Excerpt from: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
Living a disciplined lifestyle is not always the most enjoyable habit because discipline often equates to the sacrifice of immediate rewards, benefits, and results. Discipline can be an uncomfortable action to consistently execute in life. So why do some choose to live a disciplined lifestyle? The long-term rewards and results that come about from doing so. When people practice the habit of discipline, they reap rewards and benefits that outweigh their initial lack of desire to be disciplined. Once the habit of discipline has been solidified into a person’s lifestyle, they will most likely notice that their self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect, and productivity skyrockets as a result. Try it, and see for yourself.
Many activities that hinder the developed habit of discipline include: entertainment (e.g. video games, movies, television, etc.), social media, aimless internet browsing, texting, and engaging in consistent irrelevant conversations with coworkers or friends; all of these can be fun and entertaining activities to engage in, but they are not high priorities and have few (or no) consequences if you do not engage in them. As the saying goes, “If you pay now, you can play later.” Put up the phone, turn off the TV, and focus on what you need to get done; you can always come back to these activities.
If you have a dream or goal that you want to achieve, the level of discipline that is incorporated into your lifestyle is going to be one of the main determinants of whether that dream or goal is accomplished. Discipline is what separates the successful people from the unsuccessful people. Something I notice about some successful people is that they usually never consistently spend a copious amount of time engaging in low priority activities that are not directly related to their dreams or goals. I usually do not witness them consistently wasting a lot of time watching TV, browsing social media and the internet for countless hours, or engaging in other forms of entertainment for countless hours; they invest a lot of their time in their dreams and goals almost every day (if not daily). Furthermore, they are very selective with whom they spend their time with and how much of their time they give away to other people. It may seem like successful people are selfish (and some are), but many are simply focused and determined to make their dreams a reality. Many successful people rise early and retire late so they can get more accomplished; successful people do more than the average person every single day because they are hungry for their dreams. Successful people are disciplined in multiple areas of their life: relationships, health, career, and every other aspect of their personal life.
Discipline is consequential to accomplishing your goals. The good thing about discipline is that once you have established this powerful habit, it is easier to maintain and more difficult to lose. In fact, you most likely will be so ecstatic about how productive and successful you become from practicing the habit of discipline that you never go back to living a life without it.
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