Six Simple Ways To Strengthen Your Discipline

Positive habits, goals, and self-discipline are not as hard to attain as you might think.

We’d all like to be better people.

We’d like to be more productive, more healthy, less wasteful, and so on.

But how to get there?

The idea of “building discipline” sounds foreboding, but it’s really a lot easier than many people think. Let’s pull back the curtain and look at some straightforward ways anyone can strengthen their discipline and achieve their goals and nurture more positive habits.

Identify Your Weaknesses

First things first.

Where is the weak link in your discipline? Are you easily distracted? Have too much of a sweet tooth? Too many personal or professional obligations to keep up with?

You can’t overcome a weakness until you’ve identified it.

Once you’ve nailed down what you need to be on guard for, it becomes easier to deal with. You may even want to remind yourself each morning to be on the lookout for these sorts of weaknesses as you affirm your commitment to whatever positive habit you’re trying to encourage.

Write Down Your Goals

What is it, exactly, that you intend to accomplish?

Write it down.

There is something about physically writing something down that makes it seem more real and tangible. Get a notebook and identify your goal, how you intend to meet it, and what challenges you may face along the way — and then finishing with how you will overcome those challenges.

But keep the focus on the goals themselves. Those are what’s important.

Review your written goals every few days to help reinforce them. You can even copy your written goals to your smartphone if you wish, so you can look them up quickly wherever you are.

Eliminate Distractions

This was a strategy that worked particularly well for me.

If I needed to focus on a goal, task, or habit, I often did better by getting rid of anything that distracted me from my goal. If I needed to get better at keeping to my work schedule, I realized that having the TV on — even in the background — distracted me from my work.

I switched to low-volume music instead,

Sometimes it’s a simple thing. Sometimes it requires significant change. Back in the day, when I was quitting drinking, to be successful, I had to stop going to bars and essentially make all new friends.

It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.

If you’re having trouble sticking to a discipline, remove your distractions so you can focus on what’s good for you.

Make New Habits Simple

One thing that gets in the way of developing new positive habits (or eliminating bad ones) is to keep things pretty simple. Break up the nurturing of a new practice into small, manageable chunks.

I’ve been working on being a better housekeeper.

That’s not a change that happens overnight and sticks.

Instead, I break down my household chores into a weekly schedule where I do a few things a day and on those same days each week.

That’s a lot more manageable than trying to transform me into a housekeeping machine in a single day or week.

Instead, I’ve been building a slower but steady habit that is working out pretty well for me.

Lasting change and discipline builds slowly.

Sudden change only happens in movies, and that’s because they have less time to tell a transformative story.

Practice Daily

Each day builds on the next.

Every day you move closer to your goal or build your habit is strengthened and supported by the preceding days. Keep at it.

Over time, you’ll find discipline comes much more easily with each passing day.

Forgive Yourself, Reward Yourself

What should you do should you fail?

Forgive yourself. If you fall off the wagon, so to speak, then you just get back up, brush yourself off, and continue moving toward your goal.

If discipline were easy, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

But failure does not mean you’ve come to an end. At more, it’s an interruption. You can move on.

And each time you’ve made measurable progress in building a positive habit or discipline, you’re certainly within your rights to reward yourself. This works particularly well when trying to eliminate bad habits that cost money.

Trying to quit smoking? Take the money you’ve saved not purchasing cigarettes for a month and buy yourself something nice. Or go on a trip.

Discipline may be its own reward, but a little gift to yourself now and then isn’t wrong either.

Discipline Is Learned Behavior

We aren’t born with self-discipline. It’s something we learn over time.

Sometimes it’s society doling out the lessons. Sometimes it’s our own sense of well-being. That we don’t live in total chaos tells me that acquiring discipline of one sort or another is a practice we’ve engaged in all our lives.

We all have parts of our lives we’d like to improve. That we’ve come this far suggests we can go even further.

Discipline is within easy reach if you’re willing to put in a little effort.

It probably won’t be as difficult as you think.

Cheers!

About John Teehan

John lives in Rhode Island with his wife, son, and dog. He specializes in tech, health, productivity, business, carousing, parenting, pop culture, and gaming. Visit wordsbyjohn.net for more info and rates. Twitter: @WordsByJohn2