Self discipline. Those 2 words have haunted me for years. It seems like the more I make up my mind that I’m going to be more disciplined and I’m not going to procrastinate, the more life throws situations at me to distract me from my goal. “Today is the day that I get things done and start living a more disciplined life.” Who am I kidding here? Today is the day the septic tank stops, the car breaks down, the kids come home with massive amounts of homework, or my mother in law comes to visit – with no warning! (Which one of those would be my worse nightmare? I’ll leave that one to your imagination.
Self discipline is only hard for one reason. It is something that you have to do all by yourself. No one can do it for you, or follow you around all day, constantly reminding you of what you are supposed to be doing.(Well, you do have your conscience!) Self discipline is the discipline of yourself – it is reining yourself in when you want to be doing other things like having fun instead of working. This is why is so hard for so many of us. We think we would like being our own boss, but what we really want us for someone else to take responsibility for us and our actions.
To start having more self discipline you need to change the way you look at life and the things that life brings your way. Self discipline is not about having enough time one day to start changing yourself, it is more about our little daily decisions. Do we press the snooze button in the morning when there are a million and one things on our list, or do we bite the bullet and get up at the first sound of the alarm clock? This is why it is possible to be disciplined, even when the day does not go as planned and things go wrong.
You should start each day with writing a list of things you need to get done that day. Forget about setting specific times for each chore or errand – septic tanks, children and phone calls don’t follow schedules, so you can’t predict your day like that! Instead, don’t worry about the time, just focus on getting the most important things done first – even if they are the biggest things on the list. You don’t need a fancy day timer or anything like that either; (unless you like them!) all you really need is a piece of paper and a small pen or pencil that you can keep in your pocket or purse. If things go haywire and the day does not go as planned, don’t fret about it; just try to do your chores in between fixing the things that went wrong. Don’t be an all or nothing person – those kinds of people are never self disciplined for very long!