Discipline
If you have self-discipline in your work, and
towards your goals, you will accomplish
everything that you set out to achieve. It is not
easy to become self-disciplined, but the rewards are great.
There are many areas in your life where you can be
self-disciplined.
You can be disciplined with your thoughts.
Do not let your fears carry you away. If you
have thoughts of worry filling your head it chokes
out productive and solution-filled thoughts.
Discipline yourself so that any time a thought of
worry or fear comes in, you stop it immediately.
If a thought shouts at you, “This is useless,”
discipline yourself to shout back and continue on
with your work and your goals until you have achieved
what you want.
You need to practice self-discipline with your
words. Stop negative words from flowing out of
your mouth all the time. If you have the impulse to say
something negative, close your mouth. Even if you did
say something negative about yourself or another, cut
yourself off in mid-sentence and don’t say one more
word. Change your words to positive. Correct yourself immediately. Be self-disciplined in your evaluation of
yourself.
Really look deeply at yourself. If you don’t like
who you are, or the results you are getting, take steps to
change your behavior, change self-defeating patterns,
and discard what is not working. Be honest, and thorough
with your self-evaluation. If you can’t be honest with
yourself or you really can’t see yourself clearly, ask for
help, and then really take in others’ evaluations. Listen
carefully to at least three close people and then use truth that
all of them tell you. It is not easy to hear the truth and to
acknowledge it fully. But if you want change it is because
you don’t like YOU as you are now, and you MUST change
to feel better inside.
Be self-disciplined in your actions. Do what is
necessary now; don’t put it off because it probably will
never get done. Write down your goals, and check them
off one by one. Don’t be led off-track by an undisciplined
person. Most people want to accomplish great things in this
life but they procrastinate when it comes to doing the
nitty-gritty work: exercising, learning, planning, writing,
phoning, and pushing through when you don’t see any results.
I speak from experience, as one who didn’t finish,
often procrastinated or was intimidated by some task.
I like myself much better when I’m disciplined and you
probably will, too.
Self-discipline means doing something like exercise
when you don’t feel like doing it. Writing on
something when you don’t really see the direction that the
work is taking; working diligently on your project even
though you don’t know if it will succeed, or what its outcome will be.
Putting yourself there day after day even though you
are tired; keeping yourself fired up when there is no one there to encourage you; taking the time and energy to master
something new. Make the steps to transform your life. And do them
over and over again until you are where you want to be.
We are all disciplined in some areas of our lives. I used to
teach a couple of men and women who were completely
disciplined when it came to going to the gym to work out.
They would run, rain or shine, and then would go to the gym for
two hours no matter what. Those same students were incredible
drinkers and partiers. They would stay out drinking and
partying until 4:30 in the morning and then feel horrible with a
hangover for the next day or two because their discipline was
limited to only certain areas of their lives.
If you wish to make any substantial changes in your
life, you need to be disciplined towards your new goals.
Change does not happen overnight, especially if you are coming
from a lower place to a higher place emotionally, financially or
spiritually. If you wish to have money for the down payment
of your house you can’t keep charging on your credit card all
the time. You have to be disciplined with a savings program
and a not- spending program until you have what it takes to make
your dreams a reality.
If you have dreams of being someone creative, like a
painter or a writer, but you don’t know the first thing
about painting or writing, you must discipline yourself to the
learning and the doing of your craft. Put yourself into a self-
learning and mastery mode. Read everything that you can on
your new craft. Buy appropriate tools towards that goal, and
then use the tools.
A writer becomes good by writing and writing, and
editing and editing. An artist becomes good at painting by
observing and painting and working with colors, and painting
as much as she can.
When you are learning a new trade, be disciplined
also in the control of judgmental thoughts. Do not
condemn your efforts. Keep practicing, keep improving.
If you don’t know how to improve or to work properly go to
classes with a professional. But don’t let the classes be your
only work. Work on your own. Encourage yourself with
your thoughts, “You can do this. You can figure this out.”
Also visualize yourself further down the line, when you are
making a good income with your new profession, working
in your own space with joy and ease and comfort. That
is very important in the transformation too. Know where
you are going and what you want to achieve. But be disciplined
towards your goal every day.
If you disciplined yourself and did something for only
thirty minutes per day, but you did it every day for ten
years, you would become very good at what you were focused
on. Thirty minutes or an hour per day: that is not very much
time when you think of the lifetime we live on this planet, but
you could accomplish a lot with that thirty or forty minutes a
day, doing the same thing year after year. Turn off the TV
for one hour and suddenly you have an hour free. Let’s say
that with that hour, you meditated for thirty minutes per day
and with the other thirty minutes you wrote every day. You would be a very calm and peaceful person, and you would
have a lot pages written on your story or your autobiography.
It takes a commitment to change, and a commitment to yourself
and to the discipline.
If you want your body to change, you must
be disciplined in your exercise and your eating. I know it may
sound obvious, but you have to practice discipline to achieve the
results that you are seeking. No one can be disciplined for you.
You need to do the work and you will see the results. Be
disciplined to see all phases of a project before you begin, break
down the steps and the tasks and be disciplined to do each of the
steps diligently. One big project can be broken down into several
little jobs or sections. When you have finished all the little jobs that you have determined, your project will be completed also.
You can accomplish a lot if you learn to become a disciplined
person, and follow through, and do things consistently.
Yoga Kat–aka Katheryn Hoban is a yoga teacher with twelve years experience. She teaches children’s yoga ages 3-6, and 7-12 and Adults privately in NJ. She is the author the book DAUGHTER BELOVED which will come out next year. She has created a children’s affirmation CD (ages 3-6) and an affirmation CD for adults. Yoga Kat is available for speaking or writing and can be reached at katscoolcorner@yahoo.com or 201 970-9340
