SELF-DISCIPLINE: 10 STEPS TO DEVELOP IT - ARTE - 2025

Self- discipline refers to the ability of a person to implement the actions that he believes he must take to achieve specific objectives. Self-control, willpower, determination, diligence, resolution… All these terms refer to the same meaning.

Doing the tasks that our boss sends us at work is not self-discipline, since the one who is convincing us to carry out that task is not ourselves, it is someone else.

However, when the person in charge of convincing us to carry out an action is ourselves, we will need the self-discipline to do it.

During childhood and adolescence, self-discipline plays a minor role in our lives, since we usually have "a boss" who is in charge of forcing us to do activities.

We go to school because the teachers assign it to us, we do our homework when our parents tell us and we clean up our room when they scold us for having it messy.

However, in our late teens and early adulthood, we begin to need self-discipline to perform a large number of activities.

10 steps to being self-disciplined

1-Understand what self-discipline is

The first step you must take in order to build self-discipline is to understand what it is. It's that many people think it is a personality trait, a quality that is acquired genetically, and that there are people who have it and people who will never have it.

If your thinking is focused in that direction, the first thing you have to do is understand that this is not the case.

Self-discipline is not something that comes out of nowhere, it is not a virtue that some people carry in their blood and that you, unfortunately, do not have. It is something that you create and build yourself.

Obviously, there will be people who will cost less to have self-discipline and people who will cost more, but we all have the capacity to have it, and we all must work to develop it.

No matter how self-disciplined you are, you have nothing in your brain, body, or personality that prevents you from starting to build your willpower today.

And is that self-discipline is like a muscle. If you train it, and invest time and effort in working it, it will grow. If you don't, it will never appear in you.

So, get rid of any thoughts you have about your inability to have it because it just isn't true, you can have it if you put your will, interest and effort into building it.

2-Convince yourself

Once you are clear that you have the necessary capacity to build self-discipline, the next thing you have to do is convince yourself that you want to start having more.

If you do not have it but you really do not find any need to start having it, you do not need to continue reading this article, since you will not be able to increase it.

Motivation is probably the main promoter of self-discipline, so if you have no reason to increase your willpower, it simply will not increase.

Make a list of the times you have thought you would want more self-discipline and what the reasons were. Write down what are the disadvantages of not having self-discipline and what advantages it would bring you to develop it.

Make a list of what your purposes are and why you want to achieve them. The reasons you want to build it will be your gas all the way.

For example: I want to build self-discipline so that I can finish my university studies this year or to start my own business in 6 months.

3-Analyze your time

Human beings have a habit of living with automatic pilot on, and sometimes we may not have self-discipline but not realize why it takes so much for us to have willpower.

Analyze what you do for a day and for a whole week. Make a list of all the activities you do and then analyze which of them are productive and which are not.

How many hours a day or a week do you spend watching TV? How many hours do you spend on hobbies, entertainment, or just nothing?

It is very important that you analyze your schedules in detail and detect which are those time slots in which your lack of self-discipline is evident.

If you work, the time slots in which you are developing a work activity cannot be used to increase your willpower, but the hours you invest in watching television or the free time you have, yes.

Detect well what are the hours in which you carry out unproductive activities since we will use that time to work on self-discipline.

4-Set yourself goals

Discipline does not work without goals, in the same way that cars do not start without an engine. Before starting to build it, we must set ourselves what objectives we want to achieve by doing so.

Use the previous exercise and visualize which hours of the day are best to start building self-esteem.

For example: Monday, Tuesday and Friday I have 4 hours in the afternoon that I never dedicate to any productive activity, I will use at least one hour each of those days to start building self-discipline.

Once you have done this, your self-discipline will no longer be a vague concept, you will have a day that you must begin to test yourself.

5-Specify your goals more

Once you have marked a few days to start testing yourself, you must further specify your goals. It is about taking your agenda, mark those days and those time bands that you have previously selected, and in each one write the activity that you will carry out.

Detail that activity as much as possible, so that when the key hour approaches you know what you are going to do.

Writing down "I will study" would be too vague a concept for your self-discipline. On the other hand, writing down "I will study topic 1 and 2 of subject x" will help you to mentalize yourself more than you will.

The more specific the better, since your mentalization about what you will do will be higher and the chances that you will do it will be higher.

It is convenient that you start with specific and not very lasting objectives and activities. In this way, it will be easier for you to achieve the goal and you will ensure that your self-discipline has begun to build.

6-Recognize your barriers

As you achieve your "mini goals" it is important to identify your barriers and distractions.

How do you do this? Well, very easy, do an analysis on the stimuli that normally make your self-discipline fail.

References

1. Self-discipline in ten days. By Theodore Bryant Human Behavior Specialist.
2. Coll, C.; Palacios, J and Marchesi, A (Eds) (2001). Psychological Development and Education. 2. Psychology of School Education. Editorial Alliance.
3. Pintrich, PR and Schunk, DH (2006). Motivation in educational contexts. Theory, research and applications. Madrid: Pearson. Prentice Hall.
4. Sternberg, Robert, J; Wendy W. Williams. (2002). Educational Psychology. Boston Allyn and Bacon cop.