Motivated Mondays: Let’s Talk Discipline

What is Self Discipline?

Self discipline, also known as self-control or conscientiousness, is the ability to resist temptation and regulate your behavior. It’s less to do with punishing yourself for real or perceived failures and more so making sure you stay on track to meet your goals. It’s something that can be taught through upbringing or learned later on in life.

Self discipline is better than motivation. While it’s great to be motivated, motivation can be deceiving. There’s times where find yourself to be excited about what something you’re going to do or achieving a goal. You will see yourself in a good place internally and you’ll believe that everything is going to work out fine. Then life happens and your amazing plans get detoured. Boom! You’re annoyed, but if you want to complete the task at hand, you must keep going.

Like working out – You may be excited to start and get in the gym, but there will be low-motivation days when you’d much rather stay on the couch. Those are the days that self-discipline gets you off the couch and into the gym, not motivation.

The possession of self discipline enables you to choose, and then persevere with actions, thoughts and behavior, which lead to improvement and success. It also gives you the power and inner strength to overcome addictions, procrastination and laziness and to follow through whatever you do.

Sounds easy right? Well it’s not. However it IS WORTH IT. Check out these benefits:

• You’ll be more healthy
• You’ll create a more positive outlook
• You’ll be more focused
• You’ll feel better
• You’ll have more respect
• You’ll be more organized
• You’ll have more control
• You’ll perform better (whether academically Or physically)
• You’ll achieve more goals
• You’ll be more emotionally stable
• You’ll have less stress
• You’ll have more time in the day
• You’ll improve your leadership skills

Should I keep going? There’s many benefits of becoming more disciplined and the list goes on.

Here’s a few tips of some changes you can make to become more disciplined:

• Create a routine that excites you.
• Create a culture of accountability.
• Remove temptations.
• Treat your body well (eat well, exercise).
• Define your goal.
• Schedule downtime.
• Focus on what’s necessary.

Keep this in mind this week as you discover the ways you need to be more disciplined. It’s totally a process and often times you need help from others who are disciplined in the way you’d like to be or at least desire to be. Accountability is key!