“Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.” —Heraclitus
I’ll do it tomorrow since I’m bored today. This is the typical expression we hear when there is a task that needs to be completed but we are not motivated to accomplish it right now. My dear, you are not alone in this; many of us are in the same boat as you. Is this, however, true? My question is, how excellent is it? I began to look in the mirror. My proclivity for procrastination caused me to miss a number of opportunities. My personal life was taking a toll on my health, which prevented me from spending much time with my children. This habit struck me hard when two things occurred at once: my daughter’s poor academic performance and my prediabetic diagnosis. For a split second, I was speechless. My entire being—heart, soul, mind—was looking for a response. The solution was staring me in the face. Stopping my own procrastinating behavior.
Work out, it’s okay, I’ll do it tomorrow. Eating healthily: Why am I working and earning money if I can’t eat what I want? Isn’t it amusing? Because of these practices, I became so chaotic that I lost sight of my key priorities. Then I decided to start all over again. I need to break my procrastinating behavior and achieve my goals. In a nutshell, how to exercise self-control or discipline.
“Self-control is the balance between inner wisdom and outer action.”
While perusing, I came across some intriguing tips that I may apply to achieve my goal. I’d want to share a few simple behaviors for developing self-control, fighting procrastination, and increasing self-confidence and goal achievement.
1. Set definite objectives
It’s critical to have specific objectives for what you hope to accomplish. You won’t know precisely which path to take to achieve your goals unless you have well-defined objectives. It is practically impossible to know where to begin in order to achieve your goals when they are vague or undefined in any way. The backbone of self-discipline is the imagination itself. The cornerstone of self-control and the creation of a comprehensive success strategy is the setting of specific goals. As a result, defining specific goals is the first step towards developing self-control.
“Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life” – Les Brown
2. Develop an optimistic outlook
Once you have a specific goal in mind, the next step is to cultivate a positive mindset. It’s not necessary to reject negative thoughts in order to develop an optimistic outlook. It’s time to welcome and accept negative thoughts and feelings after years of coexisting with them, and to say farewell in a healthy manner. Negative emotions and thoughts prevent a lot of people from ever reaching their objectives. Without effectively facing and overcoming these negative emotions, a person cannot possibly hope to achieve their dreams. This is the reason you need to focus on developing a positive mindset after you have decided what specific goal you want to achieve. Focusing on your strengths will help you to maximise them. “A strong sense of humour will help you laugh at your mistakes, courage will allow you to take chances, and intelligence will help you think your way out of a sticky situation.” Understanding your strengths will enable you to perform at your highest level at all times, which will facilitate your success.
“To change your life, you have to change yourself. To change yourself, you have to change your mindset.” – Wilson Kanadi
3. Organize your environment
Any kind of success in life is hampered by disarray, disorder, and muddle. To achieve self-discipline and reach your goal, arrange your surroundings after you have established a clear objective and developed an optimistic outlook. Eliminating clutter is the first step towards organising your physical space. The first type of clutter you should remove is trash. Anything that is not required for the current task is the second kind of clutter. Making your space more manageable and functional is more important than simply throwing stuff away. Anything that is just distracting should be removed. By doing this, you can make sure that your energies are directed towards accomplishing your goal rather than being squandered on distractions and other things that may divert your attention from the work at hand. Organisation can exist on both an internal and external level. Spend some time letting go of distracting or unimportant thoughts. Resolving to multitask is crucial as it is another manifestation of disorganisation. Completing one task at a time maintains your mental organisation, just as completing one task at a time keeps your workspace more orderly.
“Organizing is what you do before you do something so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” – A.A. Milne
4. Create a Schedule
An unstructured timetable may cost you valuable time that you could utilise more wisely to get better outcomes. Thus, the next step is to organise your time after you have already organised your thoughts and physical space. The best way to achieve this is by creating a daily schedule. Decide what your priorities are before you start a routine. Individuals who dedicate time to meditation, physical activity, or other activities that enhance their well-being and happiness tend to excel in all other endeavours. As a result, give your tasks the order that matters most to you rather than according to any other criteria. Plan your time so that you combine enjoyable activities with the less enjoyable ones you must perform on a daily basis. Consider carefully the best times of day to complete the tasks at hand. Your productivity will rise as a result, and you’ll be able to finish those tasks when you’re most prepared. It’s equally vital that you base your routine on the activities that give you energy and rest. It’s equally important to get enough sleep each night and wake up in time for work. You must always allow yourself some downtime so that you can relax. Don’t waste time trying to create perfection. Instead, focus on creating a routine that cultivates harmony and balance in your life.
“A plan is what; a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done.” – Peter Turla
5. Develop Positive Habits
A habit is any action that is performed frequently enough that it becomes second nature to you. Good habits support goal-achieving and a healthy lifestyle, which advances your personal development. Bad habits can harm your relationships and your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. They can also impede your personal growth. Completing tasks that you start is a crucial habit to develop if you want to enhance your success in life. Making the decision to act immediately is another important habit to develop. Delays are the enemy of achievement. You can start to develop a healthier lifestyle and better impulse control by learning how to break bad habits and form new ones.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle
6. Remain Inspired
Successful people are driven all the time. Once you embark on the path to realising your objectives and aspirations, it is imperative that you maintain your motivation. Keeping your eyes on the prize is one of the best ways to remain motivated while pursuing your goals. Never lose sight of the objective you are pursuing. You’ll be able to bear every adversity, sacrifice, and obstacle along the road as a result of this. Having a positive support system around you will also help you stay motivated as you pursue success. Individuals who are not alone tend to overcome the biggest obstacles. Decide who will love and support you through your darkest moments and surround yourself with them. Maintaining motivation and overcoming any obstacles that may arise will be facilitated by this.
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
7. Embrace Failure
Without a doubt, failure poses the biggest threat to success. A person may never start a journey out of fear of failing, but they may never finish one because of their failure experience. You can only move forward and accomplish your goals in spite of setbacks along the way if you are willing to accept failure. One of the most important skills that the most successful people possess is the ability to view setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than as threats. A setback or loss should never be interpreted as personal injury. Just acknowledge that you need to revise your plan and rework your ideas. The ability to overcome setbacks and absorb the lessons they taught is what distinguishes successful people from unsuccessful ones.
“If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.” —David Viscott
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you found this information useful.
[Extracts from the book – Self-discipline in 60 min by William Jacobson]
Sharon's Read And Reflect 
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