All throughout history, the successful people we know and praise have developed good habits that strengthened their self discipline.

Self discipline is a skill essential to achieving anything we want in life. It really is. Think about it, with strong self discipline all you need is a goal and a plan, and you achieve it.

Whether you want to run a marathon or stick to a healthy diet, you need sufficient self discipline to back up your intentions.

Without it, you’re likely to quit as soon as your starting motivation fades away.

Most of our failures in life are due to a lack of self discipline. Really, think about it. We all know what is the right way to life, we know what we should do. But rarely who does anything.

Common life problems that include the state of our health, procrastination, clutter and many others are due to a lack of self discipline and nothing else.

So how do you build a strong self discipline in the modern world we live in today?

There are 7 known steps that, if you follow, you can’t avoid developing a strong and healthy self discipline.

To bring your life back into alignment and achieve your life goals, here are the steps to do it!

7 Steps To Become More Self Disciplined:

1. Find the reason for your motivation.

There is a fire inside of you and it lights up for something. Find that something. Find the reason why you would do whatever it takes and for what.

When you know the answer to those questions, that thing will be your source for motivation even when you feel like giving up.

When you have the right motivation, pushing a little bit further into the discomfort feels meaningful.

Having the right motivation is, therefore, essential in this undertaking.

Other great motivators are your desire to help others and give back to life. See how your life will turn out whenever you help others.

2. Take small actions and baby steps.

After setting your intentions and goals, take the necessary actions in small and achievable tasks on a daily basis.

For example, if your goal is to become physically fit through running, you don’t have to start running for 1 hour a day.

Your aim here is to develop a habit. Taking 10 minutes of your time to run each day is a good way to start. This is breaking your practice into smaller tasks.

Increase the number of minutes as you progress in your practice.

3. Say no to distractions.

Some say that if someone from the past is transported into the society we live today they will not be able to survive one day because of the extremely higher amount of stimuli that their brain would have to perceive. The world we live in today is fast paced and in constant chatter, full with distractions and things that crave your attention.

Your mind and body have been trained to live in a world full of distractions. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t manage them to increase your efficiency.

Create a distraction free environment for yourself where you reduce the things that steal your attention so you can make your progress easier.

4. Be mindful and aware when the urge to quit shows up.

At some point, the urge to stop doing your practice might become irresistible. Instead of allowing it to distract your focus, become aware that it’s normal.

Remind yourself that your mind does not want change and that it’s completely normal and healthy to make you want to stop implementing this new habit. However, be mindful that you are not your mind, and that you know much better what’s best for you.

Create some mental tools for yourself. For example, whenever you feel like you want to stop doing the practice think of all the days you have followed through until now.

Some other mental tools that can help you are telling yourself you have 10 minutes to do your task. After 10 minutes do not think, do not care about what you feel, just honor what you’ve said.

Another mental tool is reminding yourself of your core reason and why you do what you do.

You can ask people to keep you accountable. You can ask your family or friends to force you to do your practice when you do not feel like doing.

You can even give them money and tell them to give you a pice of the amount you give them for every day you follow through until you get all your money back.

People love to help if you have the courage and humility to ask for it. Reach out to them and don’t be scared of showing your vulnerable side.

5. Give yourself a break.

After you have successfully implemented the first 4 steps, give yourself a break.

Give yourself one day or a couple of days for yourself. Do whatever you feel like doing.

Then continue with your practice by increasing the intensity and energy you give to your practice.

Repeat this process until your body gets familiar with the practice and to your new routine.

6. Focus on how your practice helps others.

Whenever you feel your practice is too difficult for you, shift your focus on how it will improve the lives of others around you.

Think how you doing this will inspire others.

When you become physically fit, your loved ones or aging parents may benefit from it because you have extra energy to help them, for example.

You’re less likely to get sick, and a healthy mind and body mean a healthy career too.

Find all the ways how your own journey of self discipline helps others.

7. Do not seek perfection but be inspired by it.

Whatever practice you want to develop in this self discipline journey, like running, writing, or painting, you are likely to fail at some point. Don’t get discouraged when you mess up.

If it’s writing, your finish product may fall short of your expectations. Rather than succumbing to the feelings of failure, learn from it instead.

Stop seeking for perfection. Instead, seek constant improvement. That’s the secret to maintaining self discipline, do not get discouraged by failure, be inspired by the opportunity to get better. Do not seek perfection, but be inspired by the idea of it.

Failure doesn’t mean you lose. It only means you have tried. This is a big opportunity for you to get creative and use the lessons you learned in finding room for improvement.

Drop any idea you have about perfection. Just keep trying, keep going, and never give up because it will only hurt you the more.

And once you’ve passed all these challenges, the self discipline you gain will lead you to achieve bigger and greater things in life. Everything else is just a bonus, a reward.