Self-discipline is critical to achieving goals that you’ve set for yourself whether in your professional or personal life. Sometimes, it may be difficult to attain the goals because you’re having trouble creating the self-discipline required. Here are a few ways to become more self-disciplined.
Cut Out the Bad
Start by removing the temptations and distractions in your environment. Depending on what you’re looking to gain more discipline over, it could be something as simple as cutting junk food out of your diet, turning your cell phone off if you’re trying to focus on your work. There’s an app called SelfControl that you can download to your computer that will actually block Facebook, YouTube, and even your e-mail from opening for a set period of time. Setting yourself up for success begins with getting rid of distractions and temptations.
Plan
Sometimes, improving self-discipline means that you’ll have to make a change somewhere in your life. Waiting for the moment when it “feels right” to make the change won’t help you in your journey for more self-discipline. If you have a goal of paying attention during meetings at work, here’s where you can plan ahead and leave your phone at your desk. This also helps you cut out a distraction.
Embrace Failure
Failure actually is an option. It’s okay to fail and you should expect to fail at something at some point in your life. If you go into your goals knowing that failure could happen at any moment, one mistake or setback won’t make you feel that all of your efforts were for naught. Similarly, when you experience success, you need to celebrate that success. You should absolutely allow yourself a reward but just keep the big picture in mind. Let’s say that you’d like to close four large deals at work and you do just that. Don’t reward yourself by taking time off from work as a mini-vacation. Instead, do something like going out for a celebratory dinner with friends.
Improving your self-discipline will help you in all areas of your life. If you’re at a point where you feel you’re ready to begin improving, pick one area in your life and start. Just remember to cut out distractions, plan ahead, embrace failure and celebrate your successes!
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