11 Simple Ways to Develop a Daily Discipline
A business owner I recently reconnected with, who in my opinion is one of the most disciplined business owners I know. As we were talking, I had to ask him how he stays so disciplined in his business and personal life.
He shared with me some simple ways anyone can be disciplined. He even stated he does struggle with his discipline every now and then, but he also knows if he stays disciplined, he reaches his goals faster. He understands how discipline works, and how it shows you are in control of your life. It’s the path to getting anything you want.
So how do you maintain discipline? By combining an automated brain program—doing whatever needs to be done—with an incredible commitment to your goal.
It becomes increasingly harder to be disciplined in a society that prizes instant gratification. We are more concerned about feeling good all the time, so we seek immediate pleasures, whether it’s a new car, an exotic trip, or a new partner. Our long-term goals are not so important anymore. We get comfortable and wait for a special event to give our lives meaning, happiness, and success.
Discipline is the difference between being in control of your future and letting your environment dictate your destiny.
Discipline means freedom and happiness. It gives you the ability to do what you want because you know you can learn how to achieve any dream you set your mind to3.
Discipline teaches you how to control your thoughts—and how to be happy in any situation, to visualize positive emotions and triggers, and optimistic mood.
Discipline builds self-confidence, and mental and physical strength, and inspires you to grow as a human being. With growth comes the ability to enjoy life in deeper, more meaningful ways.
Anyone can develop discipline. It’s a skill and it’s not complicated—you just must train yourself for it.
Here’s how:
- Set BIG goals. When you challenge yourself to achieve bigger goals, you dedicate yourself to the craft. The more time you spend on it, the harder it becomes to quit. Once you have spent so much sweat, time, and effort on it, if you quit, it will be for nothing. The bigger the goal, the more invested you become.
- Set CLEAR goals. Clearly define what your goal means to you and what you will specifically do to achieve it. If you set a goal to live healthier, for example, will you go running every day? At what time and for how long? If there is no clear goal, there is no opportunity to create the specific steps you’d need to do to accomplish it.
- Know that everyday matters. When you wake up in the morning, do you know what’s most important for you to accomplish that day? Every goal, every priority, you have set for yourself has to be done – it will determine whether your dream lives or dies.
- Don’t argue with the plan. If you want to go to the Olympics, each training session matters; there isn’t one that’s less important than another. It’s the same with everything else in your life. When you start the process, you cannot question it, you cannot hesitate, you cannot back down—you must work hard every single day to reach your dream, full force.
- Build a no-matter-what mindset. Build the mindset that no matter what, you will accomplish things when you said you would. No matter what. You must create pressure on yourself, otherwise, nothing will get done. There is good stress and bad stress, and you must make sure you are operating under good stress – butterflies in the stomach, and manageable adrenaline that stimulates you.
- Plan a routine. Create a routine that becomes second nature, automatic, and normal. Athletes, for example, know what hours they train, when to break for lunchtime and dinnertime, and when to rest. In training, they know they must do warm-up, main training, cool-down, and recovery. By following the same routine, it becomes second nature—the discipline preps them to win. Planning your routine—and sticking to it until it becomes automatic—can prep you for success, too.
- Commit. Maybe your parents told you this when you wanted to join an after-school activity. “Be careful in choosing where you will spend your time because you won’t be able to quit. You will have to follow through with it until the end and do it well.” So, I really considered whether I would be able to commit to something for a long time. And when I knew, when I chose the one thing I wanted to do, it made me want to figure out how to keep getting better at it—it made me want to commit.
- Understand the transformation process. Your body and brain will do everything they can to resist change and growth. You need to know that it’s natural to feel lazy and undisciplined—but you also need to know that you have all the power to fight it. Start with your thoughts.
- Go above your feelings. The hardest part about discipline is maintaining the actions needed to achieve your dream or state of happiness. It requires constant hard work and fighting against comfort and instant pleasures. To do so, you must separate yourself from the feelings that stop you, like fatigue, laziness, or self-pity. You must go above them, even if your feelings tell you that you are tired, stressed, and alone in this struggle. Discipline is the direct training of a fighter.
- Resist the brain. All people are lazy, even the most successful businesspeople, the most accomplished athletes, and the most talented actors. But it’s not simply laziness—it’s your brain saving energy for you. Any movement takes energy, and the brain is doing everything to stop you from moving by sending body signals about how hard it is to move and thoughts about how scary it would be if you fail. But you can trick your brain. Imagine your body is a beautiful machine and you are operating it as a higher force from above. Separate yourself from your body. Play it as a computer game. You are the one who commands your body to accomplish tasks.
- Find pleasure in the hard work. Shift your focus to the process and concentrate on getting the work done faster and better every time. Speed is important; you must move quickly to achieve perfection in a set amount of time.
So many people quit too early. Success is all about persistence, and discipline is what gets you to your destination. It’s the realization of your dream. The more you learn about your craft and your capabilities, when you start seeing yourself improve, the results will make you hungry for more. Self-improvement is an amazing drug.
Self-discipline is a source of power. It is an engine that helps us understand and explore our capabilities and life’s opportunities. Discipline is not boring; it’s the freedom to put all our energy into creating something meaningful and beautiful.
It’s up to us to choose life with discipline or without, with a goal or without, with a dream or without.
Contact Biz Coach Steve today to see how he can assist you to get the results you want in your business, steve@bizcoachsteve.com, or www.bizcoachsteve.com. He is in the business of growing businesses. Need a speaker, contact Steve today.
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