Self-Discipline

Written by Vanessa Shaw

11 January 2011

Published in Blog

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When people don't achieve their goals, they typically blame lack of resources: not enough time, money, the right people, a poor economy, etc. Time is never really the issue - all of us have the same 24 hours in our days - it's how we choose to use that time that makes all the difference. It's typically a lack of focus, priority setting or motivation that gets in our way.

Simply put, it's not a lack of resources that prevents us from achieving our goals but rather a lack of inner resourcefulness.

Over the next twelve months of 2011, I'll be looking at how you can develop your inner resources to become more focused, motivated and successful. I strongly believe that it is building your inner resources that will make the real difference as to whether you achieve your vision of success.

We each have to define what success means. This can involve a long process of self-reflection and digging deeper within yourself. What makes you happy? What is your passion? What makes you tick? If you could write your ideal job description, what would it be? How do you want to make a lasting contribution to the world around you? How do you want to be remembered? In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review entitled "Success Lasts", enduring success was defined as being made up of 4 parts - happiness (feelings of pleasure or contentment about your life), achievement (of goals), significance (making a positive impact on those you care about) and legacy (helping others find future success).

So where do we start on our 12 month journey? This month, I want to put the focus on self-discipline. Why is it so important and how can we build more self-discipline?

First the why is it important? From the research I've done on what differentiates successful people from others there appears to be one common denominator: they make a habit of doing things that unsuccessful people don't like to do. Successful people are almost always more concerned with longer term results and the real consequences of their short-term behaviour. Unsuccessful people however are usually more concerned with short term gratification and personal enjoyment rather than longer term results. In other words, successful people focus on getting the right things done, when it needs to be done and even when they don't feel like doing it.

What gets in the way for less successful people? The answer is the avoidance of unpleasant activities which often shows up as distractions from what really needs to be done. This includes cleaning up your email or filing papers when you should be instead calling a client, rewriting your to-do list or plan instead of taking action, having another coffee instead of getting the report finished, doing everything except filling out that overdue tax return....

A strong dose of self-discipline is necessary to take action whether you feel like it or not and especially when you don't feel like it. The great pay-off of self-discipline is that it directly affects your self-esteem. It increases your self-respect and personal pride and improves your self-image. When you feel better about yourself and see yourself in a more positive light, your energy increases and you feel happier. As a result, you will not only be able to achieve more but you will also be able to contribute more to those around you.

Now I've always considered myself fairly self-disciplined but as a Coach I know there is always room for improvement. I took a closer look at my own self-discipline and asked myself where could I benefit from more? The more I thought about it, the more I could see where self-discipline had benefitted me. I could also see where a lack of it (or sometimes just not enough of it) was preventing me from achieving further goals. Given that it takes about 30 days of consistent action to build a new habit, I decided to create my own personal 30 day challenge. My own 30 day challenge includes getting up sharp at 6 AM for an intense morning work-out (yes, my sports clothes are right by the side of the bed), giving up alcohol completely, giving up my Swiss chocolate habit (highly addictive), getting on top of all of my admin work and filing, planning and prioritising for each week as well as each day and lastly getting to bed earlier to stay on top form and start each day full of zest.

So far, it's working and the truth is I'm feeling fantastic. The first few days were tough but now I'm getting into the swing of it and the effort seems to be well worth it. My early morning workouts get me feeling energised and proud of myself all through the day. As a knock-on effect, I'm also paying closer attention to what I'm eating and a few of those Christmas pounds have already disappeared. It's also great not to see so much paperwork lying around the office and to feel more on top of things. The bottom line is that I'm feeling more in control and getting more done.

What about you? Would you like to come up with your own 30 day self-discipline challenge? What would you include in it? I'd love to hear about it - both the challenges and successes.

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