7 Ways to Improve Self-Discipline to Reach Your Goals
/In life, you have to set goals.
Whether you want to get more fit or you want to work your way to the top of your company, there are steps in-between.
This is the only way to reach major milestones without losing your drive is to give yourself steps on the way to mark your achievements on the way to your goals.
How to Reach Your Goals
However, you have to stay driven to reach these goals for them to work. To do this, you need to maintain a certain level of self-discipline.
However, this can be difficult at times. So, what can you do about it?
In this article, we are going to take a look at 7 ways that you can improve your self-discipline so you can reach your goals.
1. Try to Avoid Temptation
The first thing that be a problem when you are trying to reach a goal is simply to not take the steps you need to reach your goal.
The things that make you want to step away from your goals are temptations and, when you can, you should take steps to remove temptations from your life.
Of course, this can’t be done everywhere. Unfortunately, we live in a world where temptations are usually within arm’s reach.
For example, if your goal is to eat healthier or lose weight, you can’t stop the fact that you pass a dozen fast food restaurants on your way to work or the fact that brownies are on sale instead of fruit.
That doesn’t mean you can’t cut temptation in other areas of your life. A great place to start is in your own home.
Going back to the example of wanting to get healthy, start by shopping healthier. If you’re hungry in the middle of the night, you’re going to eat what you have in your home.
So, having a bowl of fruit instead of a family size bag of chips can be the right first step toward your goals.
2. Know What You Need to Work On
This one goes well with fighting temptation. If you want to improve yourself, in your self-discipline or otherwise, you need to know what you need to work on.
Harkening back to the previous example, if you know your weakness in getting healthy is a love of fast food, accept that fact and work on improving it.
It can be hard to see our own weaknesses sometimes, though. As such, it is important to get input from others at times.
So, be open to criticism and don’t turn down genuine feedback from those around you.
3. Always Have a Plan B
When you are working towards a goal, your ideas won’t always pan out. Just like every other aspect of your life, there are a myriad of potential problems that could come up.
What do you do when that happens, though? Do you just give up and accept that your goal is on hold?
No. Instead, you should have a plan B ready and waiting in the case that your initial plan goes wrong.
Say, you want to go for a one mile run every morning before work - that’s how you want to get in shape or train for a marathon you’ve agreed to run.
Now, for example, say that you wake up one morning to pouring down rain, do you just call the day off and hope it’s better tomorrow?
Rather than just throwing out your plans for that morning’s workout, modify them!
Take the time you would use running to go to the gym and run on a treadmill for a while.
Being able to modify your plans like this and having a backup plan in the case of unforeseen circumstances, you will be able to reach your goals quicker because there are less things stopping you.
It also improves your self-discipline by taking away a chance to make excuses in the place of working toward your goals.
4. Plan Ahead
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Maybe the problem with your self-discipline is that you simply don’t have enough discipline in your goals, generally.
If you want a set of abs as your goal, for instance, you can’t just expect them to appear for all your wishing.
Instead, you have to plan steps that you want to take. Instead of just showing up to the gym and hoping for the best, try planning a workout before you go.
Not only is this method more effective, you will also see your discipline improve when you give yourself smaller steps within your goals to get done.
5. Nootropics Might Work
If you aren’t familiar with nootropics, they are “smart drugs” meant to help enhance you cognitively.
Different nootropics do different things. Specifically, though, you will want to look at nootropics that can be used to motivate you.
An example of one such nootropic is phenylpiracetam. This is actually a rather strong nootropic, so you will want to try a low dose until you know what works for you.
To give you an idea of what this nootropic is like, many people who take it compare it to Adderall but say they don’t have the same crash.
6. Know Why
When you are working toward a goal, you need to know why you are doing it.
Having a sense of purpose can do wonders for your self-discipline. After all, if you are working out every day just to the purpose of working out, you are far less likely to convince yourself to work out on days you don’t feel like it.
If you have a greater purpose, though, it makes things easier.
For example, if you don’t want to work out, you can think about how if you don’t work out, you won’t reach your goal of losing weight and get healthier. Then, you have a reason to work toward what you want.
This also adds a sense of consequence to what you do. In the previous example, for instance, not working out equates to the consequence of not losing the weight you need to lose to live a healthy life.
If you don’t have that in mind, there isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t just stay in bed that day.
7. Don’t Overwhelm Yourself
Changing anything in your life can be difficult. As such, don’t expect a completely rejuvenated sense of self-discipline overnight.
In fact, even taking all these tips in all at once can end up with you feeling even more discouraged as before.
The best way to tackle this, just as you do with your goals in general, is to take this a step at a time.
Don’t try to take 7 steps to improve your self-discipline at once. Maybe start by learning your weaknesses and from there you can do things like reduce temptation and try nootropics.
