How to discipline yourself
It is so important to have self-discipline; discipline affects almost any aspect of our daily lives, in particular a lack of self-discipline brings about low self-esteem. If you wish to be successful in life then being able to discipline yourself is an essential trait to have in your make-up.
A lack of self-discipline only leads to you going around in a vicious circle, for example if you want to lose a little weight and go on a diet. You are disciplined with yourself in the beginning then as time goes on you lose focus and gradually begin cheating, before you know it you are back to where you started or even worse have gained the weight plus a few extra pounds. You put the weight back on you see yourself as having no self-discipline and being a failure so you eat more and the vicious circle is born.
To help keep you motivated you should keep a daily journal, in here you can write down everything you have succeeded with and all the things where you got slightly waylaid and gave in to temptation. This can give you the motivation you need to keep yourself disciplined.
Set out goals for yourself; write these down in your journal. It is important that when thinking about goals that you set goals which are realistic and achievable within a decent amount of time. Setting goals that you cannot possibly hope to achieve or which are unrealistic will only lead to failure and low self-esteem.
If you are to be self-disciplined then you need to have confidence in yourself, if you don’t believe in what you can achieve then you cannot possibly hope that others will have faith in you. Confidence leads to high self-esteem and this is half the battle when it comes to being self-disciplined.
Learn to do everything in moderation, if you smoke or drink alcohol then cut down. Don’t just say you are going to cut down or stop immediately, this only leads to failure. Instead think about the benefits you will gain by stopping; write down in your journal all the positive aspects about what you are doing and the negative. If you smoke for example then aim to cut down by a few everyday and if you are tempted to go over the limit you set for yourself then discipline yourself. Do something else, something you wouldn’t normally do and keep in mind the positive aspects to self-disciplining yourself.
If you do fall off the wagon then get right back on, scold yourself and then move on, don’t waste time wondering why or how or think that it will happen again. Promise yourself that you be more disciplined in the future.
Keep a track of how you are succeeding with your determination and reward yourself when you have remained self-disciplined. It’s ok to tell yourself for failing but you have to reward yourself for the good too.