When I talk to other people on time management many tell me that they simply do not have the discipline to be effective. I think that discipline with regards to time management is a bad thing and it makes people fail early in their efforts to improve themselves.

If you try to have discipline you generally tend to try too much at once. It is often about changing habits and this is a difficult task requiring time. Then you feel that you are failing and accuse yourself that you simply lack discipline. This is a very negative feeling and it kills all motivation to go ahead. As a result often the entire improvement project is at stake and people simply give up. On top of this the mental hurdle to start again get higher and higher with each failure.

So, my recommendation is - if you want to change yourself NEVER use the word discipline again!

Changing your life and your habits is all about motivation and positive enforcement and rewards. Before you start your personal development program you write down the following:

  • Why do I want to change this?
  • What is motivating me?
  • What can be quick wins?
  • How can I reward myself?, what reward can I give myself for achieving milestones and what will I reward myself with after accomplishment?
Then you start with the quick wins.  These should be easy to achieve and even if they only have small impact you should go for them. Achieving these quick wins will make you feel good and also hungry for more. Each time you have achieved something, you shall reward yourself. Use small rewards for small achievements and big rewards for large achievements.
After completion of the quick wins you are ready to start a bit more challenging steps. However, it is important that you go step by step and don’t try too much. When you don’t manage to achieve a step, don’t blame yourself. Resisting change an absolutely normal reaction. Analyze why you did not achieve your goal and try to find a better way. You might also increase the reward you will give yourself if you feel that the next step is more challenging to you than you initially anticipated. Keep you motivation high and NEVER blame yourself or others.
Start the big steps when you emotionally feel ready. It does not make sense if your mind tells you “I should” but everything in your body tells you “I don’t want at all”. In such a case I recommend to review your motivation and to ask yourself again why you want to achieve tis objective.
As a summary keep in mind that you will achieve much more using positive motivation rather trying to have discipline. I think that many people who are known to have great discipline in reality were real artists in self-motivation rather than extremely strong in their mind.
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