3 Easy Steps to Cultivate Self Discipline |
"It doesn’t matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline."-Harvey Mackay
Discipline, A Word that has been associated with standard set of rules framed by some strict octogenarian for the benefit of the upcoming generations. For a long time, Discipline as a term was highly misconstrued and it was strongly associated with Seriousness, Sternness, and above all Dedication. Strangely, this same thought was challenged by many sociologists and it took years to come to this conclusion that Discipline is a way of life and not Life in totality. In Life, there are 2 options, One is Leading a Life in a particular way…. OR Leading a Life in any way. And Discipline is that one ingredient which will help individuals to achieve their dreams and fulfill their aspirations.
Self-discipline on the other hand helps us to achieve our short term and long term, personal and professional goals. In a way, it is being deeply committed to focus on what we really want versus what we want right now. Doesn’t this sound like a choice? It is a matter of choice and hence it rightly starts with the word “self” it’s like we have made the choice to be self-disciplined rather than someone else forcing it upon us. It helps us build and maintain routines that are important for us to reach our goals. In today's world, there can be multiple distractions and events that can slide us Off-Track and conveniently make us directionless and loose focus from our goals. At this juncture, Self-Discipline actually becomes a Life Saver and order of the day.
“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”- Tony Robbins
We see a lot of people in today’s time who are highly unhappy with their jobs and they keep on grumbling that they don’t see motivation in their current job and are disillusioned in terms of work, company, culture, and above all lack of growth. They want to Quit and start something on their OWN, but even that step gets superseded by the below mentioned four devilish factors;
1. Long term commitments: People have a said list of Financial commitments in the form of Loans, Monthly EMI’s, Credit Card Payments, Personal and Family incurred expenses. Along with this comes the hankering of purchasing things with the dilemma caught between Want and Need. A majority section of people end up buying things and never using it more than thrice. And such purchases add up to the burden and become a Blocking Factor towards that one decision to Go Quits on the JOB or Live with this job thus leading to crushing of those Dreams.
2. Less Time: People work for long hours to meet and beat competition head on. In this persistent rat-race, people end up working overtime as well as post their shift time. This definitely drains them out and to relax their mind, they resort to social media platforms leaving them very little time to think or act to get out of the current situation.
3. Crowd Opinion: As a society, we are surrounded by people who have limited knowledge about multi factor passions or even are remotely connected to our ideas of a Business Venture. They are concerned for our wellness and in that concern, they go overboard and convince us that we should refrain from following our passion. We are advised to keep the passion on the back burner and follow it post retirement. Ironically, we aren’t even sure if we might outlive or retirement age as well. They even end up showing us the positives of being on this job and earning a fixed salary without undertaking any risks. The lack of Passionate risk takers amongst us, who can be shown as prime examples is one of the major deterrents for being different from the crowd.
4. Indolence: In spite of having some productive time left before the closure of the 24-hour clock, We will end up spending the time doing something unproductive and thus dropping the plan to think out of the box and pursue our dreams. This growing Indolence can be the biggest reason to pull down curtains on our dreams.
I'm sure many of you will easily relate to the above points and it does look a bit difficult and it seems like there is no way out. But, Honestly, there is a way to achieve your goals. All you need is the right mindset, positive attitude and above all…Be self-disciplined.
To overcome the aforesaid problems, we would need to conduct a research and formulate a plan to understand the finer nuances and intricacies to initiate a start-up venture of your own.
The dearth of Live examples and successful startup ventures might become a deterrent in the beginning and even force us to Quit. However, if we are able to cultivate and imbibe and imply the values of Self-Discipline, we can easily achieve our goals.
Self-Discipline can be cultivated if we can imbibe the below 3 mentioned attributes;
1. Start Small: A large chunk of people who start their own ventures tend to get burnt out soon. Failure to plan, delegate, and anticipate market trends can become extremely fatal. Startup Ventures are not like Instant coffee, they are more or less like Filter coffee which take time to brew but tend to taste better post the timed brewing. Success is not guaranteed in the first day, first week or even the first month. Persistence is the key here and hence it is recommended to work for shorter durations and not spend the whole day on the same task which will eventually make u feel demotivated and tired, especially when you are doing it along with a regular job
For e.g. Few of my Blog readers complained that they don’t have time to read although they desperately wanted to read. I analyzed their daily schedule, likes, dislikes and suggested them to read one page of a book that would interest them for as short as 5 minutes. This started a gradual introduction to reading and thus inculcating a habit of reading slowly but showing definite results in the long run.
2. Be Regular & Consistent: The moment you take up a project, please ensure that you work for the same duration every single day. The selection of this slot should be of ease and convenience to you. This will ensure that you tend to follow a schedule and slowly this schedule will become a routine and end up becoming a habit, thus helping you in a very BIG way.
For e.g. Post the agreement with my blog readers for reading 5 minutes every day slowly put the readers on a schedule. This was a convenient slot either before Dinner time and Sleep time. Slowly and steadily this schedule starts becoming a routine and ends up becoming a favorite bed time habit.
3. One Notch Up: By following the above 2 steps, we would have started a task and by following this every day we have made it a habit. This Habit will need less effort going forward as this has become ingrained into our system. Now is the time to change gears and move into the fast lane, Now is the time to go One Notch UP and increase the duration of this reading task. Surprisingly, In spite of increasing the duration, we will not find this hectic.
For e.g. After my blog readers got used to reading every day for 5 minutes, I suggested them to increase the reading time or increase the number of pages to be read in a day. This shift in Gear has to be put into practice immediately and continued for the upcoming weeks.
The aforesaid 3 points will teach you that the same readers who felt the lack of time to be a strong deterrent for reading have actually tweaked their schedules and accommodated the reading tasks every single day and that too with complete ease.
The above methods are just not specific to reading tasks but holds good for any person following any passion irrespective of the person being on an Active Job or not. Dreams are worth chasing for provided we fuel our chase with passion, aggression, belief and Self Discipline.
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” -Jesse Owens
Hope this article helps you to get the desired results in the task or project you take up and helps you achieve your dreams. If you like this content, please follow my blog by clicking on the FOLLOW button and subscribe for future posts by entering your email id on the SUBSCRIBE TO EK NEW LIFE POSTS section.
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Writer: Sonu Singh Yadav
Editor: Soumyashree Bangera
Idea Source: Personal Experiences & YouTube
Picture Credit : vancruzer.com
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