Showing posts with label self-discipline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-discipline. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

How To Turn Into A Successful Individual

Basic Methods On How To Turn Into A Successful Individual 
by Harry888

Sometimes in life, we all need a little improvement. We could be a little smarter, a little more spiritual, or even a little more honest. There are many attributes that we can adjust to make ourselves better people. The following article contains tips for anyone who wishes to do a little personal development and improve themselves.

To stay motivated use your emotions as tools. People avoid painful experiences and seek out experiences that are pleasurable. When trying to break a bad habit, associate bad feelings with it. Then replace that habit with a good habit that makes you experience joy. You will be more likely to continue the good habit and less likely to continue the bad one.

Have plenty of self confidence in yourself. Never doubt that you cannot do what you set out to do. Set realistic goals for yourself, things that are attainable and within your reach at the time being. This will ensure that you never feel self conscience and always have plenty of self confidence.

Knowing does not mean understanding. A knowledgable person can even seem overbearing and pompous. If you are going to take the time to seek knowledge, also take the time to learn knowledge. Anyone can spout facts and data from memory, however, taking the time to understand and research the depth of the subject creates wisdom.

Some people have trouble moving on and the easiest way to move on is to find out exactly what is holding you back. Is it a task? A person? The environment you're living in? Once you let go off that burden you will be able to move on with your life and began focusing on the more positive aspects of your life.

Having integrity and a clear conscience will keep your self-esteem up and self-esteem is pivotal to personal development! Do not cut corners, make excuses or give yourself other reasons to feel like you are not giving life your best effort. All of those little things will add up to a weight that will burden you with guilt and stop your success dead in its tracks, not to mention keeping you from getting a good night sleep.

Exercise regularly to build strength and endurance. When you have stamina, you have more energy to withstand the challenges of everyday life. This will boost your confidence, increase your mental clarity, and will help you keep going in any endeavors that you take on in self-improvement. Your overall health influences how you live.

When you are stressed out, exercise. This is one of the best remedies to relieve stress. Exercise releases adrenaline that stress produces. You will find that almost immediately you will feel better. Try to make exercise an enjoyable daily habit and not a chore, so you can get into the routine of it.

Keep a diary or journal. It will be very cathartic to be able to put what you are feeling down on paper. Keeping things locked up and having thoughts running through your head can really take a toll on you. Just letting it all out on paper will allow you to release those thoughts without having to involve someone else.

Use mistakes as growing points. Everyone is going to make mistakes from time to time, whether serious or very minor. Either way you go, you have to understand that these mistakes are sometimes inevitable, and the best thing you can do is learn and grow from these mistakes, using them to propel yourself forward instead of letting them hold you back in frustration and discouragement.

Personal development is not a measure of who you are but of what you can do. It is important to take pride in each of your goals, but it is equally important not to think of yourself as better or worse than others. Perhaps you will become a better swimmer than someone but that does not mean you are a better person.

A great personal development tip is to stay disciplined. It is not easy to improve yourself. It takes hard work and dedication to truly make a positive change in your life. It is extremely important that you realize this and keep yourself disciplined whenever any sort of temptations arise.

If you want to better yourself, you should strive to always be thankful for everything good you have in your life. Being thankful is the road to true happiness. Sometimes, it can be hard to think of things to be thankful for if you have had a hard life, but you can always be thankful for breathing, hoping, and loving.

When trying to tackle a long to-do list, one effective technique is to do the most difficult tasks first. That way, you get the hard stuff out of the way early in the day. That sets up a great mood of success for the rest of your day and you will feel free to tackle all the relatively easy things that are left. Remember, do the tough jobs first for maximum productivity.

Ensuring that the path we chose in life is the most optimal is often a matter of planning each step before we take it. The hints provided above help us do just that. Whether our goal is to improve our financial situation or to implement an exercise routine, these tips can help us accomplish it.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/basic-methods-on-how-to-turn-into-a-successful-individual-5730036.html

Sunday, 4 March 2012

How to Build Self-Discipline

How to Build Self-Discipline (by Peter Clemens)

Discipline is freedom. You may disagree with this statement, and if you do you are certainly not alone. For many people discipline is a dirty word that is equated with the absence of freedom. In fact the opposite is true. As Stephen R. Covey once wrote, “the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”. And in the longer term, the undisciplined lack the freedom that comes with possessing particular skills and abilities – e.g. to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language.

Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life. Therefore it is self-discipline that drives you to:
  • Work on an idea or project after the initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away
  • Go to the gym when all you want to do is lie on the couch and watch TV
  • Wake early to work on yourself
  • Say “no” when tempted to break your diet
  • Only check your email a few of times per day at particular times
In the past self-discipline has been a weakness of mine, and as a result today I find myself lacking the ability to do a number of things which I would like – e.g. to play the guitar. But I have improved, and I can say that it is self-discipline that got me out of bed this morning at 5am to run and then write this article. Believe me, I would love to be curled up in bed right now, but this desire is subordinated by my inner sense of purpose.

If you struggle with self-discipline, the good news is that it can be developed. For example, it is only in the past two years that I have trained myself to wake early. The following are what I have found to be the five traits of self-discipline:

1. Self-Knowledge

Discipline means behaving according to what you have decided is best, regardless of how you feel in the moment. Therefore the first trait of discipline is self-knowledge. You need to decide what behavior best reflects your goals and values. This process requires introspection and self-analysis, and is most effective when tied to written expression. I highly recommend taking the time to write out your goals, dreams and ambitions. Even better, write out a personal mission statement. I found that writing such a statement gave me a greater understanding of who I am, what I am about and what I value. Dr. Covey has an excellent Mission Statement Builder on his site.

2. Conscious Awareness

Self-discipline depends upon conscious awareness as to both what you are doing and what you are not doing. Think about it. If you aren’t aware your behavior is undisciplined, how will you know to act otherwise?

As you begin to build self-discipline, you may catch yourself being in the act of being undisciplined – e.g. biting your nails, avoiding the gym, eating a piece of cake or checking your email constantly.

Developing self-discipline takes time, and the key here is you are aware of your undisciplined behavior. With time this awareness will come earlier, meaning rather than catching yourself in the act of being undisciplined you will have awareness before you act in this way. This gives you the opportunity to make a decision that is in better alignment with your goals and values.

3. Commitment to Self-Discipline

It is not enough to simply write out your goals and values. You must make an internal commitment to them. Otherwise when your alarm clock goes off at 5am you will see no harm in hitting the snooze button for “just another 5 minutes….” Or, when initial rush of enthusiasm has faded away from a project you will struggle to see it through to completion.

If you struggle with commitment, start by making a conscious decision to follow through on what you say you’re going to do – both when you said you would do it and how you said you would do it.

Then, I highly recommend putting in place a system to track these commitments. As the saying goes, “What gets measured gets improved”.

4. Courage

Did you notice the sweat dripping from the man in the picture at the start of this article? Make no mistake, self-discipline is often extremely difficult. Moods, appetites and passions can be powerful forces to go against. Therefore self-discipline is highly dependent on courage. Don’t pretend something is easy for you to do when it is in fact very difficult and/ or painful. Instead, find the courage to face this pain and difficulty. As you begin to accumulate small private victories, your self-confidence will grow and the courage that underpins self-discipline will come more naturally.

5. Internal Coaching

Self-talk is often harmful, but it can also be extremely beneficial if you have control of it. When you find yourself being tested, I suggest you talk to yourself, encourage yourself and reassure yourself. After all, it is self-talk that has the ability to remind you of your goals, call up courage, reinforce your commitment and keep you conscious of the task at hand. When I find my discipline being tested, I always recall the following quote: “The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret”. Burn this quote into your memory, and recall in whenever you find yourself being tested. It may change your life.

Peter writes about how to change your life at The Change Blog. He is also the author of Starting a Blog and Audio Book Downloads.