4 TIPS FOR BUILDING DISCIPLINE THAT LASTS

Reading time: 5 minutes

1. Not Everything at Once

A lot of people make the mistake of wanting everything at once. They watch one motivational video and decide that from now on they get up at 5 a.m., eat nothing but low carb, train once or twice a day and never watch Netflix again.

Setting high goals is a good thing, but a switch that sudden takes an enormous amount of willpower. More than most of us have. That is not weakness, that is human, and it happens to plenty of people. So they hold the plan for one or two weeks at most and then fall back into old habits.

Pick one big habit instead, or two or three smaller ones, and put your discipline into those. It takes less willpower and the odds of keeping it up long term are far better. Only after that do you take on the next problem.

Here is where you can start.

2. Mind the “Small Stuff”

It is interesting how many people draw a line between workdays and days off.

Clean shave during the week, three-day stubble on the weekend. Uniform Monday to Friday, sweatpants on Saturday. Desk tidy at work, but at home the bed is not even made.

Everyone has earned his day off, and as said before, not everything has to be perfect right away. But it is exactly these small things that shape your attitude, and your attitude decides how much discipline you end up with. So:

• Look at your bed right now. If it is not made, make it. And from now on every single day, straight after you get up.
• If you skip shaving on the weekend, rethink that. It makes no difference whether you have visitors coming or plan to go out. It is about a basic attitude. A beard can be groomed too, otherwise people start taking you for a Taliban.
• Even with clothes I switched at some point to at least jeans and a plain sweater instead of sweatpants and a gym hoodie. It simply feels better, trust me.

You will notice that exactly these “small things” make the biggest difference in the end.

3. Just Do It (It Does Not Have to Be Perfect)

I once had a comrade in my course who had served with the American paratroopers before that. The Americans handle military drill and discipline a bit differently than we do, and you could definitely tell with him.

One thing about him surprised me more than anything else.

Almost every evening he was out with the rest of the course, building camaraderie, celebrating and drinking. He could handle immense amounts of alcohol and was always one of the last to go to bed.

So far, nothing unusual. Here is the remarkable part: every morning between 3 and 4 a.m. his alarm went off, he got up and went training for at least an hour. Every single morning.
At 6:30 a.m. he was the first man standing there for roll call, showered and shaved, and before the duty day had even started he had already done more than the guys who had not touched a drop the night before.

His routine was extreme, obviously. But here is the point:
Even if you do something counterproductive beforehand, that does not mean you cannot still be disciplined. Quite the opposite. Not everything has to be perfect. You just have to keep at it. No excuses.

4. Watch Who Your Friends Are

“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”

— DANIEL STEVEN PEÑA SR.

Take a hard look at your friends and notice where they might be pulling you down. You do not have to end every friendship on the spot, but the people closest to you shape you more than you think. So decide carefully who gets how much of your time, and which of their traits are more of a bad example.

Picking up the habits of the people around you is human, and from an evolutionary point of view it was once essential for survival. But we live in a time and a country where nobody has to fear for his life because he decides to stop spending time with a certain group of friends.

Choose kindly, but wisely and deliberately, who gets how much of your time. Three friends who push you forward beat 15 who hold you down, consciously or not.

Good luck out there!

Shughart

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Sources: Photo: Wir. Dienen. Deutschland. (structure and color changed)