Discipline is the ability to sacrifice what you want now for what you want most. It involves doing the work required to get to where you want to go.
What discipline looks like for any one person depends on what they’re trying to achieve. With this in mind, here are five steps I’m taking to improve my discipline:
- Define clear goals.
Knowing what you want to achieve is the first step to developing discipline. After all, how can you be disciplined if you don’t know what you want to be disciplined about?
According to Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” it’s important to begin your endeavors with the end result in mind. Doing so will help ensure your efforts are aligned with what you want.
So, take some time to decide what you want. Once you can clearly define your aim, it will be easier to see the steps you need to take to get there, and you can work backwards from your end goal to discover what you need to do.
- Set habits in your schedule that will help you work towards those goals.
Once you have that clear vision of what you want, set habits that will help you reach those goals. For example, if your goal is to have mental peace and clarity, you may set a habit to meditate each morning. Or, if your goal is to run a marathon, you may develop a training schedule that will help you work your way up to being able to run that far.
When thinking about your goals and habits, it can also help to consider who you want to become. Productivity author James Clear writes about the concept of identity-based habits, which are habits that line up with the person you want to be. For instance, if you have a goal to become strong, become the kind of person who never misses a workout.
- Eliminate any distractions.
When working towards our goals, it can be easy to forget that distractions and temptations may pop up that could interfere with our goals. For example, you may have a goal to get an ‘A’ on an exam, but your family may often distract you from studying. In this case, choosing a quiet environment to study in, such as a library, or putting on earphones may help you avoid potential distractions.
Anticipating distractions ahead of time and making plans to work around them will help ensure you stay on track.
According to Becoming Minimalist, some ways to set up your environment for success and eliminate distractions include turning off notifications, removing physical/digital clutter, working on your 1-2 most important tasks first, and establishing a healthy, distraction-free morning routine.
- Stay consistent.
Once you have habits and a plan to work around distractions, keep working towards your goals until you achieve them! It may take a while to get there, but if you’re patient and persistent, the results will take care of themselves.
According to the National Library of Medicine, implementing habits as part of a daily routine can help people create and maintain lifestyle changes.
- Reward yourself for progress.
Lastly, give yourself regular rewards for a job well done. For instance, if you stay consistent with a habit for 7 days, you could treat yourself to your favorite show, podcast, or book at the end of the week.
Giving yourself small rewards for a job well done can help give you the motivation to keep going.
According to BetterUp, rewarding yourself for a job well done increases dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter that increases our memory retention, enhances our sleep quality, and regulates our mood and appetite. The surge in dopamine we get when we reward ourselves reinforces certain behaviors as worthwhile.
What methods do you use to stay disciplined? Let me know in the comments down below!
All the best,
Adriana
Reflect and Nourish 
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