So many people are struggling to implement self-discipline in their lives, the idea to eat healthier, go to the gym regularly, and wake up earlier in the morning sounds so enticing and exciting. We build a whole daily plan around our new habits and we can’t wait for day ONE to start, just to realise that weeks after we are finding ourselves in the same place again and again.
So let’s explore what self-discipline is and what are the best steps to take to maintain it to reach your long-term goals.
Self-discipline means automating your behaviours to achieve great results. You don’t need any more self-discipline than you have now, all you need is to learn how to establish new habits in your life. The 80/20 Principle says that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts.
Research shows that it takes from 18 days to 254 days to form a new habit. On average, it takes a little more than 2 months (66 days) to make new behaviour automatic. Each day you repeat the behaviour you intend to automate, you need less discipline to make it stick.
All new habits start from the idea of what is that you want to achieve or what results you want to see in the future. It is important that you are clear on ‘What is your why and how would it make you feel when you achieve your goal. Would it make you feel more proud, accomplished, healthy, more confident or all of these things?’
Make sure to write down and revisit it regularly.
Another tool to help you align with your goal is a visualisation of the process. It has been confirmed that daily visualisation of the specific process that you want to undertake will highly increase your chances to continue with your habit for a long period of time.
Let’s talk about some more tricks that can help you stay disciplined. Martin Meadows, the author of How to build self-discipline shared in his book tips that can increase your chance to stay disciplined.
Make yourself accountable and set stakes
Setting stakes is one of the most powerful ways to keep yourself disciplined. After all, if there is no punishment if you give in, it’s more tempting to succumb to a craving than if you knew there will be consequences. Make sure that stake is high (like pay x amount of money for charity or pay upfront for a gym membership that will force you to go).
Make sure to achieve small wins
The first small wins will encourage you to keep going and boost your motivation to make permanent changes in your life. Consider setting first goals that can give you quick results like completing your daily tasks, enrolling just one client or organising your wardrobe. If you are someone who often uses negative self-talk, set the goal to be kind to yourself just for ONE day, and then try two in a row.
Put roadblocks
If you are an impulsive person, put roadblocks that will serve the role of your self-discipline. For instance, if you spending a lot of money on clothes- don’t carry a credit card with you, if you want to stop mindlessly surfing the internet, turn off your wifi or use an app to block your phone for a certain period of time.
Schedule indulgences
It’s so much easier to stick to your habit knowing that the reward is coming. If going to the gym is one of your habits that you want to work on, schedule a day with zero exercises, if you want to start a business and work on it every single day- set one day per week which is free of any kind of work. No matter what your habit is, you can find a way to give yourself a short break that won’t ruin your progress.
Tie habits together
Combine your existing habits with new good ones. Stacking habits on top of existing ones is easier than coming up with new ones.
Just get it going
When you feel overwhelmed and ready to give up, tell yourself that you will start something just for 5 minutes. When you start and 5 min pass, the more likely you will want to keep going.