(Here’s an old off-the-cuff ramble of thoughts about how we all need to have more self-discipline in our lives!)
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How can we attain self-discipline?
It ain’t easy I hear you Say. Once a year in the Christian calendar perhaps you might have lent then in the Muslim calendar you might have a time of fasting, then in the other religions, all of these other religions, here’s all these different times where we need to stop.
We need to stop eating. We need to eat at certain times or not eat at certain times. We need to do things that forgo our temptation. But you know what, these are tests for us and even if you’re not religious it doesn’t really matter because self-discipline comes from within and there are ways means that we can actually attain this proper self-discipline for ourselves to improve.
Let’s take Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey did the first of one of these things we’re talking about today and she succeeded handsomely.
How? because she went to bed on time. You see there’s no question in the world that Oprah Winfrey is an extraordinary human being and extremely famous, extremely financially secure for sure and beyond that and she became one the most successful women in the world. She claims without her rest she’`d not have achieved this. She reckons that her bedtime routine was hugely important for her and she said:
“In the evening I have a bath before bed. It’s just a ritual. I’m a bathing professional. I have different bubble
baths oils beads. Now that’s just her way of doing things. I not saying go out there and wash! I’m not saying that at all. But well you gotta be clean come on? but what I’m saying is that here’s wonderfully successful if not the most successful female in the world (certainly at the time that she began to become hugely successful) and she had this routine.
Another female who’s hugely successful and went to bed early on. That was Martha Stewart. Now only twenty-six percent of Canadians reported having eight hours of sleep per night and yes this was actually where Martha Stewart said you can get ahead.
She would just get by on four hours of sleep per night. She even claimed that by going to bed at the right time and getting to bed early that she didn’t actually need that eight hours of sleep. This is how she became really hyper-successful in her business life. That’s why she said it’s an exhausting lifestyle.
“I always say sleep can go it’s not important to me right now”- so this is what she told herself to get where she wanted to go. For her it was more about, as said, going to bed on time. So, if you can get that mixture of going to bed early and getting the sleep that you need surely it’s going to really help you with your own self-discipline.
A man with a huge amount of Olympic medals was Michael Phelps. He had hugely strenuous workouts to become that Olympic swim champion. He would sleep huge amounts in order to prepare for competitions and he described the setup for his sleep patterns where he would go to a type of chamber that would mimic altitude of between eight and a half thousand to nine thousand feet in preparation for the Olympics of 2012. He would use this to sleep and it was like “a giant box”- as he said himself. So, that’s the reason why getting to bed early allows us to have self-discipline.
So it’s that ritual of sleep that helps those people like Martha Stewart and Michael Phelps. When those wonderfully successful people in the world of entertainment and competition and business actually help them attain so you can too! – and before you try, you have to have that self-discipline.
Another way of attaining that though is getting up on time. So, not just early but getting up on time.
Mark Wahlberg is a person who is hugely bankable shall we say in the Hollywood scene and he would wake up at 2:30 am in the morning. He had this strict. He would eat breakfast after praying at 2:45 am, have breakfast at 3:15 am and by 3:40 am on the button he would then continue into his morning then by 7:30 am exactly, exactamundo, Mark Wahlberg would swing a club on the first hole of an 18 hole golf course. That was his morning routine and I mean people aren’t even getting up or just getting up at that time but that’s the whole point! He was getting up on his time and if you get up on your time you too can do this as well.
Benjamin Franklin though was before the Mark Wahlberg era. For sure, he used to be an early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise character.
Michelle Obama (wife of Barack Obama) looked at the whole idea of getting up prior to 4:30 am and religiously going to the gym at 4:30 a.m. every morning. She would have a workout done before her kids were even up. Before her children were there for her to tend to. So getting up on time but getting up on your time for what you need -it’s a golden mix.
The third thing is to eat better. To maximize the nutrients within our bodies and those nutrients than can help us to have efficient energy when we need it in the morning time, early in the morning.
As I write, right now, it is now 6:30 am.
I am full!
Because I’ve had a nutritious breakfast so those nutrients are going to help us now and throughout the day to perform to our optimum levels. If you haven’t performed to your optimal level that means you haven’t got that nutrition at the right time.
If you energize with grains, for example, it gives you a quick source of energy and these come from foods such as bread and cereals and so on. That’s why a lot of people in the know eat cereals early in the morning. That is good for your energy. For sure.
But if you power up with protein- things like chicken, turkey and so on, pork even, and beef these are low kind of lean kinds of meats that help you to have that protein powder throughout the day. Of course, protein helps with your muscles to repair them and to give them a longer-term strength and viability going forward. If you mix this up with proteins even such as tofu (yummy, yummy) chickpeas (mmm scrumptious) and hummus and the likes of these kidneys, black or white beans, and so on and then a variety of fruits and vegetables then you’re right on the way to a very good diet in order for you to eat better generally.
However, does that say that this is the ideal diet for everything? No, not necessarily. But we are talking about self-control for now. We’re talking about just generalizing. Your ability to create a better and more consistent diet so that’s consistency. We’re getting up on time and getting up on your time. Getting up early and eating better!
What about writing down what your goals are?
This is a huge technique and one that’s hugely important because when you write things down they’re there for you to actually be real with and for you to be accountable to yourself.
If you find an old notebook in a drawer from five years ago it may bring you down as you read and you look at your life right now. It may make you self-reflect and know that you`re hugely disappointed.
But, on the other hand, if you actually write something down and then a year later look at it you can see that just as the ink has dried you’ve already jumped into that situation, and then you’ll be surprised at how well you’ve graduated into that new situation or goal, that you wanted to attain.
And this also helps you to maximize your self-control too.
You need to change and update those goals as they change because as you attain things you need to go further again. If you write them down it becomes a habit. When you have written things down you`ve pressurized yourself and you’re sticking to that criterion of actually attaining and not saying to yourself ‘I’m letting myself off here, I’m actually going to drive on!’ Why? because if you’re used to driving and say going at a hundred miles an hour it’s pretty simple to keep going at that. It’s just getting there in the first place.
Avoiding negative people is huge. If you’re with negative people you become a negative person. If you’re around it so much and you can’t even understand who you’re around or if they’re negative then you need to step away to see who truly is the negative one. That will enable you to understand who is a positive person and who is not.
You need to get with the knowingness.
If these people are jumping into your time then you need to guard it. You need to jump out of their time and get into your surroundings. To get comfortable with what you choose to do and that is done by choosing your attitude.
You need to continue using your time well and reinforcing your thoughts. By remembering what you’ve written down you will refocus and avoid your monkey mind. You can do this with positive self-talk. And when trying to start this you may get into conversations with others about negative things that are in the news headlines. So you can chit-chat by saying ‘did you hear the news?’ and then cut it right there and move on with your newfound positive thinking.
For what’s the point in gossiping? Why put your own tint on things? Because by avoiding negative thoughts then you’re also avoiding negative feelings within yourself and towards yourself.
So, these are the things that help us to become more self-disciplined. They help us to create that lifestyle that we want ourselves to have as a reward for our thinking.
Reward yourself when you achieve small things.
Go for a hike!
Get out there and if you haven’t done a hike before then this is a wonderful time to start. Keep it small. Make it attainable. For a small goal attained give yourself a small reward. It’s a reward for good work. It’s also an attainable way of showing your goal and setting aims once again.
Cook something.
If you haven’t cooked before then try a new recipe.
Visit a friend. If you haven’t visited in a while and you know they’re your friend for a reason then why not just go there and do it. Be that friend and reward yourself for attaining your goals.
Set out and know your long-term goals.
Avoid excess drugs or drinks or any of them at all. Because of the temptation that it brings. And whatever your temptation is you`’ll need to know how to avoid it.
Make sure from now to read and watch only good educational things online and to find ones that are also entertaining as they will make you consume them more.
So, until next time thank you for reading.
Have a genuinely wonderful day!