52 Weeks
to Perfect Self-Management: Self-Discipline
Imagine what you could
accomplish if you could simply get yourself to follow through on your best
intentions no matter what. Picture yourself saying to your body, “You’re
overweight. Lose 20 pounds.” Without self-discipline that intention won’t happen.
But with adequate self-discipline, it’s a done deal. The peak of
self-discipline: when you make a conscious decision, it’s virtually guaranteed
you’ll follow through on it.
What Is
Self-Discipline?
Self-discipline is the
ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state. If it needs to be done, do it. Now.
Self-discipline is one of
many personal development tools available to you. Of course it is not a magic wand.
Still, the problems which self-discipline can solve are important, and
while there are other ways to solve these problems, self-discipline absolutely
shreds them. Self-discipline can empower you to overcome any addiction or lose
any amount of weight. It can wipe out procrastination, disorder, and ignorance.
Within the domain of problems it can solve, self-discipline is simply
unmatched. Moreover, it becomes a powerful teammate when combined with other
tools like zeal, goal-setting, and planning.
Building
Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is like a
muscle. The more you train it, the stronger you become. The less you train it,
the weaker you become. Just as it
takes muscle to build muscle, it takes self-discipline to build
self-discipline.
Progressive training means
that once you succeed, you increase the challenge. If you keep working out with
the same weights, you won’t get any stronger. Similarly, if you fail to
challenge yourself in life, you won’t gain any more self-discipline.
Don’t attempt to push
yourself too hard when trying to build self-discipline. If you aim to transform
your entire life overnight by setting dozens of new goals for yourself and
expecting yourself to follow through consistently starting the very next day, disappointment
is almost inevitable.
If you’re undisciplined right
now, you can still use what little discipline you have to build more. The more
disciplined you become, the easier life gets. Challenges that were once
impossible for you will eventually seem like child’s play.
Let’s consider an example.
Suppose you want to develop
the ability to do 8 solid hours of work each day, since you know it will make a
real difference in your career. A study showed the average office worker spends
37% of his time in idle socializing, not to mention other vices that chew up
more than 50% of work time with unproductive non-work.
Perhaps you try to work a
solid 8-hour day without succumbing to distractions, and you can only do it
once. The next day you don’t make it. That’s OK. You did one “rep” of 8 hours.
Two is too much for you (at the moment). So cut back a bit. By raising the bar
just a little each week, you stay within your capabilities and grow stronger
over time.
What duration would allow you
to successfully do 5 reps (i.e. a whole week)?
Day 1: Could you work with
concentration for one hour a day, five days in a row? If you can’t do that, cut
back to 30 minutes or whatever you can do. If you succeed (or if you feel that
would be too easy), then increase the challenge next week. Once you’ve mastered
a week at one level, take it up a notch the next week. And continue with this
progressive training until you’ve reached your goal. Track your
progress.
Day 2: If you want to
increase your self-discipline, you must know where you stand right now. How
strong is your discipline at this moment? Which challenges are easy for you,
and which are seem impossible to you?
Here’s a
list of challenges to get you thinking about where you stand right now (in no
particular order):
- Do you shower/bathe every day?
- Do you get up at the same time every morning?
Including weekends?
- Are you overweight?
- Do you have any addictions (caffeine, nicotine,
sugar, etc.) you’d like to break but haven’t?
- Is your email inbox empty right now?
- Is your office neat and well organized?
- Is your home neat and well organized?
- How much time do you waste in a typical day? On a
weekend?
- If you make a promise to someone, what’s the
percentage chance you’ll keep it?
- If you make a promise to yourself, what’s the
percentage chance you’ll keep it?
- Could you fast for one day?
- How well organized is your computer’s hard drive?
- How often do you exercise?
- How many hours of focused work do you complete in
a typical workday?
- How many items on your to-do list are older than
90 days?
- Do you have clear, written goals? Do you have
written plans to achieve them?
- If you lost your job, do you have an emergency
fund with money enough to cover your costs for eight months?
- How much TV do you currently watch? Could you
give up TV for 10 days? 30 days?
- How do you look right now? What does your
appearance say about your level of discipline (clothes, grooming, etc)?
- Do you snack on unhealthy “foods”?
- When was the last time you consciously adopted a
positive new habit? Discontinued a bad habit?
- Are you in debt? Do you consider this debt an
investment or a mistake?
- Can you tell me what you’ll be doing tomorrow?
Next weekend?
- On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your
overall level of self-discipline?
- What more could you accomplish if you could
answer that last question with a 9 or 10?
There are
different areas of self-discipline: disciplined sleep, disciplined diet,
disciplined work habits, disciplined communication, etc. It takes different
exercises to build discipline in each area.
Today, identify
an area where your discipline is weakest, assess where you stand right now,
acknowledge and accept your starting point, and design a training program for
yourself to improve in this area. Start out with some easy exercises you know
you can do, and gradually progress to greater challenges.
Progressive training works with self-discipline
just as it does with building muscle. For example, if you can barely get out of
bed at 10am, are you likely to succeed at waking up at 5am every morning?
Probably not. But could you master getting up at 9:45am? Very likely. And once
you’ve done that, could you progress to 9:30 or 9:15? Sure!
Day 3: Self-discipline can be considered a type of selective training, creating
new habits of thought, action, and speech toward improving yourself and
reaching goals.
View self-discipline as positive effort, rather than one of
denial.
Today: Schedule
a small task for a given time of the day
Schedule a particular task in the
morning and once in the evening.
▪
The task should not take more than 15 minutes.
▪
Wait for the exact scheduled time.
When the schedule
time is due, start the task.
▪
Stick to the schedule for at least two months.
Advantages: Scheduling
helps you focus on your priorities.
By focusing on starting tasks rather than
completing them, you can avoid procrastination.
▪
Schedule a task and hold to its time;
Avoid acting on
impulse.
▪ Track your progress;
At the end of the allotted time,
keep a record of accomplishment that builds over time.
Advantage: Keeping a
record will help you track how much time tasks take.
Harness
the power of routine.
▪ Instead of devoting a lot of hours one day, and none
the other and then a few on an another day and so on, allocate a specific time
period each day of the week for that task.
▪ Hold firm.
▪ Don't set a goal other than time allocation,
simply set
the habit of routine.
▪ Apply this technique to your tasks, homework, goals or
your projects.
Advantage: You are working
on tasks in small increments, not all at once. You first develop a habit, then
the habit does the job for you.
Day 4: When you discipline
yourself to do what is hard, you gain access to a realm of results that are
denied everyone else. The willingness to do what is difficult is like having a
key to a special private treasure room.
Disciplining yourself to be
industrious allows you to squeeze more value out of your time. Time is a
constant, but your personal productivity is not.
Today, pick out one chore,
goal, to-do or “procrastinated task” and get it done. Something that takes
self-discipline muscle. Celebrate yourself and self-discipline. The journey of a
thousand miles begins with a single step!
Day 5: Self-discipline
requires that you develop the capacity to put in the time where it’s needed,
when it’s needed. A lot of messes are created when we refuse to put in the time
to do what needs to be done — and to do it correctly. Such messes range from a
messy desk or cluttered email inbox all the way down to an exercise program or
eating correctly. Big mess or small mess — take your pick. Either way a
significant contributing factor is the refusal to do what needs to be done.
You know what you need to do.
It might take a long time, even a few years, to build the strength and
discipline to be able to do it on a consistent basis. THIS WILL NOT BE EASY!
Persistence is the ability to
maintain action regardless of your feelings. You press on even when you feel
like quitting.
Today: Can you identify a part of
your life where you’ve demonstrated a positive example of long-term persistence? If you
can identify such an area, it may provide a clue to your mission — something
you can work towards where passion and self-discipline function
synergistically. Take a few minutes and write this down.
Time for a well-earned weekend. Enjoy the fruits of
your improved self-discipline.
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