“Everybody says discipline is important but they don't tell you why. Discipline is the strongest form of self-love. It's ignoring what you want right now for something better later on. It's revealing a commitment you have to your dreams, especially on the days you don't want to. The future you depends on the current you to keep the promises you made to yourself yesterday.” — Jordan Ferrone
The best description of discipline I came across.
Since the day I can remember, I've always had an easy time "making" myself do the things necessary to achieve my goals.
Doesn't matter if it's doing push-ups every day as a kid; Hitting 500 three-pointers every time I hit the basketball court to work out; Or simply picking up the habit of reading because I became interested in learning stuff (hence why you read my articles today).
No matter what it is, or how hard it is... If I thought a certain activity was valuable to me, and that it would bring me closer to achieving my goals, I would have no trouble integrating it into my daily routine and making a habit out of it.
You can think of me as a prime example of a "disciplined" person.
I thought being disciplined was something normal when I was younger.
I thought all people were like that. But as I grew older, I noticed more and more people having trouble with staying consistent and being disciplined.
Once I realized there are actually a lot of people (a vast majority of the population) who struggle with their discipline, I started to wonder why is that.
Today I'm going to talk about that, and how anybody can overcome their struggles and (maybe for the first time in their life) become a disciplined person.
And yeah, I do mean anybody.
You see, I'm not special, nor is any other disciplined person you may know.
We just have different perspectives and ways of doing things that enable us to be "disciplined".
That's it.
And as somebody who's naturally good at it, I feel obligated to teach you how.
But first, what is discipline?
The main definition of discipline lies in the difference between discipline and motivation.
Motivation is a spark. An impulse. A burst of emotions that suddenly inspire you to do a certain thing. But it's not a lasting thing. It goes away pretty fast.
(I talk more about motivation here)
Discipline, on the other hand, is something that lasts. You can see it as the ability to stay consistent even when the motivation fades.
My official definition of discipline would be something like this:
Discipline is following a plan and staying consistent no matter what, in order to achieve a certain goal.
That's why if you lack discipline, you'll have a hard time achieving your goals. Because any goal that's worthwhile achieving is hard, and you won't be able to achieve it with motivation alone.
So if you want more out of your life, you need to learn how to become disciplined.
And the good news is, discipline is a skill. And as every other skill it can be learned.
One common misconception is that discipline is denying yourself of anything you enjoy. That, to be disciplined means doing things that you don't like, or straight up hate.
That's not discipline. That's self-abuse. (Well, technically it kinda is discipline, but it's still self-abuse)
To be disciplined (the right way) is to teach yourself to enjoy doing things that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
Boom... How about that change of perspective? Read that sentence again.
(Think about that for a while. It's important to change the way you perceive what discipline is.)
So why is that? Why is it so important to teach ourselves to enjoy doing things that are good for us?
Simple. After all, we are human beings, we naturally gravitate towards doing things that we like and enjoy.
We are wired this way. Our brain likes doing things that feel good and dislikes doing things that don't.
So if we don't like or enjoy doing something, if it feels awful, if it makes us feel awful, we aren't going to keep doing it. Simple as that.
The bottom line is, that once we teach ourselves to enjoy whatever we need to be doing to achieve our goals, we'll have no problem with being disciplined.
There are 2 major problems that people face when it comes to discipline
#1
Life is more interesting today than it was in the past. There are a lot more things happening daily.
Everything is a lot more fast-paced, everything is happening now, instantly.
And on top of all that, there's social media and 1000s of daily notifications on our phones... An industry that exists solely to take as much of our attention as possible.
All of these distractions make it hard for us to stay focused and thus be disciplined.
(Read more in-depth about the negative effects of modern life here)
This is the first thing we need to overcome.
#2
The "I'm just not the disciplined type of person" way of thinking.
Cut the crap. Yes, you are. We all are.
Do you really think that you need to have some special talent to be disciplined? Of course not, that's ridiculous.
Who you are is what you do, and what your environment is like. That's it.
“We are what we repeatedly do” — Aristotle
You see, we are masters of emulating. Emulating is what makes us who we are.
The way we think, the way we behave in certain situations, the way we act, everything is the sum of our surroundings.
Ever since we were little kids we emulated our surroundings. We were like little magnets that ran around, and everything we heard or saw stuck to us.
So, the majority of your thoughts, opinions, ideas, behaviors, etc. are the sum of your environment (i.e. your friends and family).
For example, I happen to have a strong influence regarding discipline from my grandpa, so that's why I'm naturally a disciplined type of person, not because I'm so special.
(If you are interested in diving deeper into this topic, I suggest reading a book called The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton)
So no, that’s not "who you are". That’s who you are currently conditioned to be. And as with everything, it can be changed.
Here's how...
8 steps to unlock discipline
“Life without a design is erratic and full of uncertainty.” — Seneca
These 8 steps gonna make it easier for you to stay consistent, finish your tasks, and be more productive. Or simply put, to be disciplined.
I practice these, and I see the benefits, and so will you.
1) Wake up early
Yeah, yeah, some people already wake up early, but the majority of people (myself included) don't wake up early enough.
A lot of us, if we have to go to work at let's say 9 AM, wake up around 8:15. By the time we check our phone, scroll a bit, and roll out of bed, it's already 8:30, and now we need to rush to work.
It's even worse if we work from home, like in my case. It's so easy to go to bed later, and then wake up later in the morning since we don't have time constraints. I had a period when I was younger when I would wake up as late as 11 AM regularly.
Instead of this, we should wake up earlier.
The morning is when we are the most productive. The more we do in the morning, the more productive we'll be in general.
Wake up early enough so you can start your day easily without a need to rush anywhere. Do your little morning ritual (whatever it is), and then start doing things that you have for the day.
And please for the love of God, don't mistake me for some hustle guru. I'm in no shape or form suggesting you should wake up, at 3 AM and do 4 red light therapies.
That's hustle porn, and if you've read any of my posts, you know how much I hate it.
(I talk more about morning routine here)
2) Do the most important task first
As I said, the mornings are when we are the most productive.
That's why you should do the most important task first. It's usually also the hardest task of the day, so once you finish it, the rest will feel easy.
And also it's a logical thing to do. I mean if it's so important why wouldn't it be your top priority for the day?
So instead of checking your email, answering some texts, or whatever, start your day with the most important task.
3) Cold showers
Apart from being amazing for your immune system, cold showers are also one of the best things you can do if you wanna train yourself to be more disciplined.
You see discipline (and willpower) are like muscles. You can train them to become stronger.
The cold shower is great for this. Why?
Because no matter how long you've been doing it, or how accustomed to the cold you may become, the first couple of seconds of a cold shower are always gonna be very uncomfortable.
I've been doing cold showers regularly for the past 3 or 4 years. And even though I made substantial progress in terms of how long I can stay in cold water, and how much cold I can tolerate, those few initial seconds of cold exposure (i.e. cold shock) are still as uncomfortable as ever.
So forcing yourself to take cold showers regularly, not only will it enhance your immune system, but will also make you a much more disciplined person.
(Check out Wim Hof, if you want to dive deeper into cold exposure)
4) Read every day (at least 10 pages)
I'm big on reading. Creating a reading habit is the best thing you can do for yourself (especially your intellect).
But I won't dive deep here into why reading is so great. I will only touch on why it is so great for your discipline.
In today's modern world of Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and TikToks, our attention and more importantly attention span is taking a big hit. A lot of people are getting addicted to scrolling...
We are also distracted by different notifications, apps, news, etc.
Everything is happening instantly, so it is becoming harder and harder for us to focus.
This is not good for our discipline. As you already know, if we wanna be disciplined, we need to be able to focus.
That's where reading comes in. By reading, not only do we train ourselves to focus on one thing (which is essential for discipline), but we are also training ourselves to have a longer attention span.
Basically, you can say that with reading, we combat the side effects of modern technology.
But seriously, how many more articles do I need to write for you to finally pick up some book and start reading?
Just do it already, and thank me later.
5) Physical activity
“The body should be treated more rigorously, so that it may not be disobedient to the mind.” — Seneca
Besides cold showers, physical activity (and more precisely working out), is one of the best ways to train yourself to be more disciplined.
I already talked about all the benefits of working out, and how essential it is for us, so I won't repeat myself here.
The bottom line is: Want to be more disciplined? — Start working out. That's the best way to build your discipline up.
(Aside from working out, make sure to have an overall more active lifestyle. Dive deeper into this topic here)
6) Don't touch your phone while you work
As I already mentioned a couple of times in this article, distractions are what kills our discipline. And our phones are nothing more than a distraction.
While our phone is near us, we always have this urge to check something, and that usually ends up as an Instagram scrolling spree.
Not only does this kill our focus, but it also makes us unable to get into a deep work (flow) state. More on this here.
The reason this happens is our brain craves dopamine release, and everything on our phones (every single app) is made to trigger as many dopamine releases as possible.
So if we wanna be productive and focused on the task that's ahead of us, we need to stop checking our phones so often.
The way I sort of "cured" myself of scrolling addiction, is by dedicating a particular time block to checking my phone and answering messages.
I forbade myself to touch my phone outside of this time block, and/or until I finished every important task for the day.
Everybody should do this. No exception.
People have this delusion that they need to be available to everybody all the time. Hate to break it to you, but you are not that important.
So instead of deluding yourself, put your phone on airplane mode and far away from you while you work, and don't touch it until you're finished.
7) Plan your next day before you go to sleep
Planning your next day is seriously overlooked.
Now, I'm not saying that you should plan out every single minute of your day.
What I'm saying, however, is that you should have a general idea of some major tasks for the day, and in what order you should do them.
Write them out before you go to sleep. With a clear plan for the day, being productive and thus disciplined will be a lot easier.
You simply follow the list.
The bonus for doing this (besides the fact that you have a to-do list to follow), is the fact that you have everything important written down.
If you try to remember everything, you'll inevitably forget something from time to time. Writing things down eliminates this possibility.
8) Don’t touch your phone 60-90 minutes before and after sleep
Why?
First, it hinders your sleep.
Blue light from the screen of your phone negatively affects your melatonin production, which negatively affects your sleep.
Also at night, we should stop our activities, wind down, relax, and let ourselves slowly fall asleep.
Scrolling TikTok on your phone is the exact opposite of this.
Ideally, what you should be doing instead, is reading a book for example, or spending time with your spouse (if you know what I mean).
If not, at least instead of scrolling TikTok, watch a movie or something (anything is better than TikTok).
As far as the morning goes, if the first thing you do is take your phone and scroll social media, your discipline and productivity for that day will be lowered by at least 50%.
There are science studies that prove this, which I'm not gonna try to explain because, well, I can't.
But what I can tell you is, that I personally struggle with this, and on the days when I manage to postpone checking my phone, I end up being a lot more productive.
Plus think about it.
Who do you think will be better primed for the day?
Persona A, who starts scrolling social media for 30 minutes before they even got out of the bed;
Or
Person B who after waking up, does a bit of stretching, takes a cold shower, and then goes for a 30-minute walk.
Obviously the person B.
So yeah, be the person B.
These are the 8 steps that will help you become more disciplined. Follow them and look at how much progress you will make.
And remember, as I said before, to be disciplined is to teach yourself to enjoy doing things that will bring you closer to achieving your goals (and staying consistent).
That's it from me.
Djosa
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