TOW#537 — Self-discipline

Tip of the week
5 min readApr 23, 2020

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Imagine that you had the power to achieve every one of your goals, ideas, whatever you want… Let’s say you want to achieve excellent results in the workplace, or in a sport you do regularly… Without self-discipline and a positive approach, those goals would be yet more wishes that’ll never come true. Many people associate the word discipline/self-discipline with a military regimen, absolute obedience, effort, rigour, punishments… Self-discipline is the virtue of governing oneself (self-control, perseverance, consistency and self-motivation), which encourages us to do whatever it takes for the things we want — our goals — regardless of the emotional state in which we find ourselves. When you see a person who seems to have a disciplined life, they’ve in fact simply managed to acquire and maintain habits.

It’s usually harder to be self-disciplined than disciplined.

It seems a little paradoxical that we find it easier to behave in accordance with someone else’s rules rather than our own, but that’s because we’re used to it — first we had to behave according to our parents’ rules, then the kindergarten’s, school’s, work’s and so on, and we know exactly what the punishments are if we break those rules: a smacked bottom, standing in the corner, feeling bad, a pay cut, prison, etc. The problem with self-discipline is that the punishments are not very clear. For example, we know precisely what will happen if we exceed the speed limit while driving, but what will happen to us if we don’t eat healthily? If we don’t exercise? If we don’t read books? Do we know the consequences if we don’t do any of these things? We know more or less, but we can also live without them, right? We want to exercise, but we’re lazy; we want to do the task, but we can do it later — after the cigarette, and so we have to admit to ourselves that it comes down to LAZINESS. If we manage to separate the emotional part that prevents us from taking action, then we’ll be able to do everything we want in order to improve and take action for ourselves. During this period of working from home, self-discipline plays a major role, and it’s something that we need to practice and apply constantly. Motivated by #STAYHOME and #WORKFROMHOME, I’m sharing with you some tips on how to practice self-discipline:

1. Be at your best

Ask yourself if you can be disciplined and what it is that contributes to you being more productive. Maybe it’s when you do tasks early and you don’t have any rush or pressure, or it’s the opposite — when you have very little time and you have no other choice, so you just have to do it… When you understand how you work best, you can then try to organise your activities in accordance with it. Some people simply don’t have to plan ahead because for them discipline comes with adrenaline. Do it now, don’t wait!

2. Plan everything in detail

Regardless of whether you’re someone that completes everything on time or not, it’s very important to have control over everything you do, especially when you’re out of the office. Almost all of us are at home at the moment and you can’t expect someone else at home to remind you what you need to do for work. It doesn’t matter whether you write down your tasks on the palm of your hand or on a piece of paper, plan your activities — this may help you to be additionally motivated and focused. Don’t delay, plan it now!

3. Divide the plan into several parts

Divide the whole activity, project or task into several smaller stages with shorter deadlines that are easy to hit. This will increase your motivation and improve the work dynamic. But don’t leave things for later.

4. Pleasant working atmosphere

I can’t tell you exactly what your work atmosphere should be like at home, but make it so that it suits you best and most importantly that it works for the things you need to do. In a home environment, where there’s no set time for a meeting, lunch, a break…it’s very easy to lose track of time, so things can take much longer than they should. By pre-planning activities, you should know approximately how much time each one will take, and you can then find out what distracts you most: the TV, the phone, the radio, others in the house, your dog/cat, etc, which would mean that you need to distance yourself from these things in order to be more efficient.

5. Be in touch with colleagues

It will help you keep up to date with the latest developments. In addition, proper and constant communication will allow you to solve certain problems that you may not be able to solve on your own. Call your colleague NOW, don’t leave it for later…

6. Panic

No matter how difficult it is for you to finish a particular task, don’t think negatively — it’ll only make you panic and lead to further delay and unfinished jobs. You have to be the one to make each task and job positive and interesting. Of course, we’ve all had to deal with activities we simply don’t like, so get on with them as soon as possible and help yourself finish the things you don’t like faster.

7. DON’T POSTPONE THINGS

Postponing things that are your responsibility can be really destructive, especially now that we’re working from home. None of your colleagues or superiors who usually motivate you and make you work are at your house. Tasks that you constantly postpone will ‘smack you over the head’ because it’s very likely that you won’t be able to finish them on time or someone else will finish them for you, and those people might even suffer much more precisely because of you. Excessively delaying things and lying to yourself that you’ll get everything done on time is of little use to anyone. Don’t postpone things!

Work on self-discipline, don’t be dependent on other things or people and don’t wait until you ‘feel like working’. Simply get on with it and complete your tasks even when you don’t have that feeling. Do you think that top athletes wait for the time when they feel like training? Or that top musicians don’t play until they feel like it? They are disciplined and persistent, working every day on what’s important to them, and that’s why they’re SUCCESSFUL! 😊

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ARISTOTLE

If you would like to receive these texts by e-mail or you think that some of your colleagues, associates or friends might be interested in them, please get in touch at

tow@macedonia-export.com

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Tip of the week
Tip of the week

Written by Tip of the week

An interactive handbook for personal and professional development. Dedicated to CHANGE - in all its glory!

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