Building Daily Habits Of Discipline And Motivation
Success in many aspects of life - like your business, career, family, education, etc, is a byproduct of your motivation. There is usually that emotional push or spark of inspiration that normally makes you to feel excited to do something - it is motivation. There is something that normally prompts you and makes you to feel like doing something, which is motivation. However, one thing with motivation is that, more often than not, it does not last. Someone can be motivated now and the next moment, they have lost the motivation. This is where discipline comes in handy. It is the combo of motivation and discipline that actually puts you on the path of success.
While motivation may make you to take the step and to get started, it is discipline that will keep you going even if you do not feel like it and even when you are presented with challenges. Discipline is simply the act of putting one's body under control and subject it to do the right thing and behave the right way. That is, it is the commitment to do what is right at every point in time without a recourse to how you feel, your mood, or the circumstances surrounding it, even if it may feel difficult to do. For example; creating a study plan and sticking to it may not be convenient but it is what is required as a student if you want to succeed.
A friend of mine who is a bodybuilder made a very insightful comment some months back when I had a discussion with him. I asked him how he was able to get his body built, and he told me "gym routine." I got curious and asked him how he was able to keep to his routine, and what motivated him. He smiled and told me that he did not get that far out of sheer motivation, even though it was what gave him the excitement to start, but he told me that he had to apply discipline. He humorously told me this; "it is motivation that makes me to go to the gym on Monday when I feel like going, but it is discipline that makes me to go on Friday when I do not feel like going." I realized that it is by mixing discipline to motivation that success is achieved.
In order to grow in discipline, you have to build a daily habit. Habit is an action that you have done repeatedly until it has become a part of you and part of your routine. To build a strong habit that will help you to grow your level of discipline, you should not wait for motivation to sustain you, rather you should form a habit that needs to keep you going. As a student for example, you may want to study your books to have good grades - this is motivation. But you have to go beyond that to making a daily study plan or timetable, allocate time to it, and then stick to it. It is by following this that you will achieve your goal as a dedicated student.
Discipline also relates to the choices you make. There are some choices that relate to your ideas and goal, which you need to make. It is discipline that will make you to stay on the course and do what is right. Like waking up when the alarm beeps instead of just putting it on snooze, choosing to drink water instead of soda for your health, or reading your books instead of just scrolling through your social media handle. These choices may look little, but the cumulative of all of them will form a habit for you, which will make you more disciplined.
Discipline grows by constant usage, just the same way your muscles grow from constantly using that body part. It is true that the first few days of trying to form a good habit and to be discipline may be very hard, but it is not impossible, so push more until you have become in control of it. Remember that you may not feel like undertaking the action, but if it is required, then you have to make the choice to do it.
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