Remember that time you said you’ll stop eating chocolate for a month to lose weight, but ate chocolate after dinner? Remember that time you said you’ll cut back on going out to save money, but went and bought trainers? Remember that time you said you’ll start a business, but gave up before you started? These are all real life examples which occur every day, ones that are true to even me. You set yourself goals and then failed immediate because of one core reason, you lacked discipline. In this blog I will break down how to overcome that.
Today, I am in a place where if I set my mind to doing something, I’ll do it. I will break down exactly what I need to do in baby steps and go with it. If I feel as though it will require more time, I will create time. However, it wasn’t always like that for me. I used to think of something, say I’ll do it, and then give up the very next day. I had no discipline. So I realised that this was what I needed to resolve first if I was going to achieve any of my dreams.
For me, I started with exercise. I said that if I can regularly exercise daily I know that I can put my mind to anything else. So I started, one day and a time. Now, I’ve been training for years and am the fittest and most functional I’ve ever been (I’m no athlete by the way). This allowed me to develop discipline. For example, recently, I set myself a goal of writing and self-publishing a book in 3 months and completing a Master’s Degree in 2 years, and I did.
Why is discipline important?
Straight up, without discipline you’re going to severely struggle to achieve what you want in life. Without it, you will just coast through life never living up to your own potential. Is that what you what?
How can you become disciplined?
Discipline comes from your willpower to succeed which is derived from understanding your purpose. You purpose (or why) will become your compass. For example, whenever I feel I may be slacking, I thinking to myself, why am I doing this? Am I reaching for my goals or not?
So what can you do next?
Developing discipline comes in two steps. Step one is to determine your purpose. Determine why you’re here. Now this won’t be easy as this has always been one of life most difficult questions. However, the steps to doing it are fairly simple. Doing this transformed my life.
Step two is taking those baby steps. You’ve spent your whole life (10, 20 or 30+ years) as you are now. To develop and growth will take time, which is also why you need discipline. So you identify one area, break down the steps into small achievable goals and achieve those. Then you grow.
Leadership and discipline
Why is everyone not a leader? It is because leaders historically have been put on a pedestal, as great people who change cultures, start revolutions and make a huge difference across the world. This is not the case as there are leaders in all of us because we all have the ability to lead. Whether it be leading our own lives, leading our families, leading a small team at work, leading an organisation or leading a country. The behaviours associated to leadership apply at every level.
Yes, some leaders have a natural ability in leadership, but at some point, they were just like everyone else. They have to work on their ability to lead. Take for example, Mark Zuckerberg who lost his entire management team after he rejected Yahoo’s offer for Facebook at the age of 22. Zuckerberg, not a natural leader, had to learn leadership. John Maxwell, after coaching sports early in his career, discovered that to go on to be a success he had to learn leadership. Tony Robbins, after having a difficult period with his family had to set up his own business and learn leadership. Leadership is like any other ability or muscle. In order to improve our leadership muscles we need to become self-aware of the improvement required, be fully committed to making a change and taking action.
Sticking with the theme of this blog, leadership requires you taking the lead and being committed to the journey. Everyone can be a leader. A leader of their own lives and a leader of others. We need to just make the choice. Do we behave like one or not?
If you want to learn the steps to master your willpower, time and emotions so that you can develop discipline, then the course below is for you.
P.S. The Authentic Leader: Tools to Master Life course (link above) is ridiculously cheap compared to other’s out there. I’ve done this on purpose to make it accessible to all. Don’t believe me, check it out for yourself!
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