After asking 50 Hall Of Fame Speakers what their secret to success was, the primary response was discipline. The dictionary says discipline is the practice of training yourself to obey a code of behavior. My definition is conditioning yourself to follow through on an intentional set of actions regardless of whether you feel like doing it or not.
I have a pull-up bar in the basement that is my nemesis. I don’t enjoy doing pull-ups, and they never seem to get easier. Yet, I’ll be down there in the basement tomorrow morning, pulling my 50-year-old chin up over that bar thirty-three times. Maybe more. How do I know this will happen, even though I dislike pull-ups? Because I have disciplined myself to follow through, whether I’m in the mood or not.
Discipline is a skill, not an attitude. Skills improve with intentional practice and repetition. How do you get yourself to start practicing if you don’t have discipline in the beginning? Here’s what I did.
1) Mentally savor the desired outcome. If you want a clean kitchen but have been procrastinating on doing the dishes, stop focusing on scrubbing piled-up plates. Instead, imagine the sink already empty, the counter-tops organized, and the feeling of ease that comes with a clean kitchen. When you imagine the outcome you want in vivid detail, a desirable emotion will emerge. Use that feeling to move you into action. When I envision a clean kitchen, it makes me feel clean and organized on the inside. I use that feeling to wash a spoon. Since I washed a spoon, I might as well clean a bowl. Then a cup. Now I’m in motion, and before too long, the kitchen is clean, and my desired feelings are satisfied!
When it comes to doing pull-ups, I imagine being able to crank out fifty of them in a row by this summer while my two teenagers watch in shock! There’s a phrase I live by each day. Are you growing old, or are you older and growing? I’ll be in better shape at 51 (this month) than I was at 50. I keep getting better every day. Are you?
2) Use your senses to stimulate emotion. The fastest way to generate motivation is through watching inspiring YouTube videos, listening to upbeat music, smelling energetic scents like mint or lemon, or splashing cold water on your face. Each morning, I grab my phone and click on a motivational YouTube video compilation. These videos have various speakers sharing inspiring tips that make you want to step up and play full out in life. If that’s not doing it for me, I pull up a music playlist with my favorite songs that get me fired up. In the evening, I might jump back on YouTube and watch clips of my favorite sports movies where people turn setbacks into comebacks. Those movie clips put me in a highly emotional state, and the next thing I know, I’m on the floor doing pushups and feeling like I’m part of the movie, rather than being on the sidelines watching it. This tees up the third method for enhancing self-discipline.
3) Act in the first 5 seconds of inspiration. Mel Robbins coined the term Habit Of Hesitation. She suggests that if you don’t take action on an inspired thought or idea within five seconds, your brain will start talking you out of it. I agree with her. From the moment the idea pops into your mind to take action towards a goal, you have about five seconds to get moving before your brain decides it’s too much effort or why bother because it won’t produce the desired result anyway.
The moment I get the urge to reach out to someone, start a new book, or do those pull-ups, I do it right then and there. If I don’t, I won’t. So I’ve turned it into a game. Since I’ve trained my brain to achieve goals, I now trust that when it gives me inspired action steps to take, those are the precise moves that will get me to the promised land. If I’m unable to take immediate action, like when I get a thunderbolt idea at 1 AM, I write it down and put it into action at the first possible moment.
The combination of visualizing desired outcomes, stimulating uplifting emotions, and training yourself to act on intuition and gut instincts immediately can help you set up a routine that eventually becomes a habit and then a discipline. It just takes a little practice, so start by putting together your list of YouTube videos or a music playlist, so you’re ready when inspiration strikes!
