Do you ever wish you had self-discipline so strong that you could easily reach any goal you wanted? Learning new skills, losing weight, staying organized, getting healthier – anything that requires determination and repetitive work could be achieved so much easier with some will and self-discipline.

Believe it or not, building a rock-solid discipline is not impossible. Buddhist monks and meditation practitioners all over the world have been successfully doing it for years.

And if you think well, you’ve probably done that a few or more times too. If you ever did something you didn’t really want to (eating clean, working out, studying for an exam, going somewhere you don’t want to go), you also practiced being self-disciplined.

You had to do something not entertaining, but you pushed through with a little self-discipline and it helped you to do something that needed to be done.

The problem with self-discipline is that for most people, it tends to run out, especially if it wasn’t practiced or encouraged in your childhood. It’s either the motivation that runs out or life just gets in the way and the whole “being more disciplined” wish just fades away like a wind.

So if you’re wondering how to build self-discipline that helps you to reach your goals… Here’s exactly how you can do that!

 

Become Rock-Solid: How To Build Self-Discipline

 

1) Practice Being OK With Discomfort

 

Let’s admit it – the reason everyone wants to be more disciplined is that it helps you push through the unpleasant and boring things that ultimately give you the desired result.

The most common example is losing weight. In order to do that, you need to keep a healthy diet and skip those tasty, salty, fatty or sugary foods. You need to exercise regularly to build lean muscle that makes your metabolism faster.

And both of these things are pretty hard to keep up with – they are uncomfortable. That’s why most people who start losing weight, relapse after a few weeks or months.

So how to build self-discipline that helps you push through weight loss or any other goal achievement process? By practicing being OK with discomfort. 

“Okay, but how do you do that?”

To do that, gently ease yourself into discomfort daily. You can choose one thing you don’t like or don’t want to do and do it. 

Start with something small, like doing a few reps of exercise you hate the most. Or you can pick a home task you hate doing and do it.

If you do that every day, eventually your discomfort tolerance will increase and it will become a lot easier to do other things you don’t want to do.

 

2) Minimize Temptations Until You Feel Stronger

 

If you have a specific thing you want to become more disciplined for (for example, finishing a big neglected task), making a decision is not enough.

But pushing through can also become complicated if you are surrounded by distractions or temptations.

To build self-discipline, minimize the number of possible distractions while you are getting used to the thing you don’t like.

For example, if you want to start eating a cleaner diet, remove all unhealthy food items from your kitchen. Push through a week or two and you will find yourself easing into the healthy eating like a pro!

And once you develop enough discipline to eat healthy every single day, you will also learn that you can enjoy an occasional sugary or fatty treat in moderation, without overeating.

 

3) Visualize Rewards You Will Get For Being Disciplined

 

How to build self-discipline in the most pleasurable way? The answer will soothe your soul… You do that by constantly dreaming! That’s right. Regularly dreaming about how your life would feel after your discipline paid off is a very motivating thing to do.

Burning motivation, along with self-discipline, makes everything a lot easier. So go ahead and visualize yourself having whatever it is you want to have! Picture yourself with your achievement and whenever you need to work on something that brings you there, keep that image in your mind.

 

4) How to build self-discipline if you keep failing? Use Failures For More Practice!

 

Please don’t think that being self-disciplined means you will never fail. That’s impossible. Even the most disciplined people sometimes fail with their obligations to themselves. Failing is a part of the human nature.

But here’s the thing that helps those people to push forward – they use failure to become even more disciplined.

So if you want to build self-discipline, treat failures as possible opportunities to get even better!

Broke your diet and overate tonight? Go ahead and read on what triggers overeating and how to deal with it.

Felt extremely lazy and skipped working on that project you need to finish? Go on and look for ways to get motivated again.

(Here are a few ideas:

How To Get That Burning Motivation To Reach Your Goals

30 Quotes That Motivate You To Work On Your Dreams )

Can’t even do that? Realign yourself with some time alone and practice self-care to recover – you are probably mentally and physically tired. Take some proper rest, relax and get back to being disciplined once you feel ready.

While you’re recovering, I recommend reading a few self-discipline books to get re-motivated and gather the mental will to do better next time:

The Science of Self-Discipline by Peter Hollins

 

Spartan Discipline: How to Develop Spartan Discipline, Unbreakable Mental Toughness, and Relentless Willpower

(You can also get them as a Kindle or e-book version).

– – –

There is a number of different examples of how to build self-discipline… Yet it doesn’t have to be complicated. Most of the discipline-building habits will still require some effort (and honestly – is there anything that doesn’t?..), but knowing these techniques can guide you through your journey to a more disciplined YOU.

And if you’ve been thinking about becoming more disciplined… It means you are ready. So go on! Try it, master it and rock your goals one after another – you’ve got everything you need inside you.

Good luck!

This article was proofread by Grammarly