Why I’m Becoming More Self-Disciplined, & Why You Should Too.

Summer is finally over, and I realize I haven’t written in this blog, well, at all. And those were not my intentions. I intended to work really hard on this blog during the summer so that I could have quality posts before I began to become busy with work and school… but here I am writing my first blog post on the first week of grad school. I constantly have these big dreams and awesome intentions, but following through, well, that’s the hard part for me. If I could combine the two, I realize I would have a life better than I could even imagine! Aka my solution for this is that I need to become more self-disciplined.

Why Self-Discipline?

Discipline is important because it puts you more in control of your own life. It increases your free agency by allowing you to set off to do something and actually follow through. You can go from wishing to having. Or at least knowing you gave it all you’ve got. It makes you a more positive person, as well as a more successful one. It makes you more productive, which allows you to feel better about yourself, and allows you to take care of yourself and others better!

This is why, the remainder of this year, I’ve decided to focus on improving my self-discipline. My goal is that discipline will become a habit that I can take into 2020 (wow it’s already almost 2020!!) and carry with me throughout the rest of my life. Part of that discipline is to write a blog post every week, posting every Thursday night. I am holding my self accountable by having an accountability partner, aka my hubby Ryan. This is one of the ways that I plan to stay disciplined, especially since I currently am trying to gain discipline soooo I can’t really rely on myself.

This is what I’m doing to become more disciplined. I created a list of 5 ways I wanted to improve my life, and then came up with a viable plan of how I will make it happen. According to what I’ve read online, it’s important to make a plan so you know how you are going to follow through.

1. Wake up early

I will go to bed at 10:30 every night and wake up at 6:30 every morning. If I stay up late, I will still wake up at 6:30 in the morning, but I will try to go to bed earlier that next night if I am too tired.

2. Workout every morning

I will work out in the morning at the gym with friends and Ryan. The workout must be at least 30 minutes long. If others cancel, I will still workout, but I can work out either at the gym or outside. If I’m doing some sort of major physical activity on the weekend (a long hike, skiing, etc) I can do that instead of going to the gym. Other than that, no excuses. Sunday is my rest day from working out.

3. Eat well (unprocessed, whole food as much as possible)

I will eat a paleo-based diet as much as possible because I feel like this fuels my body best to be productive and feel good. I am not restricting food groups, but I am going to try to eat less carbs (stay at about 100 g or less a day). If I’m out with friends/family and want a treat, fine. But it’s a special occasion thing, not a daily occurrence.

4. Read scriptures every day

I will read scriptures each morning, for at least 10 minutes. If for some reason I can’t in the morning, I will carve out 10 minutes into another part of the day. Regardless, this must get done before I go to sleep.

5. Stop procrastinating!

Just do it like Nike. Be a go-getter: in school, work, and life in general

Stop procrastinating cleaning, school work, some errand that needs to get done, ANYTHING. Whenever I think about something that needs to get done, I will do it. It will feel so much better once you just get it done. If I really can’t at that moment, I will put it on my to-do list for when I reasonably can.

The Bonus: Write in my blog weekly.

Basically, same goes for what I said above, except there is actually a deadline (Thursday each week).

These are all habits I’m trying to create to improve my self-discipline and help me to reach my goals! I really hope that I’ve convinced you to become more self-disciplined too, and provided some practical examples that you can use to join me on my journey to self-discipline.

Here is another blog post that has great ideas about self-discipline if you want to read more. I would love to hear tips about how you stay disciplined or what your self-discipline goals are!

Also, you’ll hear from me again next Thursday. 😉

Xoxo,

Kiersten