I want to thank you for downloading this book, ‘The Power of Discipline: Key to Unstoppable Productivity & Success.” Most of us hate rules! When we hear the word ‘discipline,’ we are automatically reminded of convents and boot camps. 

I hope to throw more light on what discipline entails, especially what discipline and self-discipline is all about and how it can help you to achieve success.

Discipline is nothing but the practice of getting trained or conditioned to think or react in a certain way, within a certain framework of principles.

Self-discipline is nothing but the ability to control one’s thoughts, actions, emotions and behaviors. With self-discipline, you will be able to control your impulsive reactions. By exercising self-discipline, you are consciously letting go of the need to be immediately gratified or upset by your surroundings! 

Self-discipline plays an important role in helping you achieve success in whatever you do. It helps you hit the mark in the following manner:

Including discipline into your life is not an unpleasant experience, contrary to popular belief. It is all a matter of perspective. You can look at discipline as a set of rules and dismiss it, only to regret it later. Or you can look at it as an opportunity to align your life with your goals, aspirations and passions! 

Practicing self-discipline can most certainly help you alter your life in so many ways! It can improve the quality of the various spheres of your life, at the same time. Some of the top benefits of self-discipline are as follows:

When you include the practice of self-discipline into your life, your persona will change gradually. You will no longer be the lazy and carefree person you were! You will weigh each option more carefully and ensure that you are completely focused on what you are doing. 

When you discipline your mind, you will be able to channelize your efforts in a systematic manner. When your efforts are directed in an efficient manner, you will be able to accomplish a lot. When you are able to see your efforts translating into results, you will feel a sense of accomplishment. 

On the personal front, when you are disciplined, you will be more balanced as a person. This will ensure that you don’t immediately react to a situation, without deliberating about the pros and cons of each decision. Your conversations with others also will be more measured! You will be trusted by others to stay calm and take an informed decision. 

When you practice self-discipline, you will be able to exuberate calmness in all situations. You will tackle any situation in a systematic manner. This automatically improves your mental clarity. How so? Let’s assume that you are in a chaotic situation. 

Your attitude changes when you discipline your mind. When your outlook turns positive, you will learn to appreciate life better. You will start seeing the silver lining in any situation. You will start being grateful for the various things around you. This is possible only when you are calm and composed and have a positive mindset. All this comes hand in hand with self-discipline!

Self-discipline is extremely crucial when you are trying to mend your ways and get rid of your bad habits, especially addictions! Unless you learn to control your mind, you will not be able to resist the bad habits. For instance, if you are trying to fight off procrastination, you need to discipline your mind first. 

Self-discipline need not apply to just letting go off addictions. Self-discipline is important even for incorporating good habits and practices. For instance, if you are trying to get on a diet, you need self-discipline to stick to the diet, no matter how tempted you are to eat out. 

When you learn to discipline your mind, you will most certainly be able to regulate your stress levels, owing to the following reasons:

When you are disciplined, both physically and mentally, you will not be spending your energy on things not worth your time! When you channel your energies in the most productive manner, you will accomplish a lot within a given period of time. 

Self-discipline can improve the quality of your health in the following ways:

The benefits of self-discipline are countless. To motivate you to practice self-discipline, here are some important effects of lack of discipline. You will be surprised to see how lack of discipline can affect the quality of your life, in so many ways.

When you are not disciplined, it will be very hard for you to appreciate what you have. You will end up craving for more and putting your interests above others.’ Your efforts will mostly be channelized towards achieving only your desires, without taking into consideration the welfare of others. 

When you are not disciplined, you seldom care about the consequences of your actions or inaction. Also, only a person, who is capable of putting others’ interests above his’/hers, will be able to take the lead on things and assume responsibility. 

When your mind lacks discipline, it becomes that much more complicated to control your emotions and thoughts. When faced with an adversity, you will feel agitated and lose track of the solution. Your mind will be clouded with your impulsive thoughts, which will hamper your decision making as well.

There will be a group of people, who will criticize, no matter how earnest and disciplined you are. I am not referring to that bunch, when I mean that you will be subject to constant criticism. Your colleagues, managers, even your own family will criticize you, owing to the following reasons:

When you realize that your efforts don’t translate to results, you will automatically be frustrated. You will start questioning your ability to handle the task on hand. Gradually, your confidence levels and self-esteem will drop. You will not be motivated to do anything with full vigor. Abstaining from putting your best efforts will only result in more failures. Hence, it is a vicious cycle of disappointment.

Constant failures may impair your optimism to a large extent. Over time, you end up becoming cynical and looking at everything in a negative vein. You end up developing a pessimistic attitude. 

Your health, both physical and mental, takes a huge toll on you, when you lack discipline. When you lack discipline, it simply translates to lack of respect for your body and mind! You will not pay attention to what you eat! You will not spend the time and effort to indulge in fitness activities. 

When you are not disciplined, you will seldom have any respect for anything, including time. You won’t think twice before you throw away your time on something unproductive. You will happily be a prisoner of procrastination. When you keep procrastinating constantly, you will realize that you have much less time left to focus on the deliverables in hand. 

Now that you have a fair idea about the importance of self-discipline, it is time to get started. Here are some tips/strategies to help you build your self-discipline and get rewarded in the long run. A word of caution, you may not be able to implement these tips in the most perfect manner from day one itself. 

Now that you have come up with your list of weaknesses, think of ways to overcome them. There need not be only one solution to your addictions or weaknesses. List all possible solutions and see how you can implement them. Come up with a revised schedule for the next week, to see how these ideas fit in. 

It is not important if you just come up with a plan. It is important that you put it to action and stay committed to the plan. Here are some ways to ensure that your plan is put into action:

Not all of us are gifted with the ability to prioritize our tasks in an effective manner. This is not only with respect to our work, but also applies to our emotions. Hence, by practicing the art of prioritizing, you are disciplining your mind to look at important tasks first. For example, when your mind is disciplined, you will be able to approach a situation in a calm manner. 

All of us like playing to our strengths and staying within our comfort zones. When we are asked to do something out of our comfort zone, we feel lost and struggle to complete it. Hence, engage in activities which will make you step out of your comfort zone. This way, you will not be caught off guard later. 

Disciplining your mind is not a joke at all. You will have to be patient and try continuously. This will ensure that you are able to get there someday. You might have to find ways to motivate yourself to stick to the plan. One easy way to ensure that you stay motivated is to have a sound reward system in place. 

Just like how important it is to have a plan in place and execute it, it is equally important that you review your progress from time to time. You can choose the frequency of the review, depending on your motivation levels. For instance, if you are not so confident about your ability to stick to the plan, you can review on a daily or a weekly basis.

If there was one character trait that could assure success to a person, it would be self-discipline, followed closely by hard work. But you know what they say about hard work. 

If there is one name that is synonymous with the current age of Internet based business models, it is that of Jack Ma. Born Ma Yun, this Chinese business mogul is the founder and head of Alibaba, a conglomerate of various businesses that have their founding on the Internet. 

Any list of successful people would be incomplete without a mention of the Williams sisters. They have truly made a mark for themselves in tennis through their achievements and become cultural icons, standing as a source of inspiration to millions of people across the globe.

With an all-time record of 28 Olympic medals to his name, 23 of which are gold, Michael Phelps is the highest decorated Olympian to date and arguably the greatest athlete as well. And beneath the aura of success and achievements is the man, who by his own admission once went five years without taking a single day off from training and the rigorous schedule of a competitive athlete.

Warren Buffet holds the official title of the CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and unofficially he is known as the greatest and the most successful investors of our times. With huge stakes in many of the biggest public firms in the world, Buffet is considered to be an investment wizard by the financial sector. 

It is important that you understand why being disciplined is more important than being motivated. To simply put, being disciplined can impact your life in a more effective manner than being motivated.

Discipline is more stable and is capable of helping you change your lifestyle in the long run. It will help you to make incremental changes to your life and get rewarded in the process. On the other hand, your motivation levels can be compared to the effects of consuming a drug. 

The impact of motivation is only short lived. You would appreciate the impact of motivation only for the time being, while it still lasts. For example, you lack the motivation to go to work. You will then look for an external stimulus to motivate you to get out of bed and get ready for work. The effects of the motivation are no longer felt or appreciated, the moment you reach office.

In the case of motivation, sometimes we require external stimuli to get started. So, a good amount of our energies will be spent trying to motivate ourselves. Once motivated, the rest of the energy will be spent towards completing the task.

Motivation is a temporary emotion. When you rely on motivation to commence your work, there will be times when you abstain from working, just because you don’t feel like it. In the absence of any motivating factors, you will not be mentally prepared to undertake any activity. 

You will be able to sustain your self-discipline for a longer period of time. In fact, once you discipline your body and mind to behave in a certain way, unless you decide to change it, you will be able to sustain your state of mind. Your self-discipline will help you sustain your energy levels as well, since your efforts will be more channelized and efficient. Hence, self-discipline is more of a self-fueling system.

I know that was a lot of information to process in such a short span of time. Embarking on the journey of disciplining your mind and body can be quite a daunting task. You will feel discouraged midway! But, remember the positive effects of discipline on your life.