Discipline
Discipline is a great topic to start with because other topics stem from it. It takes discipline to succeed in most challenges. How do you become a more disciplined person? You do more disciplined tasks. Discipline builds like a muscle. Just like if you lift 15 pounds for a week and it starts to feel lighter, then the next week you’re able to lift 20 pounds. Discipline works the same way. When you do things that require discipline, like working out, after you get into a routine of working out for a month, it doesn’t take as much discipline to get yourself to go to the gym anymore because it becomes a habit. Two things that will make you a more disciplined person would be:
1. Make a schedule. It doesn’t have to be packed. Just write down a few things each day to start, like waking up, your morning routine, going to school, working out, hanging out with friends, and going to bed. You'll find yourself gradually wanting to add more. It makes it easier to do what you need to do, and it makes you feel accomplished when you check off all the things you did on your schedule that day.
2. Write down one disciplined task you did each day. It can be taking out the garbage when you didn’t feel like it or washing a dish when you didn’t want to. Just one task that takes discipline each day. You will notice by the end of the week you will feel more disciplined. After one week of doing that, do two disciplined tasks a day for the next week, then for the third week do three. And be consistent at three tasks daily for the following weeks. You will feel much more disciplined, and it will be easier to work hard towards your goals.
Accountability
It’s very important to hold your accountable. Start becoming aware of when you tell yourself you’re going to do something if you do it or not. Try to be honest with yourself. When you start being honest with yourself and when you do what you say you’ll do you will feel better, and succeed more.
Drive
What is drive? Drive is when you don’t feel motivated to do something, but you do it anyway. It’s easy to workout when you’re motivated, it’s easy to go on a run when you’re amped up. Identify times when you don’t feel like doing something, then think to yourself it’s time to use drive. LET’S GET IN THE CAR AND DRIVE! To have success we must build our drive. Do what needs to be done regardless if you feel like it or not. The more you use drive, the easier it will become to do be driven. If you have enough drive, you will get to your destanation.
Excuses
Excuses can kill momentum. Sometimes excuses are valid, does that mean you should say them? NO. Usually when you use an excuse it takes your eyes off the prize. For example if you’re losing in a game because the ref made a bad call, blaming the ref will only take your focus off the task at hand which is to comeback. Instead you should say, we can’t control the refs, let’s keep dominating and we’ll comeback. Stay positive regardless of the excuses you can make in all situations.
Comfort Zone
The more you go out of your comfort zone the easier it will be to go through adversity, discipline tasks, challenges, and most situations that you must go through to succeed. Try adding uncomfortable tasks into your every day life. Cold showers or baths, saying hi to a stranger, difficult workouts, eating something you don’t like, or any other task that makes you uncomfortable. If you practice being uncomfortable when your goals call for you to uncomfortable which they will, you’ll be up for the task.
Enthusiasm
Being enthusiastic is very powerful. People who respond to challenges with enthusiasm are much more likely to succeed. Maybe you don’t feel like doing a hard team workout, but you stay positive so everyone can feed off that energy. That’s what a leader does, and that’s the type of person coaches want on their team.
Short Term vs Long Term Gratification
You may hear the saying sacrifice short term gratification for long term gratification. What does that mean? It means sometimes you need to do something you don’t feel like doing so that you can get double the gratification. Say your goal is to become a better hockey player and you don’t feel like working out. If you workout anyway you’re gonna feel good for the rest of the day and in the future because you’ll be better at hockey. That’s a small sample size, but try to start doing what’s good for your goals even if you don’t feel like doing it in that exact moment. Because it will make you feel more fulfilled in the short term, and make you happier when you’re doing well in your goals in the long term.
Emotions Come From Thoughts
Your thoughts generate your emotions which is why it’s important to try to think positively in difficult situations. If you force yourself to think positively during rough times, you won’t feel as bad emotionally, but if you just think negatively and let the “rough times” win you will feel worse. If you feel yourself overthinking about something that is bothering you, take a pause, realize you’re overthinking, acknowledge the thought and if anything else needs to be said in your head. Then move on and try to think about something else. Feed your brain with positive thoughts so you can feel more positive emotions.
Stress
There’s good stress and bad stress. When you feel stressed become aware of which one it is. Good stress is when you’re stressed about something in your control: maybe you didn’t workout that day yet and you feel stressed you won’t be strong enough so the stress pushes you to go workout, or maybe you have a deadline to get an assignment done and you feel stressed, so that pushes you to work on it. Bad stress is usually out of your control: maybe you’re stressed about something you could’ve done differently in the past, or you’re worried about what someone may be thinking about you. This type of stress doesn’t give you anything positive, if you didn’t worry about it nothing bad would happen to you. So start becoming aware when you feel stressed, is it good or bad stress. If it’s good do what the stress is calling for. If it’s bad, practice being mindful, take a deep breath and realize this stress is not real, it’s not adding anything to your life. You can do breath work, mediation, go on a walk, go in cold water, or any other type of mindful exercise to help with bad stress as well. The more mindful you are the easier it will be to deal with bad stress.