Why is Self-discipline Important? 6 Top Reasons You Need IT
Whenever each year is about to end, many feel it is the best time to reflect on and evaluate their achievements. And often, all through these self-evaluations, the question that keeps popping up is: Why is self-discipline important?
Remember, you had so many on your to-do list when the year began. Most likely, part of your list could be to exercise more and to become more religious with your diet to achieve weight loss. It could be to make more money through your physical, online, or freelance business.
But all that would be impossible without self-discipline. And that’s what the article is all about. So get ready to learn:
- Why is self-discipline important in the workplace
- Why is self-discipline important for students
- Why is self-discipline important for success
- Why self-discipline is important in our life
Why is Self-discipline Important in the workplace?
The nature of the workplace depends on the type of business organization. A sole proprietorship business is usually a small office space. But whether a workplace is small or not, there’d always be a need to relate with others– be it your customers or workers.
The workplace is preoccupied with many projects to execute and a series of deadlines to meet. Interestingly, most of these will need teamwork and collaborative efforts from employees. But achieving success at all these won’t be possible without self-discipline, even though it will impact your company’s revenue.
Self-discipline in a corporate setting makes workers more productive, while healthy relationships are encouraged. You’ll agree that when employees are self-disciplined, they become more focused and able to resist impulses. Moreover, they’ll be able to follow up on several projects until completion.
Imagine you (and your team) have a project that you should finish in 7 days. What do you think you need to achieve the goal of the project?
Time? Money or other resources? Or all?
True, all of those are important. But without self-discipline, the presence of all the resources would achieve little or nothing. So that makes Self-discipline paramount to the efficiency or productivity of you and your team members.
Why is self-discipline important for students?
Many think becoming a student is about gaining admission into a college or having an ID card that confirms studentship. But there’s more. It requires you to employ self-discipline in countless situations. Right from the time you received your admission letter to doing your clearance.
You have classes to attend and many tests and exams to pass cut across all semesters designated for your chosen course. And to successfully achieve all that, you’ll need the self-discipline to break away from possible anti-study behaviors such as procrastination, addictions, or any other.
In addition, you need the self-discipline to increase your motivation to want to study. That’s because, as a student, at some point, you’ll feel down– and may have to find the motivation to read anything. Self-discipline can help a student build mental toughness not to give up after a setback or a failure.
While it helps you trash unproductive behaviors, it allows you to set achievable educational goals for yourself as a student. But beyond that, self-discipline makes it possible to get closer to your goals daily.
Also, self-discipline can help you as a student build effective study habits that allow you to achieve excellence in your academics.
Why is Self-discipline Important for success?
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand,” says Vince Lombardi.
Undoubtedly, there are thousands of definitions for success out there. That’s to say, success (in itself) is a relative term. However, while the meaning of success depends on who’s defining it, you’ll agree self-discipline remains a prerequisite. It doesn’t matter the goal you want to achieve.
Also, it doesn’t affect your color or which part of the world you’re in or from. If you want to build your biceps, you need self-discipline. You’ll have to wake up to exercise at home or go to the gym daily.
If that weren’t true, every guy you meet would have six packs. But that comes with a lot of price as an exercise routine and strict dieting.
Also, in your relationship with family members or personal life, you require the self-discipline to achieve a loving relationship with them. Essentially, one needs the discipline to be a good parent, child, brother, sister, or relationship partner.
Remember the popular expression, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”.
That’s true. But for every prize you want, there’s a price you must be ready to pay. Exactly, what self-discipline helps you do.
It helps you do what you should do even though you don’t feel like doing it. That doesn’t mean being self-disciplined is synonymous with being insensitive about your emotions or feelings. Neither does it mean being ruled by them.
Why Self-discipline is Important in our life
Everybody wants to be great in life. We all want freedom financially, just as much as we desire solid relationships with our families, loved ones, or friends. Aside from all these, no one wants to suffer ill health due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Be it from excessive consumption of sugary stuff, junk foods, or intake of hard drugs.
You’re already getting the hint as to why we all need self-discipline in our lives, right?
Yes, one requires self-discipline to become successful in life, even to the minutest thing, such as picking a suitable outfit to meet in an office.
Funny, right?
But that’s true because one can only achieve success at bigger things if one has been able to succeed at little things. It is learning how to communicate effectively or other thing such as learning a new language or negotiating skills. Or perhaps, how you can become an effective time manager.
Tips for becoming more self-disciplined after knowing why self-discipline is important
Knowing the importance of self-discipline is the first step in living it out in our daily life. With that said, the following tips can help you out in this journey:
#1. Set your goals clear
In the absence of goals, distraction becomes easy. That’s why you should SMART goals for yourself. SMART, here, is an acronym representing Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound.
For example, you could set a daily goal you’ll exercise for 30 minutes daily. However, whenever you conceive such a goal or any other, try and always write them down, probably in your diary or notepad.
#2. Visualize the outcome of your engagement
Another tip that can help is visualizing the outcome of your engagement. That way, you can take things into perspective before acting. It will help you evaluate how your involvement in an activity can contribute towards your goals. Either health-wise, financially, socially, mentally, or otherwise.
#3. Admit your feelings but don’t let them rule you
Your feelings are sometimes strong. But mastering your emotions will help you become a more self-disciplined person. And that includes the ability to delay immediate gratification.
In 1972, Walter Mischel published what is popularly known as the Marshmallow experiment. Walker and his team used it on hundreds of children.
Each child was taken into a room to sit on a chair with a marshmallow on a table.
And the deal was an extra marshmallow. Any child that stayed for 15 minutes in the absence of the researcher got rewarded with another marshmallow.
Many couldn’t bear the sight of the marshmallow in front of them and thus consumed the first one.
Only a few got compensated extra for their ability to hold up.
And interestingly, from following studies by the researchers on these children years later, those who tamed themselves were able to record higher scores on the SAT and better life in other areas.
That takes us to the next tip.
#4. Start small
Building self-discipline isn’t going to happen overnight. But you can get your mind focused on your goals like the children who got extra marshmallows. They chose not to compromise because they had two marshmallows all for themselves in the space of 15 minutes.
You, too, can start with a small task. It could be deciding to brush not too long after waking up early each day.
#5. Get a mentor or accountability friend
This tip isn’t that popular as a self-discipline tip, but it can work for you. Having a mentor can ease the process of building self-discipline. But if doing that seems expensive or impractical– right now, you may find yourself an accountable friend.
In getting an accountable friend, he must be a person who’s committed to achieving success at what you’re aiming to achieve– or have an interest in that same thing.
You can fix time to communicate with each other to evaluate your progress with each other concerning your set goals.
#6. Practice, fail, and start over.
As said already, developing self-discipline is like a continuous journey. But you’ve got to start small while building your “discipline muscle”.
You’ll fail at some test of your discipline, but deciding to start over again is a commitment to self-discipline. For example, you decided to start every morning, say 5 am.
And let’s say, on the first day, you woke up before 5 am, but the day after, you woke up 20 mins past. While that doesn’t sound like meeting your goal (on that), it shouldn’t discourage you from continuing with your set goal.
A Final Thought on Why Self-discipline Important
No doubt, self-discipline is important in so many ways. But it’s essential to achieving sound mental health, physical well-being, education, or in business– and life generally.
That’s because, with self-discipline, you can take charge of your emotions and thoughts and be in control of your time. That way, you’ll be able to minimize or eliminate distractions that come your way to actualizing your life goals and aspirations. It doesn’t matter what you’re into or live.
