Discipline
If there is one attribute that stops people from achieving all life has to offer them, it is discipline. Most of the time people gravitate towards what feels good rather than what is good for us. People sleep-in rather than getting up early, eat unhealthy food that tastes good, go for a beer rather than going to the gym, watch TV rather than reading a motivating book. However, highly successful people are disciplined in their habits. Discipline is not something you are born with, it is simply a decision you make.
In order to achieve discipline, you need to take a number of decision steps. But don’t be put off! If you invest a short amount of time, the pay-off in what you achieve in your life will amount to a return of thousands of percentages.
What follows is a method you can use to change undisciplined behaviours into disciplined ones.
Let’s work through a practical example of one area of your life you want discipline in and follow the required steps. You can apply these steps to any area of your life.
Let’s choose watching TV as our example. Here are the action steps:
1. Give yourself leverage
You need to motivate yourself to change by listing the reasons for making the change i.e. give yourself leverage. For example, list all the bad things that will happen if you don’t change.
Let’s assume you watched 20 hours of TV last week. Here is how your leverage list might look:
I don’t have enough time in my life so how dare I waste 20 hours watching TV.
Most of what I watched was rubbish and things I now can’t even remember.
Every time I watched the news I felt bad and sad.
I can easily pick up the important news on the internet in five minutes a day.
I wish I had spent that 20 hours doing what is much more important to me, for example learning the guitar, reading a motivating or educational book or exercising.
Our family talks less and connects less when the TV is on.
I hate the advertising and the subliminal messages they give to my kids about body shape and consumerism.
Make a mind-shift
Keep giving yourself leverage until you get to a point where you say to yourself “ENOUGH”. “I am wasting the most important asset of my life which I will never get back – time. I have to make a change.”
2. Make a decision
In the end discipline is simply a decision. If you give yourself the leverage and make the mind-shift, the decision is easy.
Your decision might be:
“Right, I am disconnecting the TV aerial and couriering the cable to my brother with strict instructions that he is to keep it for one month. We will trial no TV for one month and then we will all decide after that if we want it back. We will keep the DVD player and allow select DVDs to be played.”
3. Take action NOW
As soon as you make the decision, act now while you have the leverage and the mind shift. Disconnect the TV immediately and package the cable up.
4. Set a Goal
Even taking action is not enough. Ensure you also set a goal and write it down. Your goal might be:
No matter what, I am not going to watch TV for one month.
• Create a habit
Now you have taken action and set a goal you need to create a new habit. If you used to watch TV after dinner, use that time to practice your guitar or interact with your family. If you used to watch TV before bed, use that time to read. You may want to set a goal for the extra time you now have in your life.
You create a habit by repeating the action or behaviour over and over until it is part of your life.
Action Step 15:
Pick the one habit or situation you want to change and go through each of the steps. Here they are again:
1. Give yourself leverage;
2. Make a mind-shift;
3. Make a decision;
4. Take action NOW;
5. Set a Goal;
6. Create a habit.If you want to achieve your goals, be all you can be and create the lifestyle you want, you must have discipline as a core part of how you live. Think about some of the areas in your life where you lack discipline, for example: exercise, bad habits, what you eat, sleeping too long. If you work through the action steps as described you can turn these areas around.