When you have discipline, it's not punishment but empowerment!

Finding motivation is important and gets you going; however, it is discipline within yourself that keeps you growing! We tend to think of discipline as punishment. This is only true when it's imposed on you by someone else. That form of discipline is rarely enjoyable.

When you have discipline (self-discipline) in your life and work, it's not punishment but empowerment. Some people struggle with discipline. In this case, it too is rarely enjoyable, but if you can endure the path to achieving it, it almost always pays off. It is being able to force yourself to do something, despite how you feel, over and over until it becomes a habit. Thus, discipline is not a trait, it's a choice.

Again, motivation gets you going, and discipline keeps you growing. Moving from motivation to discipline takes practice and step by step commitment. Discipline then becomes action without motivation. The commitment to developing discipline looks like this...

1. Clear goals - remember that vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to most, and setting clear goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.
2. Decide why you must be disciplined - consider why you want to achieve your goals. What will it mean to you to achieve your goals? How can it positively change your life?
3. Start small - the pitfall of being highly motivated is that you can tend to be overzealous and try to accomplish all your goals at once. Start by taking small steps toward accomplishing your goals. Set the easy, small step goals first and build up toward the desired outcome goal.
4. Develop habits - the act of developing habits is what guides discipline. Start with one small habit repeatedly executed regularly. Then add another habit on top of the first . As you continue to develop habit after habit, discipline becomes the norm.
5. Self-examination - this is the step of accountability. Periodically evaluating your progress and commitment to discipline is needed to ensure success. Be honest in your evaluation.
6. Enjoy your victories - enjoying the wins along the way and recognizing your accomplishments (how far you've come) will reinforce your disciplined mindset.
7. Next level - taking it to the next level means trying harder things; developing more intensive habits and increasing your level of accountability. Test your readiness for this level by trying one action that is scary to you each day.

These seven points to developing discipline will help you understand the action you must take to achieve it. However, we said earlier that some people struggle with discipline. Why is that? Well, it could be because we avoid hard things, uncomfortable things, or fear the expectations of discipline. It is often easier to give way to the distractions in your life. But fleeing from discomfort will only lead to a life of disappointment.

Discipline bridges the gap between goals and accomplishments. The reality is that our dreams are defined by our level of discipline. The general problem is most people think of discipline in terms of willpower. But this isn't true. This thinking fails because we beat ourselves up for not trying hard enough and that just doesn't work. People tend to lack discipline for some of the following reasons:

1. They don't realize that they struggle. It is a perpetual element of their existence. They experience failures or lack of accomplishments on a regular basis.
2. They don't understand what it takes to succeed. Complacency is more comfortable.
3. They set goals, but don't follow through or review their goals on a regular basis.
4. Waiting for the right time. If you wait for everything to align perfectly, you might never get started on achieving your goals.
5. Expecting immediate gratification. We are witnessing a culture of immediate gratification today. It's not realistic because anything worth accomplishing takes commitment, effort, and often time. If it were easy, everyone would have discipline and through little effort, experience success.
6. They are afraid of failing. The distractions of life are an easy alternative to focusing on the goal.
7. They are impulsive in decision making. They tend to give in to the present demands and fail to plan for a desired outcome.

Moving from motivation to discipline can be challenging. Performing easy exercises, developing repetitive behaviors, and becoming disciplined in a single area can help you move on to the next challenge. Turning small steps into daily habits can make you feel accomplished. With any skill in life, practice makes perfect. Focusing on traits you can develop that lead to increased discipline will pay dividends. You must define clear expectations for yourself in terms of achieving goals without fear of failing. And if you do experience failure, just remember that it's okay to fail, in fact it's a natural part of succeeding. Next week we'll look at what a disciplined person looks like and how to bridge the gap between goals and accomplishments.

Your overall success can be broken down by a few simple disciplines that you practice every day. It takes consistent acts of courage to build discipline. Winners embrace hard work and love the discipline of it, a sacrifice they are willing to make to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that's the difference.

Be inspired! Inspire others!