Your Challenge Today:
Discipline and Choice!
By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC
Discipline is the bridge
between goals and accomplishment.
~ Jim Rohn
The best way to improve your self-discipline is through intentional, dedicated practice – change can be difficult and it takes time. Here are some strategies to help increase your self-discipline:
1. Face Your Challenges – Whether carbs and grains are the downfall to your diet, or you can’t resist that glass of wine every night, acknowledge your personal challenges. Don’t try to pretend your weaknesses don’t exist and don’t minimize the negative impact these bad habits have on your health. Call a spade a spade and face the bugger head on. Rely on your cheat meals for those times, be diligent with yourself and your team about that!
2. Establish a Clear Plan of Action! – aka – SMART GOALS! No one wakes up one day suddenly blessed with incredile self-discipline, it takes commitment, practice and support ~ that’s what your team and this game are for ~ support! You need a strategy, a plan of action and another plan for the times when you want to jump off the wagon and go renegade ~ don’t do it! Call your accountability buddy, reach out for support! Whether you want to increase good habits – like exercising regularly, or you want to eliminate bad habits – like eating junk instead of a real meal. This is where your SMART GOALS come in ~ develop a plan to outline the action steps that will help you reach your goals and share your plans with your team!! Go Team!!
3. Remove the Temptations from Easy Access – Although we’d all like to believe we have enough willpower to resist even the most alluring invitation, it only takes one moment to convince ourselves to to have just one. This can be difficult to manage when those temptations are in easy access which diminishes your discipline. If your weakness is wine or cheese, don’t keep it in the house ~ make it hard to grab. If you can’t resist chocolate after a meal, keep small treats in small amounts handy so you can have that thumb-size portion of whatever your heart desires on a daily basis ~ be honest though, no cheating ~ only you will suffer the consequences.
4. Practice Change of Attitude – Many people to want to avoid change because it is often perceived as painful. When we practice patience allowing ourselves to experience emotions like boredom, frustration, sadness, or loneliness and increase our tolerance to these emotions and we create an opportunity to shift our attitude. It is through this shift in our attitude that we gain mastery over our discipline and move closer to our goals.
5. Visualize the Benefits – You’ll be less likely to give in to temptation when you focus on the long-term benefits that you will gain through your discipline. Giving in to today’s temptations may make you feel happy for the immediate future, but long-term pleasure and contentment requires you to forgo immediate gratification. Visualize yourself achieving your goals and enjoying the rewards that you’ll gain by practicing self-discipline on a daily basis.
6. Recover From Mis-takes Quickly – Self-discipline comes easier on some days than others, like most things do. When you’re feeling stressed about an upcoming meeting, you may convince yourself to skip your workout. Or if you’re celebrating about your most recent business deal, you may let your good habits slide for a bit. Making mistakes is part of the process to becoming better. The way you recover from those mis-takes is what’s most important. The key is to acknowledge your mistakes and move on from them with more resolve to do better next time. We are all human and mis-takes are part of the journey.
The good news is we all have the ability to be self-disciplined
— we just have to practice —
What’s your secret to averting temptation?
I would have to say that being a part of a team and the daily emails help most. To know that I am not in this alone, and there is a team to hold me accountable.
The thumb size treats definitely help too 🙂
I agree with Pamela – the regular ‘meals off’ plan are a big help — and specifically designed to help keep us on track. No one is perfect all the time, what fun would that be — and learning to discern between needs and wants if a big part of the process….
The regular “meals off” help enormously. I love today’s affirmation about short term satisfaction vs. long term satisfaction. That has helped me a lot. Keeping my intention on long term health is key for me.
I definitely am tempted by a glass of wine, some cheese and carbs. In fact, that would be my perfect meal. I have been able to avoid the temptation by reminding myself of my responsibility to my team. I do have a daily small piece of dark chocolate – can’t give everything up!