Self-discipline helps to stay focused on your life goals. It enables you to gain the ability to control yourself and your reaction to any situation. At some point in their lives, everyone struggles with their level of discipline. But we all know that discipline is essential, don’t we? I mean, how can we achieve anything worthwhile if we lack discipline? The truth is that discipline gets us through the most difficult times in our lives.
But here’s the catch. How do you quickly develop more self-discipline without having to wait months or years? With so much going on in our lives, it’s easy to see why staying disciplined is difficult. We are, after all, creatures of habit, aren’t we?
This is the truth. Nonconscious processes control 95 percent of what we think, say, and do. At the end of the day, it’s all habitual. Furthermore, and here’s the kicker, the non-conscious mind is far more powerful than the conscious mind.
That’s why it’s so difficult to break bad habits or change negative thinking. It’s because we’ve been conditioned to think that way for years, if not decades. Furthermore, the non-conscious mind is a million times stronger than the conscious mind.
The Pathway to Rock Solid Self-Discipline
It’s difficult to change your behaviour because it’s a part of who you are. It’s simple, comfortable, and what you’re drawn to. However, in order to quickly develop true self-discipline, you must first learn how to disrupt learned behaviours and flip the script.
To do so, you must first create self-awareness about the problem. If you lack self-control, it’s probably because something in your life is spiralling out of your control. Whether it’s your health, finances, relationship, addictions, or something else, you need to reclaim control as soon as possible.
What you need to do is write down what needs to be changed. Don’t just ponder it in your head. You must write something down. Seriously. Nothing will change unless you write it down. Why? If it remains in the mind, it remains abstract.
When you are completely honest with yourself and write down what needs to change, you take ownership. Your ego no longer conceals itself from your inner-self. This step is so important for achieving real, long-term change that skipping it is simply a waste of time.
Getting Real With Yourself
The short-term versus long-term pain-versus-pleasure paradigm is skewed. In other words, we go to greater lengths to avoid pain in the short term. Not in the long run. Otherwise, why would anyone eat fast food, smoke cigarettes, use drugs, or do anything else that is bound to cause pain in the long run?
Knowing this requires you to hack the mind. You must find a way to cause enough pain in the short term to prevent pain in the long term. In the short term, eating a Big Mac meal, large-sized with a Coke, will alleviate those terrible cravings and stomach pains. But the consequences will not be pretty.
Fast food not only wreaks havoc on your body, but it can also lead to serious health problems in the long run. Is it, however, a quick fix for hunger? Sure. The same is true for smoking cigarettes and engaging in any other habitual behaviour. It relieves short-term pain but causes enormous long-term pain.
So, how do you flip the script to cause more pain in the short term in order to avoid things that are habitual or pleasurable? To do so, you must first comprehend how the mind perceives pain and pleasure, as well as how the body’s biological systems respond to it.
Flip the Script on Pain
Nociceptors are receptors found throughout the body. They aid in the detection of pain and can be found in every part of your body. We’re talking about everything from the skin to the organs and blood vessels. When the body suffers from pain, it sends a signal to the brain via the spinal cord.
When a nociceptor sends a signal, it is processed by the brain, which then works to reduce pain. This occurs as a result of either behavioural adaptation or other neural processes. While the science can become complicated here, the goal of understanding the pain process is to help you flip the script and stay disciplined.
When you are in pain, your natural reaction is to try to relieve it. It is a natural part of our preconditioning and genetic processes. You’ve probably heard of the fight-or-flight response. As a means of survival, the body is genetically programmed to avoid pain. However, the problem in modern society is that it works in the wrong direction.
Understanding how pain works will not help you develop more self-control. It will, however, assist in increasing your self-awareness of the pain and your body’s natural response. Consider it this way: With an undulating rhythm, the waves crash into the ocean shore. The tides rise and fall as the waves come and go.
Pain works in much the same way. But we don’t have that experience. Consider a wave crashing into the shore, followed by the shore receding away from the ocean. This is how the human brain reacts to pain. It will go to any length to avoid it.
Step 1. Breathe Through the Pain
For good reason, many ancient disciplines emphasise breath work. Breathing through pain is one method of reversing the script. The first step is to be aware of one’s own pain. Those sweet or fast-food cravings are simply the brain’s natural responses to alleviate some form of pain.
When you don’t have any other options, you have to breathe. This is how it works. Breathing through pain works regardless of the type of pain you’re experiencing (mental, emotional, or physical). That is why all ancient arts, civilisations, and religions placed such an emphasis on breathing. It had become their go-to tool.
When done correctly, breathing exercises have numerous advantages. We rarely think about our breathing because it is controlled by non-conscious processes of the autonomic nervous system. We take it for granted, in other words.
However, once you realise that the amount of oxygen you inhale regulates the amount of energy released into your body, you’ll see things in a whole new light. The Wim Hof Method is the best method for truly disrupting the nociceptors’ pain signals.
Get Comfortable
Find a comfortable position. Sit with your legs crossed and your eyes closed. Make sure your lungs can expand and contract easily.
Take 30 To 40 Deep Breaths
Take 30 to 40 deep breaths through your nose or mouth. Then exhale naturally, letting go. You may experience dizziness. That’s fine. It’s caused by an excess of oxygen entering your body and brain.
Hold Your Final Breath
At the end of your last 30 or 40th breath, inhale as deeply as you can, then exhale and stop breathing. Hold this position for as long as possible.
Draw One Big Breath
Inhale deeply when you feel the need to breathe again. However, this time, hold your breath for 15 seconds. Then let it go. This concludes your first round of breathing. Rep this cycle three or four times.
Step 2. Cold Thermogenesis
What does extreme cold exposure have to do with self-discipline? Everything, in fact. Please read this if you are unfamiliar with the benefits of cold exposure. However, at the end of the day, cold is your best friend, and exposure to cold can transform your ability to stay disciplined.
Thermogenesis is the process by which humans and other organisms generate heat. The body has the ability to generate heat internally. While most people are afraid of cold temperatures, exposure to cold has numerous long-term health and metabolic benefits.
Why do brave polar bears plunge into freezing waters? Do you believe it’s a type of masochism? In fact, this is known as biohacking. You’re tampering with biological systems in order to boost health. It does, however, have an effect on your discipline. For example, taking a cold shower shocks your system while also establishing long-term discipline.
You can force your body into a disciplined state by taking ice–cold showers. If you lack discipline, this is one of the quickest ways to develop it. You can also gradually progress to a cold shower by making it colder each day. However, it is far preferable to shock your system right away rather than gradually.
Your ability to tolerate the pain associated with cold exposure will increase your tolerance to other types of pain. It doesn’t matter if it’s physical, emotional, or mental. This will benefit you in every aspect of your life. If you use this technique, you will notice a significant improvement.
Step 3. Audit Your Time
If you want to increase your level of discipline, you must sometimes look at where your time is going. Often, a lack of discipline indicates a lack of time management skills. That is, you may know what to do, but you are unable to do it because you are wasting time in other areas of your life.
This is why ultra-achievers guard their time so fiercely. Wherever their time goes, so does their energy. So, what you need to do is evaluate the time you do have. What are you doing with your free time? What are you going to do with it? Your time is a powerful equaliser. Your time is the same regardless of your age, religion, gender, geographic location, or income.
So, how do you spend your free time? In fact, audit it. In other words, keep track of what you do every half hour. Make a note of it. It’s simple to avoid if you don’t write it down. It’s also easy to fall back on old habits. However, tracking it allows you to see where your time is actually going.
You must audit your time if you truly want to develop rock-solid self-discipline in your life. Once you’ve determined where you want to go, you must make changes to help push you in the right direction. Don’t just go through the motions. Adapt so that you can thrive rather than just survive.
Want More Discipline Fast?
If you’re serious about developing more discipline in your life, you won’t be able to do it on your own. When you do things by yourself, it is easier to avoid doing things that are difficult or painful. You’ll be excited at first, but you’ll quickly lose interest.
