The Importance of Self-Discipline: 8 Steps to be More Self-Disciplined

  

Self-discipline is one of the most useful characteristics that you can possess. 

It is the ability to see through any short-term distractions and instead take consistent actions to strive towards achieving your long-term goals. 

You will simply not go far in life without being self-disciplined!

So, It is no wonder why loads of the most successful people in this world all highly recognize their self-discipline as being a fundamental factor for their success. 

All you need to do is take a moment to think of any successful millionaire at the top of your head, and you’ll certainly see where I am coming from! 

8 Steps to be More Self-Disciplined 

1. Act on Your Own Initiative

Take a step back and ask yourself: What is it that I want? And Why do I want this?

After all, there is no point living your life based upon someone else's standards or ideologies.

It is important that you see the sense behind what it is that you want to achieve. 
You need to be bold and take things into your own hands.
Otherwise you will be stuck working for somebody else's dream!

2. Set Your Priorities

Decide what is most important to you and ultimately what you will get the most benefit out of in the long term.

If you are stuck on where to start with this, then look no further than using the Eisenhower Decision matrix.
This is a simple, but really effective matrix that helps us to acknowledge what work matters the most to us and ultimately what it is that we need to prioritize.
All you do is put tasks that you need to do into one of four different sections.

The sections of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix are:
Do it Now -  the most urgent and important tasks
Decide When to Do it - the tasks that are important, but not urgent
Delegate it - the tasks that are urgent, but not important 
Delete it - the tasks that are not important and not urgent

3. Set A Specific Time For Completion

If you’re running in a marathon in six months time and tell yourself that you will start training “later”, you most likely won’t start any time soon or will foolishly start at the last minute. 

Setting a deadline of “later” typically leads to constant postponement. 

It will be much easier for you to stick to your intention if you set a specific date.

Parkinson's Law identifies the necessity for a specific time frame very nicely.
Parkinson's Law is where the time that we spend doing a task increases in order to fill the time frame that we have set for the completion of that task.

For example, if you have to write a report that will take you 2 hours to complete, but you have a week to do it then the perceived complexity of the task will increase and appear more intimidating so as to fill up the week. 

4. Break Down Large Tasks Into Smaller Ones

By breaking down greater tasks into smaller tasks, it becomes less intimidating and perceived as being less challenging. 

This is because it makes it easier to see your progress when each goal gets completed. 

But, it also gives a sense of achievement throughout your journey to achieve the major goal, therefore improving your motivation and will-power along the way.

5. Ignore And Silence Your Haters

You’ve probably been in a situation before where you’ve told a friend or acquaintance about your goals or ideas and all they did was react with skepticism. 
It’s certainly disheartening and will start to fuel self-doubt that can hinder your motivation if you let it get to you.
 
But, before this happens, simply take it with a pinch of salt and move on!
If all people are going to do is see the negatives in everything that you do, then they aren't worth your time.

6. Find Your Rhythm

Everyone performs more efficiently at different phases within the day. 

The decisive factor for this is the so-called chronobiology. 

This is simply where bodily processes fluctuate considerably within a day. 

Whether this be the activity of your organs, your level or tiredness, or your ability to concentrate effectively. They all vary throughout the day.

Distinguish between the times of the day where you feel most energetic and those whee you feel most tired. 

Then, structure your day accordingly in order to work during the time periods where you are most energetic and able to focus more.

7. Visualize Your Goals

We are often motivated by the reward that we get from completing something. 
What this is can vary significantly from being intrinsic to extrinsic or introjected to identified. 

But, put that aside and simply ask yourself: 

What is your reason behind your goals? 

What do you treat yourself to when you've achieved your goals? 

Some people have the ability to visualize and imagine their goals, while others need a more definitive picture. 
Find out what works best for you!

8. Reward Yourself For Partial Success

Learn to praise and reward yourself regularly. 
This helps to promote an optimistic frame of mind and acknowledge the progress that you are making towards your end goal.

It is easy to get distracted in today's world with the endless amounts of technology at our fingertips. 
But through regularly rewarding ourselves, we soon recognize that striving towards our long-term goals is the right thing to do. 
It helps us to understand the importance of self-discipline and see the bigger picture.

Conclusion

Self-discipline is easily up there as being one of the most important personality traits and characteristics to possess in order to become successful in life.

It is certainly not easy to master self-discipline.

But, by learning from the steps in this article and ultimately putting them to action, you will be well on your path to becoming more self-disciplined in your every day actions

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The Cookie Jar Method: A Method to Stay Motivated in Difficult Times

  

No matter who you are, you would have encountered many difficult challenges and struggles during your life. 

Whether these be situations such as working long hours at a job that you hate or encountering relationship problems, we all know just how hard it can be to stay motivated and push forwards with our lives. 

Despite all of the difficult situations that life throws at us, we often find ourselves having a tiny bit more energy and persistence to push through these difficult times. 

This ability to strive forward and carry on is where the concept of the cookie jar method comes in to play. 

An Insight in to The Cookie Jar Method

The Cookie Jar method was developed bya former US Navy Seal called David Goggins.

But, in order to truly understand the Cookie Jar Method, we need to understand who David Goggins is. 

A Background of David Goggins:

• Former US Navy SEAL
• Competed in over 60 ultra-triathlons, ultra-marathons, and triathlons
• Consistently placed in the top 5 of these races 
• Set numerous course records
• Former Guinness World Record holder for the most pull-ups in 24 hours
• He achieved 4,030 pull-ups in 17 hours

So, clearly David Goggins is an extremely tough guy!

How The Cookie Jar Method Came About

David Goggins wanted to run the Badwater Ultramarathon to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. 

This is a foundation that works closely with the children of special operations soldiers that have unfortunately lost their lives and ultimately provides them with grants and college scholarships. 

So, it is a foundation that is close to Goggins' heart as lots of his close friends sadly died in a helicopter crash when serving in Afghanistan in 2005. 

However, David Goggins was told that he needed to have completed multiple 100 mile races before he could compete in the invitational based Badwater Ultramarathon. 

So, he entered the San Diego 24-hour ultramarathon that began in only 3 days time. 

This meant that David Goggins was effectively going to run the length of 4 marathons at once with no preparation, training or experience in long distance running. 

Clearly this proved to be a near impossible challenge to complete!

The Start of a New Mentality: San Diego 24-hour Ultramarathon

During this ultramarathon is where the David Goggins Cookie Jar Method is developed and brought to life.

After 25 miles of the race had passed, Goggins was starting to feel very fatigued. 

He began questioning whether he would be able to complete the race. 

But, he kept persevering despite having the equivalent of 3 more regular marathons left to run!

When he reached 50 miles, his legs felt like concrete bricks. 

He could hardly move them and was experiencing lots of pain. 

But, he kept persevering!

Then, at the 70 mile mark, Goggins felt defeated as blood began dripping down his lifeless legs. He often describes this as being one of the lowest points in his life. He was constantly questioning why he was running the race in the first place and why he is still running.  

But, this soon became a turning point for Goggins. 

He realized that he had overcome many impossible tasks during his time as a US Navy SEAL.  

All of a sudden he felt a spur of energy and began to walk slowly. 

He was remembering all the difficult times he battled through. 

So, in essence he was adopting the emotional mentality that he experienced when overcoming these previous challenges. 

This then pushed him forward to complete 101 miles in 19 hours and 6 minutes.

This whole concept of reminiscing your previous achievements and failures that you conquered is what the Cookie Jar Method is based upon. 

What is The Cookie Jar Method?

The Cookie Jar method is where you mentally store and keep note of all of the past experiences that you've overcome and achieved. 

Then during times when you feel like giving up, you can simply take a cookie out the jar. 

In other words, you can refer back to a previous situation in your life where you overcame a difficult challenge or battled through a tough period in your life.

These difficult situations that you have overcome could include accomplishments such as breaking a bad habit, battling through a period of depression, or healing from a bad injury.

What ever these situations may be for you, they are vital to look back upon in situations where we are finding things challenging. 

This is because they can easily help you to gain a broader perspective and thereby providing you with an extra boost of motivation and strength when you feel like giving up.

Conclusion

We all know just how tough life can be at times!
But, overall David Goggins does an excellent job through his Cookie Jar Method by suggesting that we should always learn from our past experiences and use them to help us conquer our goals and overcome challenges in the present moment. 

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How to be Successful in Life: Napoleon Hill's 17 Principles of Success

  

Everyone wants to achieve success in life, yet very few people manage to do so!

Managing to live a ‘successful’, rewarding, and enriching life isn’t a simple or fast process. 

But, Napoleon Hill does a superb job in guiding you to live a meaningful and rewarding life within his 17 Principles of Success. 

A Quick Background: Who was Napoleon Hill and Why Should YOU follow his advice?

Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970)  was an American author in the self-help and personal-success genres (and he was one of the first people to write about such genres).

He dedicated his whole life to uncovering how people became successful, and he strived to identify the characteristics of success and achievement.  

Napoleon Hill's most noteworthy book, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the top 10 best selling self-help books of all time and is arguably one of the best self-help books ever written. 
The extent of his research being this book is incredible. 
He interviewed over 500 self-made millionaires over the course of 20 years and   he identified many key characteristics between these people. 

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