Acceptance of reality: the first pillar of self-discipline

One of the pillars of self-discipline is acceptance of reality. Acceptance means that we perceive reality accurately, whether it is good or bad.

Before we explore this idea a little more, I invite you to know what Álex Kei tells us in this video about the discipline.

Álex Kei is a successful entrepreneur in the online marketing business and in this video he gives us 7 tips to be more disciplined:

This acceptance of reality may seem simple and obvious, but in practice it is extremely difficult. If you have any chronic difficulties in a particular area of ​​your life, chances are high that the root of the problem is a failure to accept reality as it is.

If you have not consciously recognized your level of self-discipline, it is highly unlikely that you will improve at all in this area. Imagine an aspiring bodybuilder who has no idea how much weight he can lift and arbitrarily adopts a training routine. It is practically certain that the selected weights will be too heavy or too light. If the weights are too heavy, the person will not be able to lift them and therefore will not experience muscle growth. If the weights are too light and the person lifts them easily, they will not build any muscles.

Similarly, If you want to increase your self-discipline you must know what your current level is. Do you have a lot of self-discipline right now? What challenges are easy for you and what are practically impossible?

Everyday self-discipline

Here's a list of challenges to get you thinking about where you are right now (in no particular order):

* Do you shower everyday?
* Do you get up at the same time every morning?
* Are you overweight?
* Do you have an addiction (caffeine, nicotine, sugar, etc) that you would like to give up but you can't?
* Is your house clean and well organized?
* How much time do you lose on a typical day?
* If you make a promise to someone, what is the percentage probability of fulfilling it?
* If you make a promise to yourself, what is the percentage probability of fulfilling it?
* Could you fast for one day?
* Do you have a well organized hard drive on your computer?
* How often do you exercise?
* Do you have clear and written goals? Do you have written plans to achieve them?
* If you lost your job, how much time do you spend a day looking for a new one and how long do you want to maintain that level of effort?
* How much TV do you watch per day? Could you give up television for 30 days?
* How do you see yourself now: clothes, toilet, etc)?
* Do you select the foods to eat based on health considerations?
* When was the last time you consciously adopted a new positive habit or eliminated a bad habit?
* Do you have debts? Do you consider these debts an investment or a mistake?
* Can you tell me what you are going to do tomorrow?
* On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your overall level of self-discipline?

Just as there are different muscle groups that are trained with different exercises, there are different areas of self-discipline: disciplined sleep, disciplined diet, disciplined work habits, disciplined communication, etc. Do different exercises to build discipline in every aspect of your life.

How to get more self-discipline?

My advice is to identify an area where your discipline is weakest, assess where you are right now, acknowledge and accept your starting point, and design a program to improve in this area. Start with some simple exercises that you know you can do and gradually challenge yourself.

Progress with self-discipline as you do with strengthening a muscle. For example, if you can barely get out of bed at 10 it is not very sensible to want to get up at 7:00 AM. But could you get up at 9:45 AM? It is very probable. And once you've done this, could you advance to 9:30 or 9:15? Yes of course.

When you are in a state of denial about your level of discipline, you are locked in a false view of reality. Or are you too pessimistic u optimistic about your capabilities. And just like the aspiring bodybuilder who doesn't know his own strength, on the pessimistic side, he's only going to lift easy weights and avoid heavy ones, which he could actually lift that would make him stronger. And on the optimistic side, you will keep trying to lift weights that are too heavy for you and you will surely give up or try to push yourself harder; Neither option will make you stronger.

El <strong>success</strong> Personal, family, social and financial awaits you in the next 5-10 years if you progressively build your self-discipline. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. The first step is to openly accept where you are right now, whether you feel good or not. You will not get stronger until you accept where you are right now.

This post is the second part of a series of 6 articles on self-discipline: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | Step 6 —