Won’t it be nice for you to acquire the skill of self-discipline. A skill that will enable you to direct and regulate your desires, needs, fears, thoughts, intellect, memories and imagination, for the purpose of accomplishing a chosen goal. In truth, you will agree with me that how to be a disciplined person features as an important topic worth attending to. To Practice self-discipline is to become aware of your resistances to constructive action and to transcend the resistances.
Hang on as we explore the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
1. Use A Goal Sheet To Transform Your Dreams Into Concrete Goals That You Can Work On
Your dreams move into the realm of reality when you translate them to concrete goals. A concrete goal facilitates a plan for its actualization. In support, a goal sheet sharpens your direction, commitment and motivation, and bolsters your foundation for action. A goal sheet boasts of three simple components. Firstly, it contains a written, specific, detailed statement of your goal. For example, “I want to be earning an income of $100,000 per year in two years. A clear picture of what you want to accomplish makes it easier for you to devise an effective plan for realising it. Secondly, a statement of your purpose, why you are doing what you are doing, finds space here. A clear purpose, an authentic mission that resonates with your values, enhances your commitment to your goal. Thirdly, a list of steps required for accomplishing your goal, makes good sense in the goal sheet.
2. Face Your Fears, To Commit To Your Task Or Goal
Our fears often pose as obstacles to self-discipline. These fears foster attitudes that lead to procrastination, poor time management skills and task avoidance. Becoming aware of your fears and accepting them as part of being human, sets you to the path of self-discipline. Some of the fears that rise as impediments are detailed below.
Fear Of Failure
We often fear failure because we erroneously regard failure as an accurate evaluation of our self-worth. The Emotional pain and worthless feelings, accompanying perceived past failures, often keep us from pursuing certain desires or goals. It is important for us not to label ourselves as failures simply because we failed at some task. For good, we should see failure as evidence of our experimentation, a stepping stone to success, not blows to our self-esteem. This mindset enables us to draw on the power of self-discipline and persevere in the face of challenges. Also, it keeps us from procrastination and half-hearted engagement with our tasks. In sum, it fosters a commitment to our goals, a commitment that is an essential ingredient of the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
Fear Of Success
A negative perception of success can render impotent our conscious desire to attain it. A part of us may reject success because of the perceived responsibilities and complications that go along with it or because we feel we don’t deserve it. A first step to liberation is to realise that the foregoing thoughts are self-talk statements based on imaginary fears and fallacies.
Fear Of Rejection
Our need for approval, fear of losing favour with our family, friends, employers, coworkers or society, frequently keeps us from giving due attention or priority to our goals or desires. Pleasing others at your own expense generates feelings of inadequacy, inferiority. When you view yourself as unworthy, you will equally consider your goals as unworthy. This attitude sabotages self-discipline. To transcend the feelings of guilt, anxiety and insecurity, resulting from giving the rightful attention to your goals, and saying “No” to others, it is constructive to imbibe the wisdom that when we try to satisfy everyone, we end up losing.
Fear Of Mediocrity
A fear of mediocrity often lurks behind a bent for perfectionism. Of a fact, the pressure of being a perfectionist leads to procrastination, self-defeat or a nervous breakdown. In truth, perfectionism doubles as a fear of appearing mediocre either to ourselves or to others. Divorcing our self-esteem from perfectionism and realising that chasing perfection is a fool’s mission, helps us to move beyond this fear. Perfectionism is just an ideal that inspires us to seek the best in ourselves.
Fear Of Risks
Indulging in repetition or routine that leads to stagnation, points to fear of risks. When we doubt our ability to function successfully in unfamiliar situations, we exhibit a fear of risks. Self-doubt sabotages our commitment and self-discipline. It is productive to think of risks as opportunities. When we are immobilised by fear of risks, indulging in constructive self-talk provides a way forward. In addition, we can ask ourselves “what is the worst thing that can happen?” Pursuing this line of questioning will reveal that our catastrophic expectations are probably exaggerated.
3. Avoid “All Or Nothing” Thinking Or Attitude
This thinking rears up as “There are only winners and losers,” “There is only one right way to do it,” and “Either do it right or don’t do it at all.” With this kind of thinking, we foster an attitude that prompts us to equate a slip or stumble to failure. To certainty, this extremist attitude paralyses us with a fear of failure that keeps us from pursuing our goals. Again, it instigates us to define ourselves as either a loser or a winner. When we ignore the middle ground, between the two extremes, where life is mostly lived, we put ourselves under tremendous stress that keeps us from pursuing our goals.To continue with, this brand of negative thinking brings in an inflexibility that prevents us from seeing a goal as comprising of bite-sized tasks that require step-by-step discipline. When we buy into this scenario, we overwhelm ourselves with a picture of the whole project since we insist that we must do it all at a go, instead of taking small steps. In truth, to file down extremist thinking sets you to the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
4. Visualise The Positive Aspects Of Your Goal
Visualisation headlines as self-talk that uses mental images instead of words. When you choose a project or a goal, it is also advisable to choose supportive mental images. Doing so, motivates you and gives your perseverance a boost. The practice of visualisation gains more potency when it is done in advance before the commencement of the real action. Visualising yourself effectively executing the in-between steps of your goal, in vivid details that involves all the senses, minimises your fears and boosts your confidence. Plus, it firms up your commitment and capabilities. Practicing visualisation daily for a week prior to going into action brings in good benefits.
5. Challenge And Discard The Belief That You Must Be The Best Or Perform A Certain Task Perfectly
Nurturing the belief that any performance short of perfection is unacceptable, piles pressure on you, weakens your perseverance, and makes you anxious. This anxiety breeds procrastination and other self-defeating attitudes. To challenge this belief, you need to realise that human perfection is only meant to inspire you to bring out the best in you. Moreover, the reality of getting the task done, regularly proves more satisfying than the dream of getting it perfect. Jettisoning perfectionism prepares the ground for the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
6. Employ A Reward System To Help You Get Your Projects Started And Finished
A reward system plays up as an effective motivator that helps to get you started and keep you going until you accomplish your goals. Part of a personalised reward system is private praise. Private praise should follow the performance of even the smallest step toward a large goal. Phrases like “Good work,” “good going” are in order here. In the same regard, self-contract is another type of reward system. In this case, you contract to reward yourself with some action for executing and completing a particular segment of a task. For instance, you could decide to reward yourself with one hour of junk television for working for three hours on a task on your “to do” list. A reward system fits in well with the idea of how to be a disciplined person since most of your goals are segmented and require a step-by-step approach. A boost in motivation results from rewarding each step of the project that is executed, no matter how small it is.
7. Accept That Meaningful Achievements Require A Certain Amount Of Trade-off And Discomfort
Trade-offs may feature as giving up sugary deserts to maintain a strict diet or avoiding the distraction of a television screen in order to attend to an important project. They are things you forgo in order to accomplish an important task. The key to accomplishing tasks, even the smallest ones, is accepting and tolerating periods of discomfort. The wisdom to realise that purposeful effort attends meaningful achievements, draws on the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
8. Write Down Affirmations That Reinforce Your Goals Or The Steps That Lead To Your Goals
Written Affirmations avail you of easy motivation that works on a deep level. As you write down self-messages and read them along, you benefit from a reinforced positive support for your actions or goals. To proceed forward, transform your goal or task into a compact, single sentence, an affirmation. For example, “I, Azubike Eze, write eight hundred words a day.” Framing your sentence in the present, making them specific and positive, and using numbers, all capture the essence of an effective affirmation. Furthermore, stick copies of the affirmation, on places where you will see it everyday. Such places include your bathroom mirror, vehicle dashboard and wallet. The practice helps to keep the statement, reminding you of your goal, fresh in your mind. Consistently keeping your goal in your view helps you to beat down procrastination and upraise the idea of how to be a disciplined person.
9. Apply Situational Relaxation To Lower Your Anxiety And Boost Your Motivation
When you are relaxed, it becomes easier for you catch yourself rationalising, minimising and justifying the avoidance of a task that needs attending to. Relaxation stimulates you to detect, challenge and replace the unconstructive thoughts behind the avoidance behaviour. Situational relaxation May assume the following process: first, make yourself comfortable, take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly. Then, affirm “I am completely relaxed.” To continue with, tighten your forehead and relax it. Follow through with your facial muscles, jaw, shoulders, arms, hands, buttocks, legs. Tighten and relax them. In line, ask yourself a few “Why” questions in view of an avoidance behaviour, and listen for undercurrents of unproductive thoughts that warrant disputing. Continue along by installing positive thoughts, visualising yourself effectively taking small action steps toward your task. For better, the idea of how to be a disciplined person, takes deeper root through relaxation.
10. Make A Simple “To Do” List
A “to do” list is a plan containing the steps of your goal, that need to be accomplished by certain times and dates. When a task is broken into small steps, resistance diminishes and motivation and self-discipline get a lift. An effective “to do” list comprises two or three crucial tasks. These tasks motivate you to think deeply about the choices you are making and your priorities. Additionally, they stimulate you to become more innovative and stretch you beyond your current capabilities.
How to be a disciplined person is a process that takes you through the stages of decision, preparation and action. First, you need to decide on a goal that truly matters to you, that truly resonates with your values. The next phase involves shoring up your self-belief and conviction in your goal and mission. You achieve this through the agency of challenging your irrational fears, using affirmations and visualisations. If you believe that your goal is achievable, you are already half-way there. In line, the action stage involves the material embodiment of your goal through step-by-step tasks.
