Much as I wish it were true, no one is born self-disciplined. It’s something you must intentionally cultivate with time and effort.
And it starts with making a choice. You must draw a line in the sand and say, “I am choosing to make changes to get me where I want to go.”
However, the immediate changes don’t have to be anything massive. In fact, I’d encourage you not to try and overhaul your life overnight. Instead, start with something small.
Here are some examples:
Want to have less clutter in your home? Start by getting rid of 20 things you don’t need in your main living areas. Make it a goal to do this every single morning and, pretty soon, you’ll start to see some real results!
Dream of beginning a blog? Start by setting up a domain name and committing to spend 15 minutes every day doing something blog-related, whether that’s reading through BloggingWithAmy, working on writing posts, or learning how to change things on your blog’s sidebar. Do something every day and it will add up to a successful blog over time.
Wish you could lose 10 pounds? Commit to exercise for 15 minutes every day, eat one salad each day, and drink 8 glasses of water. These simple changes won’t be too hard to implement and they will start to help you feel better and gradually lose a little weight.
Make the choice today to become more disciplined in one small area. Do this one thing repeatedly and don’t give up and I promise the little habits will add up to big differences over time.
Jumpstart Your Success! Last Day to Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life for Just $0.99!
Help kickstart your success by purchasing a copy of my ebook, 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life. In this ebook, I walk you through step-by-step how to overhaul your life from the inside out. I break into down into bite-sized pieces and coach you through a 21-day journey to success!
Best of all, this ebook is just $0.99 through the end of today (Thursday, October 25, 2012) and I’m giving away a free printable Calendar Set to everyone who purchases.
Plus, did you check out the fantastic giveaway with over 150 prizes — things like gift cards, coffee, Thirty-One totes, books, DVDs, and much more? You can enter to win up to five times per person per day by purchasing an ebook or posting about the ebook on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and/or your blog.
Stay tuned because I have one big last social media giveaway coming up this afternoon that I promise you’re not going to want to miss! In the mean time, don’t wait to jumpstart your success, go get a copy of 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.
photo courtesy of Big Stock
Whenever I go for big change habits in my life, I tend to crash and burn pretty quickly when I go the all or nothing route. Even though I know small changes are always better, it’s hard for me to be patient enough to make a good habit I can stick with. Can’t wait to read your book! 🙂
Yet again, truly inspiring! After another knee surgery this year, I finally FINALLY realized this crazy emotional eating of mine had to stop. I slowly added in healthy fruits and veggies, lean protein, and my whole family has been transformed. I still have days where it’s so tempting to give in to a carb crave for fast energy, but I’m doing better. And I’ve added fun exercise into my routine as well, some that includes the whole family too! I’m down nearly 25 pounds and feeling good…like this is a reasonable goal and can be maintained!
Awesome job!!
Most of my house is clutter-free, except for the storage room in the basement!! That room eats away at me every day and seems such a big task that I get discouraged thinking about tackling it. So, after skimming the e-book last night, I decided to take 15 minutes today and tidy up a few areas. I feel better already about tackling that room and I found two things to put on Craigslist!!!
How do I get the calendar if I bought the kindle version?
Just type in KINDLE and it should work!
Great advice, especially about clutter. Just getting rid of a few things a day really makes a difference 🙂
Hi Crystal,
I bought your book last night and entered the giveaway last night [only once]. I was reading comments from others and I’m confused about the number of times allowed to enter the giveaway.
Am I also allowed to enter 5 times today if I bought the book yesterday? Or do additional entries require additional actions? Thank you!
There is a limit of one entry per day per action. So if you purchased the ebook, you can enter twice — once for yesterday and today. If you’d like to do other actions, those count for additional entries.
Thank you! I get it now 🙂
One thing that works for me is setting a timer. If I can set a timer and “race”myself to do something that I don’t want to do, and do that often enough, after awhile I don’t need the timer to get it done.
My pet peeve: I hate unloading the dishwasher. It’s the one thing in the world I absolutely hate doing for some reason. My husband normally does it but when the tasks falls on me on occasion I avoid it as long as I can. Now, I set a timer for 5 minutes and race….=) It’s so childish but it works! Now, I pretty much just do it without the timer but becoming disciplined to get it done took that trick at first. I will do a thousand loads of laundry a day without a care in the world, but that dumb dishwasher….ugh! LOL!
You’re not alone … I despise unloading the dishwasher too. Don’t ask my why, but I’d rather wash a sink full of dishes by hand. Maybe it’s the bending over part that I don’t like — who knows.
Laundry, now that’s one of the few household chores that I enjoy and have no trouble keeping up with. There’s someting about folding freshly laundered clothes and towels that I find enjoyable and relaxing.
I don’t mind folding the laundry, it’s the putting it away part that I don’t look forward too 🙂
I totally do that too! I am so productive when I set time limits.
I’ve done the same thing – setting a timer – sometimes for loads of laundry! 😉 It may be childish, but it DOES work. And really, the thing that truly keeps it from being childish is that we KNOW our weaknesses and find wakes to work through them, and at times, in spite of them!
Looking forward to hearing more about self-discipline – it’s something I struggle with, but when I work at it, I really notice a difference. Thanks for the post!
Just bought this book and read the first few chapters, can’t wait to get started.
I love, love, love when you post this type of series! I have found following daily challenges, as you have posted before, to be so incredibly helpful in my accomplishing more and more each day. You’ve got me cleaning up the kitchen and straightening out my house each night before I go to bed, just as you and Jesse do, Crystal! Thanks for the encouragement!
You forget it’s the little things that make the biggest impact.
So true! After my son was born, I was ready to get back into the routine of things. I started with a daily “chore” list–two chores a day. After I finally got into the habit of remembering to do them, I started adding more daily tasks (making the bed, doing extra chores some days, etc.) After I was remembering to do all of those (and feeling so much better when I did them!), I started making a new habit to have all the dishes done every night (which I’d gotten out of the habit of during pregnancy). And after THAT I added having the toys picked up out of the living room before bed.
Now, going through your book, I’m adding a few more–drinking water and unloading the dishwasher in the morning.
You are so right that making one small change at a time is the way to go! 🙂
This is great advice. I find that if I make myself get up and do “whatever” for just 10 or 15 minutes, I am far more likely to accomplish things.