How disciplined are you?

Self discipline is a key skill to self growth. What we know about growth is that it is a never ending cycle. It’s a life long process, and as we go through different stages of life, we mature just a little bit more. What many don’t think about, is the self discipline it takes to get through life. Many hear the word discipline and automatically associate it with “following the rules”, which is totally right, but when thinking of life, think of discipline as holding yourself responsible for the rules you set for yourself. 

Now let’s get to the HOW. How do we start to discipline ourselves?

Starting small & simple is important. Change is hard and the longer the lack of disciple, the harder the change will be, therefor, small can be doable and not overwhelming. With time passing, the expectation of level of disciple should increase. 

How do you start small?

Find something that you already have to do but you find hard to follow through with on a timely manner everyday. Ex: Get out of bed when your alarm goes off at 7:15 rather than snoozing till you’re late. Eat breakfast everyday. Make your ed in the morning. Think small! This “small thing” does not have to be relevant to your actual challenge because the relevant part in this stage of self disciple is finishing a planned task. 

Now give yourself a time frame in which you are going to commit to make the small change above. Preferably, 3-7 Days is appropriate depending on your level or lack of disciple. Don’t overestimate yourself. You don’t want to pick a time frame that will set you up to fail. This is the part where people feel the need to compete with what they think the time frame should be versus what their capabilities are. There’s no right or wrong answer here. For ex: if we go with the “eat breakfast everyday”, the goal would be that you have a toast and boiled egg for the next 3 mornings. The steps would be things like setting your alarm clock earlier, maybe hard boil the egg the night before, and/or have a trusted someone that can hold you accountable to your goals for the duration of your goal. 

The idea of completing this is that you’ll feel a level of accomplishment you didn’t possess before. You’ll have proof for yourself that you are able to set and execute goals that you set for yourself. 

At this point, you continue to repeating the above steps with the only difference being the time frame. So, if you began with 3 days then, try 4 or 5 for the next week. If you found yourself exceeding your goal, then double the time frame. This approach allows you to PRACTICE discipline and refine the skill of self discipline. Now, when you feel ready, tackle the things that challenge you that you’ve wanted to work on. Set goals for the things you struggle with & follow the same approach to setting your goals.

Start small. Take it one day at a time. Grow.