In my Goals for 2009, disciplining myself is listed as my #1 priority. While researching ways of getting disciplined, i came across some pretty interesting stuff… Let me share them with you:

#1. Guilt Vs. Self-Discipline:

This was the first time that i ever watched a ‘spiritual’ video on YouTube!! I found it really enlightening.

Take-aways from this video (by Guruka Singh):

1. Make discipline your best friend.

2. Make discipline a habit, and enjoy doing it. Make it become your lifestyle. and never look back!

3. Develop habit as a routine, and make it an essential part of your life. Make it your ritual.

4. In any case if you were not able to keep up your disciplined routine, move on.. Don’t feel guilty. Guilt is self-torture. It will take you away from discipline.

5. You screw up sometimes.. So what? Make sure that you learn from it, and move on with your new disciplined habit.

#2. Steve Pavlina says:

“The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence. If you take the first letter of each word, you get the acronym “A WHIP” — a convenient way to remember them, since many people associate self-discipline with whipping themselves into shape.”

Did you notice how people associate the word ‘discipline’ to? No wonder why i find it so hard to get myself disciplined! Guilt, as Guruka Singh says, is nothing but self-torture (whipping themselves into shape)!!

When you signal your brain that you are going to undergo a painful process (here, getting disciplined), it will do it’s best to stop that activity, since the primary objective of our nervous system is to protect our body. This is due to what Tony Robbins calls “The power of associations“. Our neuro-muscular system has been designed in such a way as to avoid pain and obtain pleasure. So it largely depends on what we associate our feelings to. This is the basics of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Getting back to the topic – We need to associate pleasure to the things that we want to achieve (like getting up early in the morning, doing exercises and meditate) and associating pain with pleasurable sins (like getting up late, unhealthy eating, etc).

So, How to develop self discipline?

  • Take small steps, keep it consistent and enjoy the process.
  • Reward yourself every week for the commitment you’ve shown.
  • Make discipline a habit.
  • Associate pleasure to following your disciplined routine.

Conclusion:

Persistence is the key. Not only for this, but for achieving anything.

It Takes 26 Days to Create a Habit, or to Break it.

Cheers!

Radhakrishnan KG