Training self-discipline

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Intended for skill acquisition is guaranteed to bring the affair to the end, regardless of emotional state, abilities, and external factors. Gives an answer on the question: How to pass the path to success?

Just think how often you have given up on a planned affair or failed to complete it? There is nothing to worry about if it is an absolutely useless thing. But, what if it’s not? What if it could produce good results but was left incomplete for various reasons (laziness, bad mood, lack of abilities or inspiration, etc.) Do you regret anything you haven’t done in your life? If yes, then this method will help you learn how to implement your plans and get useful results.

To ensure successful completion of your affairs you should train self-discipline.

Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action in order to reach great results and become successful regardless of your emotional state and abilities you have.

Action is one of the key components for success. One cannot expect a result without action. And without self-discipline you will not be able to implement your plans. Instead, you will look for numerous lame excuses for procrastination. If you have no abilities to take action, you can use methods Problems solving, Generation of usefull ideas and Achieving success.

Strong self-discipline is the ability to plan and carry out activities regardless of the emotional state, abilities, inspiration, etc.

Self-discipline is personal freedom, it sets you free from the bad habit of postponing actions.

How to strengthen self-discipline?

Let's consider an example. Suppose your goal is to sleep only six hours a day and survive the next day.

When the goal is set, you need to determine the current level of self-discipline.

For example, you sleep nine hours a day and you want to sleep three hours less.

You should progress toward your goal step-by-step.

If you just start getting up three hours earlier than usual one morning, in three or four days you will feel pretty bad even after 10 hours of sleep.

You should tackle challenges that you can successfully accomplish but which are near your limit. It's a mistake to try to push yourself too hard when trying to build self-discipline. You can burn yourself out. The progressive enhancement approach should be applied, instead. It will help you greatly expand your physical and mental abilities.

It is better to set the alarm clock 10 minutes earlier every day. Using this approach, the goal can be reached within 18 days (3 hours * 60 minutes / 10 minute = 18 days).

However, there are two problems with this approach:

how to get yourself to take action to reach the goal

how to keep moving forward until you reach your goal

How to get yourself to take action?

Willpower is a solution to this problem.

Willpower is the ability to overcome immediate obstacles to achieving your goal. The stronger the willpower is, the sooner you will take action.

A man of strong will can focus on a goal, limit motives (conflict of motives), develop and implement an action plan (make efforts). It is the result not the process that brings satisfaction. In other words, enjoying the action itself has nothing to do with willpower, it’s all about selfishness or laziness.

To develop willpower you should set challenging goals. Their achievement takes much effort and time.

Willpower is a great but temporary driving force. Willpower helps to launch a new initiative. So, it may be helpful in the beginning only. It is good for sprinters but not for long-distance runners.

How to keep moving forward?

We fail to achieve results using willpower alone because it pushes us into action but doesn’t help move forward until we reach the goal. How can we do it then?
The following components are required:

Foothold

Persistence

Habit

Rest

A foothold is a firm position that provides a base for further advancement. It protects you against obstacles, facilitates and accelerates your work and saves your energy. You need to spend time on overcoming obstacles in the beginning to strengthen your position.

Persistence is the ability to continuously move forward to achieve your goal regardless of your emotional state. Persistence motivates you to keep taking action when you get useful results. Don't mix persistence with stubbornness that bad for the selection, adjustment and achievement goals. Sometimes retreat is the best way out, do not consider it a failure.

Willpower and persistence can be compared to a jet engine and an ion engine, respectively. A jet engine (willpower) is very powerful, it gives a quick start but it consumes much fuel and it’s not efficient to use it for a long period of time. The ion engine (persistence) is less powerful and consumes less fuel, that's why the ion engine is used to keep the speed constant. Therefore, the willpower is needed when you just start doing something and when you have great problems to overcome. Persistence is needed when the ice is broken and you get to the next stage. It helps to achieve the success.

A habit is the ability to learn a behavioral pattern and to reproduce it. The habit can be compared to an autopilot that minimizes your efforts when you perform repeatable actions.

Rest prevents you against overworking, stress or depression. Rest can be passive (when you sleep, eat, have a walk, watch films, etc) or active (when you do sport, any other affair or job, travel, etc). Passive rest helps restore your body while active rest improves your emotional state. A change of activity is the best way to get rest. In addition, rest contributes to idea generation.

For example, below are the recommendations for the restful sleep:
- have a light dinner before going to bed but don't take energy drinks such as coffee or tea;
- take a shower or bath;
- sleep on the right side and use a small pillow to support your back so you don't roll over on your back while sleeping. You may also sleep on your back with your head straight but don't use a pillow then. Don't sleep on your stomach or on the left side, it's bad for your heart;
- sleep on the right side and use a small pillow to support your back so you don't roll over on your back while sleeping. You may also sleep on your back with your head straight but don't use a pillow then. Don't sleep on your stomach or on the left side, it's bad for your heart;
- go to bed wearing as little clothing as possible to let your skin breathe;
- air your bedroom, the temperature in the room should be 27 to 28 degrees Celsius;
- do not try to fall back asleep after awakening, even if you have slept only for four or five hours (of course, if you haven't been woken up by anybody) as awakening means an increase in brain activity;
- find the best time to fall asleep and wake up. For example, some feel more comfortable going to bed at 10 pm and waking up at 6 am (early birds), others go to bed at 5 am and wake up at midday (late risers);
- take a quick nap in the afternoon or in the evening (not more than 1 hour).

Following these recommendations, you can create the conditions (a foothold) that will make you feel good on little sleep, thus, you will reach your goal.

The consequences of training self-discipline

Self-discipline is like a muscle. Muscle tissue is unique. Unlike other tissue types, muscle tissue destroys itself if it doesn't work. If you do not training muscles, they become weaker. Similarly, the less you train self-discipline, the weaker it becomes.

The most valuable reward for the continuous training self-discipline is the ability to increase the challenge that will benefit you more. Indeed, it is easy and useless to do simple things or to copy something made by someone else. You must do the opposite, set more challenging goals and move forward to reach them. The more challenging and the fresher your goal is, the more benefits it will bring. If you make a habit of goal-setting, you will gain access to the world of great results closed for other people - to a special private treasury.

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