How to be More Disciplined in Your Life

How to be more disciplined in your life by forgetting about discipline and just doing what needs to be done.

I spent 10 years in the United States Marine Corps and got to learn a lot about discipline the hard way. It was a way of life, but it wasn’t the kind of discipline most of you want in your life. But it is the kind we think about all the time. From first hand experience, it is the kind of discipline that sucks.

How to be more disciplined isn’t what you are really looking for. It’s more self discipline. If you just want more discipline in your life, hire a Marine NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) to stand there and yell at you all day. It isn’t a fun life. But, as Marines we did that kind of discipline so that we could do other things. I was in the infantry. Our job was “To locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, and to repel the enemy’s assault by fire and close combat.” We got the horrible discipline so that we could complete that horrible mission. And it worked. In combat in 2003 mine and my Marines discipline allowed us to overcome amazing odds and bring all of us back alive.

Even in the Marine Corps, we do discipline so we can accomplish other things. You need more discipline in your life to accomplish other things.

Here are the steps on how to get more disciplined in your life:

So stop focussing on the part that sucks. Don’t worry about getting more discipline.
Figure out what the little things you can do everyday to meet a life goal.
Make it easy to do that little thing every day.
See yourself as the person you want to be.

Stop Focusing on How to Be More Disciplined

When all you focus on the discipline, that is all you will get. Do you want to practice doing the practice to get what you want? Or do you want to do the things that will get you what you want?

When you focus on being more disciplined, that is practicing to practice.

I love the Simpsons. In one of my favorite episodes Bart is failing in school. He trades time with the smartest kid in school, Martin, to help him study and succeed. Martin spends all this time setting up an area to study in, making Bart sit there and just stair at the wall and his book. Not really studying, but practicing to study. All Bart wanted to do was be out doing what little boys do. Bart showed Martin how to do all the cool guy stuff in grade school. Once Martin did the pranks, ran with the other kids, and did kid stuff (way overblown in the episode because it’s the Simpsons), Martin had no other need for Bart or to help him. And Martin left.

Bart tries to study but doesn’t quite make it. It’s the little prodding by his sister when school was snowed out, that instead of going outside to play, he should be studying because it is what he prayed for. That’s when he finally hit the books. And he passes with great fanfare and craziness in the end.

Why are you focused on getting the discipline to sit there and do what you are suppose to do? Why are you practicing studying when you could be actually studying? Why are you thinking and stressing about being more disciplined when you could simply do it?

Stop focussing on the how to be more disciplined and focus on what you want to do to accomplish what you want.

What Little Thing Can you Do Every Day to Get What You Want?

No matter what you want in life, there is something that you could do every day to get closer to it. Most of the time it is the small things added up over time that make a big difference. There isn’t one big thing that gets us across the finish line. It’s that movie montage moment.

The hero of the story sits down to do the work. In Rocky he runs, works out, and eventually does the best ending ever by running up the steps and holding his hands up.

If you hit your goal, what would the montage look like to get there? That is what you should be focusing on.

Make it Easy

Make it easy to do the things in your montage every day.

Next week I’m changing my workouts again. I’m going to do an easy hike in the morning before work to get more exercise in, burn more calories, and get in some walking shape for a trip I’m doing in a couple months to Yosemite National Park.

So I turned back my alarm a half hour to get up to make sure I can get the time in. I set all my clothes next to the bed and my shoes next to the door. That way when I get up in the morning, I’m ready to go.

Making things as easy as possible to do every day is how you get your montage done. And by the end, you are the person running up the stairs and holding your hands up (figuratively of course).

See Yourself as That Person

The last thing is what you should be doing all the time. See yourself as the person that has already finished your montage. You are a worrier, an athlete, a professional at what ever you have chosen to do.

You become the person you want to be by telling yourself again and again you are that person. You want to be the best sales person in your office, set the goal and do those little things everyday to make it happen. Tell yourself constantly that you are the best sales person in the office.

You trick yourself into becoming that person by telling yourself you are that person. It’s simple psychology. How it works is to remind you of what you are to become constantly so you do the things you want to become that person.

If you always tell yourself you are the best sales person in the office and you’ve decided (like me) that you need to make 10 cold calls a day to sell your goal, you will make those 10 calls. Every time you think about not doing what you are suppose to, there will be a little voice asking you, is that what the best sales person in the office would do?

This always works to get me back on track.

Conclusion

What thing do you want to get more discipline in your life to accomplish? What are those little things you have to do to accomplish them? How can you make it easy for yourself to do those things? Can you see yourself as the person that accomplishes that goal?

Now write down that goal, skip being more disciplined, write down the little thing you most do every day to accomplish that goal, make it easy for yourself to do that thing, and see yourself as the person that accomplishes that goal.

Now Get After it!

Ben Branam