The question, “How to be more disciplined,” seems to occupy many people’s minds.
The other day, someone asked me, “I make promises but never keep them. I make resolutions but never carry them out. I never finish what I start. What can I do to stop that? I often tell myself that from now on, I am going to be more disciplined, but I never do anything about that.”
“How do I become a more disciplined person so I do what I promise? What do you suggest?”
Do you, too, wonder how to become more disciplined? Read on, and you might find this article useful.
You Can Become a Disciplined Person
Discipline is a habit, and like any habit, it needs to be repeated often until it becomes easy and automatic. This means daily practice. Disciplined people mean people with inner strength, resilience, and perseverance.
These qualities do not appear from thin air, and people are not born with them.
How to Become a Disciplined Person?
To develop the habit of discipline, you need to start with simple actions that require little discipline and are simple to carry out. If you carry them out successfully, your ability to carry out activities and tasks that require more discipline will grow.
Here are a few examples to clarify what I mean:
Go for a walk for 20-30 minutes every day at the same hour for one week. Do so despite laziness, lack of motivation, or inner resistance.
You might discover that you need some willpower to push yourself to get up from your couch and go out. Repeating this act every day would improve your discipline and make you more disciplined.
To become a disciplined person, you need to repeat the same activity over and over, not just once. Gradually, your inner strength and discipline will improve.
Your resolve and perseverance make you a more disciplined person, not the activity, which in this case is going for a walk.
Here is another example:
Set your alarm clock to ring about 20 minutes earlier than when you usually get up in the morning. When the alarm clock rings, get out of your bed promptly, without any delay. This might be tough, but it is a good exercise for becoming a more disciplined person.
How to be More Disciplined When Making Promises
As to making promises, be sure you can carry out any promise you make before making it. It is not a good idea to make promises and not carry them out since this teaches your subconscious mind that you never keep your promises.
Make promises to yourself and to others that are reasonable, and which you can carry out.
It is better and wiser to start with simple promises, which are easier to carry out. This teaches your subconscious mind that you can keep your promises.
Another thing you can do is to think and to find out what kind of habits you need to change, and start working on changing them.
- Do you avoid talking with certain people? Go talk to them.
- Do you start your day checking your email, reading the news and carrying out small and unimportant tasks? Change the order of your activities, and start your day with more important tasks.
If you wish to become a more disciplined person, you need to be earnest about this goal and put time and effort into it. You will also need to practice some exercises to strengthen this skill and turn it into a habit.
Do not worry if you lack discipline. With a little training, you can improve it.
You can learn to keep your promises, make resolutions and carry them out, and you can learn to finish what you start. You can learn to persevere, and you can learn bring more discipline into your life.
I don’t want to go deeply into this topic here, since I have written about it in many of my articles, as well as in my book, Build up Strong Willpower and Self Discipline.
If you wish to delve into this topic even more, I recommend that you learn how to have a disciplined mind.
4 Golden Tips on How to Become Disciplined
1. Set Clear, Achievable Goals
Discipline starts with clarity. Break your big, long-term goals into smaller, manageable tasks. When you have a clear roadmap, it becomes easier to stay focused and organized. Aim for daily or weekly milestones, so you can measure progress and stay motivated.
2. Create Consistent Routines
Consistency is the backbone of discipline. Establish a daily routine that incorporates the habits you want to build. Whether it’s a morning workout, dedicated work hours, or reading before bed, make these non-negotiable.
Start small and gradually increase your commitments. Routines help reduce decision fatigue and make discipline feel natural.
3. Embrace Delayed Gratification
Discipline often means sacrificing short-term pleasure for long-term gains. Train yourself to resist immediate distractions and focus on future rewards. This could be avoiding the urge to scroll through social media while working or skipping junk food to maintain your fitness goals.
Use mental reminders like visualizing your success or breaking tasks into focused intervals to help resist temptations.
4. Practice Discipline and Willpower Exercises
Discipline exercises can be integrated into daily life, turning daily tasks and goals into exercises that improve your willpower, self-control and self-mastery.
These are simple exercises that you can practice at any place or time. After practicing for a while you will appreciate their effectiveness.
Recommended articles to read:
Willpower and Self Discipline Guidance and Exercises
What Is Self-Discipline – Definitions
Recommended book:
Strengthen Your Willpower and Self Discipline
“Discipline really means our ability to get ourselves to do things when we don’t want.”
– Arden Mahlberg
“If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.”
– Napoleon Hill
