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Megan Guilbert, ProSeed Forward Life Coaching, LLC
Being ‘disciplined’ can seem like it comes with a lot of sacrifice. We tend to fall into the trap of feeling like being a disciplined person is ‘no way to live’. We think that being disciplined forces us to miss out on certain things and live a ‘boring’ life. We might think that we will miss out on the instant gratification of life, eating the unhealthy meals, staying out late, drinking, taking days off, going on endless trips, spending money we don’t have etc. But are we really missing out? Is the instant gratification of all that worth it? Are we just using those things to distract us from what we really want in life? Are we afraid to say no to that life and embrace another life that seems to require a little bit more endurance and toughness?
Discipline does not really come with a lot of sacrifice; it comes with a lot of investment. Investment into the goal/goals that we want to achieve. It requires a certain level of optimism, perseverance, self-belief, and routine/habits that, in this day in age, can seem a bit ‘out of the ordinary’. It demands a certain type of lifestyle and decisions that many people are afraid to make. Why though? Cause it can be hard to see if the discipline is paying off/will pay off in the end because it doesn’t always provide the same feedback that a lifestyle of instant gratification can.
If you want to try and become a more disciplined person, below are four elements that can help you practice that. I believe you need to implement these elements into you/your life to become a more disciplined person:
- (1) Make a choice to invest in yourself
When you make a choice to do this, you are going to change your mindset toward yourself and your choices. You are going to see the choices you make as a part of you rather than something that is taking away from you or external from you. You will see the choices as something that is either going to help you in the long game or slow you down in the long game.
- (2) Commit
The next step is committing. When you decide to commit, you can go ‘all in’. That means that you are more likely to be disciplined on the days you don’t want to be or when the choice to practice discipline is challenging. You are going to be willing to make choices that will help you grow and move the needle forward, compared to the choices that seem easy or give you that instant feedback.
- (3) Be consistent
Stay consistent with your choice. Be intentional about practicing discipline each day and let it fuel you to the next one. Each day that you stay consistent with being disciplined is another day that goes into the self-investment bank and continues to push you forward.
- (4) Broaden your Perspective
This is imperative. It is important to see the big picture when you are trying to do something that is challenging. It will help you to stay the course. It will help you to understand that giving into what you want right now, might not help you in the long game. A broad perspective will help you to see that what you are working toward is so much bigger than what is easy in this one moment.
It is important to practice discipline in our lives and the key to being disciplined is doing it 80-90% of the time. Being disciplined 8 or 9 times out of every 10. Realistically, there are going to be things that life will throw in your way that cause you to go off course. However, discipline is what gets you back on course. It is what allows you to come back to the course and keep moving forward.
Discipline can lead us to great things, but like anything in life – it takes time, commitment, and perseverance. Most importantly, it takes the willingness to be optimistic in the process because what you are working toward is helping you achieve what you want, and it will help you to make your future better. As well as the self-belief to know that you are improving each day and you can do this.
Check back next week for a second blog post on this topic. It will focus on how to actually implement each of these four elements of discipline into your life!
ProSeed Forward Life Coaching, LLC 