How to live a disciplined life
Self-discipline: How do you do it?
So what?
Our last post about discipline, we discussed why you need to be disciplined if you want to make improvements in your life. ICYMI, discipline is a way that you live your life. It is systemic and makes you stay on track. The following are a number of benefits that you will enjoy when you’re disciplined:
- You are respected by those around you;
- You have self control;
- You teach and develop others;
- You are organised and on time;
- You reach your life goals; and
- You are physically and mentally healthy.
We talk about how to be disciplined in this post.
We’ve broken down how to be disciplined into five steps as follows:
- Identifying your weaknesses;
- Leveraging your strengths;
- Setting clear and concise goals;
- Developing a plan of attack; and
- Acquiring habits and rituals.
Weaknesses
You are weak, at least in some aspects of your life. But don’t feel bad. All of us have weaknesses. Whether it be holding your temper when you are tired or hungry, filling out paperwork, calling customer service, you have an Achilles’ heel. Being self-aware of your weaknesses will allow you to deal with and manage them.
- You need to do one of the following with your weaknesses:
- Avoid or remove them from getting in your way;
- Delegate them to others; and
- Turn them into strengths.
Strengths
Knowing yourself and your strengths will teach you about how you best succeed. Your strengths will determine how you best learn, execute tasks, learn techniques that suit you. Leveraging them to compliment with those around you will take you to another level in becoming disciplined.
Clear goals
You need to have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve and accomplish. Without this, you will have no direction and be misguided. We found that SMART goals are the best way to set clear and concise goals. SMART goals are S(pecific), M(easurable), A(ttainable), R(elevant) and T(ime-bound).
Plan of attack
Once you have determined deadlines by making time-bound goals, you will need to develop a plan to stay on track and get to your finish line. Clearly outline the steps that are required to achieve your goal. Make sure each step is no longer than one week. Incorporate touch points to review and revise your plan. Schedule these steps in your calendar and to-do lists.
Habits
By keeping your goals and related steps simple will lead to you developing habits around them. Habits require significantly less effort compared to new behaviours. Habits are automated and less cumbersome whereas new behaviours require planning and discipline to keep up and follow through.
My experience
I had to resort to cycling on our indoor bike when gyms closed during the first lockdown. I had no trouble waking up since it was a habit for me. Using it as my strength, I woke up every morning to cycle. Riding as long as I was on the elliptical and working out at the gym was impossible when I couldn’t go to the gym. As an everyday gym goer, not getting my daily exercise was devastating. If you are a cyclist, you know the pain and suffering new cyclists go through. I developed a plan to improve my riding ability. I started with riding 30 minutes a day and added 5 minutes from the previous day. Riding our bike became a habit and adding 5 minutes improved my riding ability.
What now?
- Pick one thing that you want to be disciplined with.
- Follow the four step approach outlined above, walk out into the real world and get it done!
- Intentions and motivations aren’t enough. The Science of Self-Discipline by Peter Hollins provides a scientifically engineered method for having a more disciplined life.