieve self-discipline and maximize your performance every day.
- Manage Your Expectations
As mentioned earlier, transforming yourself into a self-disciplined individual is like changing your entire personality. It is important that you take it more seriously than you do the New Year’s resolutions. Have you ever stopped to wonder why most of these resolutions fail? It’s because they are not thought through, they are impractical, and ask for too much, too soon. If you follow the same approach with making yourself self-disciplined, your journey will end just as soon as the New Year’s resolutions do. The importance of starting it small and managing your expectations can’t be over-emphasized. Don’t expect yourself to do everything at once and have the results in a week. Take one thing at a time. For instance, you can start with meditation and a workout regime as mentioned in tip number 1. There are going to be failures, there will be cheat days when you least planned them. Give yourself a little room to breathe. Instead of being frustrated and going to war with yourself, be gentle in accepting your relapse and bring yourself back on the track. You will eventually get there. You just need practice, patience, and consistency.
- Get A Partner
Two are better than one, well, at least in most cases. It is our inherent nature to need a push every time that we think of taking up a new habit. Therefore, it may help a great deal in getting a partner as you embark on the journey to being self-disciplined. Your partner can help you keep your motivation up meditation and mindfulness in the morning, for that workout in the evening, and overall to keep your temptations in check and lend you a helping hand in fighting them off. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. It is just a sign of maturity, which in itself is a sign of discipline.
- Positive Affirmations And Rewards
Regardless of how selfless you think you are, it is hardwired in your DNA to function on the principle of reward. Motivation is your keyword when it comes to adopting self-discipline. The moment your motivation dwindles is the moment you get a step closer to giving up. In an attempt to prevent that from happening, you should use positive affirmations and rewards to keep yourself motivated. Creating a personal mantra like “I’ve got this”, “I can do this”, “I won’t give up”, and repeating it in your mind while sitting in a peaceful environment is a surefire way of recharging your motivation every time you run out of it. Similarly, get yourself excited about a reward that you’ll get once you achieve your objective. Under circumstances like these, we are all still that little kid whose only motivation for good behavior was the reward that he’d receive in the end. So go ahead, congratulate yourself, pat yourself on the back, and let yourself enjoy the reward once you achieve the goal.
- Schedule For Breaks
Another simple tip that works like a charm when it comes to being self-disciplined and maximizing your performance throughout the day is scheduling for the breaks. Imagine that you have a huge task at hand. Instead of taking it all together and overwhelming your mind to the extent of nervousness, or even utter despair, it is recommended to break it down in smaller assignments of thirty minutes each. Studies show that focusing on a smaller assignment at a time enables your mind to enhance its focus and maximize productivity. You can schedule for a break after every small assignment is accomplished. So you can tell yourself that you’ll get a break for 10 minutes after the first assignment is completed in thirty minutes. This way, you will prevent your brain from being lost in the distractions for thirty minutes through which it will work with discipline and maximize its performance.
Conclusion
It is understandable for people with a lack of discipline to idealize those who are the master of their minds. After all, self-discipline plays a crucial role in ensuring higher performance on a day to day basis. The better you perform, the more you progress, and the sooner you achieve your goals. Now that you know that an ability to practice self-discipline is within all of us. Some of us just have it dormant while others keep it activated. With the aforementioned tips, however, you can now activate self-discipline in your personality as well and boost your performance to create a better life for yourself. Will it take time? Yes. Will it take effort? Yes. Will it all be worth it, in the end? You bet. Remember, you don’t have anything to lose here at all. Your time to idealize ends here, it’s time for you to be the idol. [/restrict]
