Do you want to become more disciplined and focused in your life? Are you trying to reach a dream but feeling like you are running in place? Do you struggle to set and meet measurable goals? We all have things we need to improve in our personal and work lives, and it takes determination, hard work, and self-discipline to become the person we want to be.
Hire a Mentor or Life Coach
Hiring a mentor or life coach can help you with all the steps on this list. If you are serious about becoming more disciplined and focused in reaching your dreams, consider hiring a discipline mentor. This person can guide you in creating goals with actionable steps, help keep you accountable for those goals, and keep you from straying off the path or becoming burnt out.
Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
The first step to becoming more disciplined is to identify your strengths and weaknesses. If you know your strengths, you can capitalize on them. If you know and accept your weaknesses, you will be able to work on them in a realistic and valuable way. You will be able to slowly improve your weak areas and continue building your strong areas.
Set Goals
In order to have a more disciplined and successful life, you need to know where you are trying to go. Setting reasonable and measurable goals helps with this process. Even if you don’t reach your goals, you will get closer to them than if you don’t set any at all. Define where you want to be, and how you know when you get there.
Remove Temptations
If you are struggling to eliminate a bad habit, remove temptations from your life. Make it harder to do whatever it is you are trying to eliminate. If you are trying to eat less sugar, don’t buy desserts. If you are trying to focus better at work, identify and remove your most annoying distractions. You will find it easier to become more disciplined if you aren’t trying to swim against the current.
Set Daily Progress Markers
Once you have your goals established, set daily or weekly markers to help you measure your progress. Ask yourself, “In order to meet this goal, what do I need to accomplish each day or week?”. Set regular times to evaluate yourself and see if you have met your progress markers for that time period.
Visualize
Visualize what you want to become. Who do you want to be? What kind of character do you want to have? What is your ideal workplace? How do you want your home life to look? Visualizing your ideal helps you to set goals that will move you toward what you truly want. If you are working hard toward something desirable, it helps to keep the end picture in your mind.
Do What You Can
There may be steps toward your goal that you cannot take yet. If your goal is to graduate college, and you haven’t been accepted yet, you can’t work on your first class. If your goal is to buy real estate but you don’t have a steady income, you can’t prequalify for a loan. But there is always something that you can do to move toward that goal, whether it is getting a second job, saving more money, applying for local community colleges, or simply educating yourself online. Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from what you can do.
Start Small
Don’t be afraid to start small. Baby steps can be daunting because it seems like your hard work will never move you closer to your goal. But don’t be put off by small steps. Even if you don’t reach your goal quickly, every step takes you closer. Many times baby steps are better in the long run because large leaps are often unsustainable and result in backsliding back to the starting place.
Use Habits
Determine which daily habits will help you reach your goal. For example, if you are trying to gain strength, consider developing a habit of taking an exercise session each day. Try to link these new habits to an old habit you already have- if you want to read more, set a time to read right before bedtime each night. If you want to exercise, try to fit that in right after lunch or supper.
Do One Important Thing
If you find yourself balking at the same task every day, it may be time to start your day with the “one important thing” theory. This idea is based on the fact that we tend to put off one or two important tasks each day by filling our time with busyness. If we don’t allow ourselves to do anything else until that task is done, we will find that we have much more time in our days than we thought because we were unconsciously creating extra work, trying to avoid the uncomfortable job. Not only will you have more time in your day, but it will also be more enjoyable because you won’t have that dreaded but important job hanging over your head.
Expect to Fail
We all fail. We will fail again and again in our quest to become more disciplined and focused. If we begin our journey expecting to never fail, we may quit at the first difficulty. If you expect the failure and have a plan for dealing with it before it happens, you will recover quickly and be ready to try again right away. And this time, the next failure will be even easier to deal with.
Self-Care and Avoiding Burnout
It is important to take care of yourself when you are striving toward a goal. Burnout is the enemy of all progress because when we experience burnout we no longer have any desire to fight or work. You will burn out if you work too hard or too long, or if you don’t take care of yourself. Take breaks, consult with your mentor and friends, stay social, and enjoy your hobbies. Don’t let your goals and dreams take over your life so that you can’t enjoy the present, and you will be more likely to succeed in the long run.