Discipline is the awareness of consequences and choosing actions that serve your higher purpose, and today I’m going to share three different tactics that will help you stay disciplined as you work towards your goals.

Before we dive into it, we need to first understand exactly how important discipline is and why it’s not just some catchy buzzword that has become popular over the years.‍

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Everything that you want to achieve in life depends on this one crucial factor. So, make sure you stay with me until the end and take some notes on how you can apply these principles to your own life.‍

The Issue with Goal Setting‍

When people think about goals, they usually get obsessed with the idea and outcome, which is fine. This vision of the future can help ignite your internal fire and give you some motivation.

But let’s think about it. How many vision boards are pinned up on walls with the photos of ripped abs and yachts and piles of money curling at the edges? How many handwritten lists of goals are buried under stacks of papers on desks? 

Goals are good, but they don’t mean anything without action.

The issue is that people don’t put much thought into the process itself. This means breaking down each fundamental step that will get you to your desired outcome.

When it comes to any goal, you will have to become a different person in order to reach success in this endeavor. This is the whole purpose of goals in the first place. You want to achieve something, but you’re not quite at that point yet. So, you have to bridge the gap between point A and point B, and you can do this by implementing new habits that will turn you into the person who can create this reality for yourself.

But this is why most people fall off course: they aren’t focused on the present, which is where change actually takes place.

This change happens by developing new traits in the form of habits through your daily actions in the now— aka the present.

The word goal itself refers to a future outcome that has not yet manifested. It’s nothing more than a destination, and you have to level up before you can reach this destination. You essentially have to become the 2.0 version of yourself.

I know it’s easy to assume that your identity is permanent, but the truth is that it’s constantly changing as you move throughout life. Yes, most of who you are is developed during your childhood, but that doesn’t mean it just stops. It’s in constant evolution like everything else in the universe.

You can choose to create your next evolution by developing new and better habits that compound over time to create your new identity. These habits will shape you into the person who will be able to accomplish the goal that you have set for yourself.

The goal itself is the next evolution but you have to find a way to get there first. Because let’s face it, if you were already that person, then you wouldn’t need to set a goal in the first place. You would already be at your destination.

The goal is your destination, discipline is the roadmap, and each habit you build right now is a step toward the finish line.

Now, let’s talk about the most important character trait to develop if you want to make this happen, which is discipline.

What is Discipline?

You will never stick to new and better habits without discipline, plain and simple. This is because discipline works together with habits. They build off of each other to help you level up.

Discipline itself is a habit and the only way you can build any habit is through discipline. I know it sounds like a snake eating its own tail, but it’s the truth. Habit and discipline are completely intertwined.

To put it simply, you become more disciplined by sticking to positive habits, and you stick to positive habits by becoming more disciplined.

It’s also worth clarifying what I mean by positive habits: I’m referring to actions that actually serve you instead of those that work against you.

A good example would be choosing healthy foods that help you perform physically and mentally instead of eating garbage that makes you feel like shit.

The more times that you can say no to negative temptations, the more discipline you will build, and the closer you get to becoming your ideal self.

Now, here’s the beautiful part about all of this… Discipline is something that anyone can develop. It’s like a muscle that builds over time through repetition and consistency, and it will transform your life in ways that you can’t even imagine. The more of it you have, the easier your life will become.

Your life will become easier because eventually all of your goals will no longer have to be focused on unfucking your life. Because that’s where we all have to start when getting serious about our goals. You have to figure out what traits are holding you back and set a goal that will force you to remove them.‍

‍When you become more disciplined, it will become part of your identity, and you will only do things that are in your best interest, which means less time fixing yourself and more time pursuing external goals.

Discipline is what builds self-respect; and if you respect yourself, you will be less likely to sabotage your life. This means less time you’ll have to spend fixing what you messed up through negative habits. 

Once you get your life on track and you’re in a solid place, you will be able to set different types of goals, just for the hell of it, because you want to see what else you can accomplish. Your ambitions will no longer have to be solely focused on fixing yourself and will be more directed towards conquering your external world instead of your internal.

So, how can you stay disciplined and create new habits that will give you the life you want? There are three tactics I’ve used over the years that will help you as well.‍

Tactic #1: Remove Distractions

The first and most important one is to remove distractions. This is probably the hardest part because we live in a world full of distractions, and distractions take our awareness away from ourselves and the life we want to create.

You can never expect to discover what you need to change if you are constantly distracted. Distractions are a tool that we use to ignore reality, which is a denial of our current situation. Distractions are like a virus that slowly weaken your mind and quality of life.

On top of the everyday distractions, you’re also fighting against government, big tech, and overall media channels that have made it their mission to keep you distracted to serve their own purpose.

If you are distracted and consuming non-stop, then you’re being controlled and playing their game. This should piss you off because you’re doing more for someone else’s purpose instead of your own.

Now, I want you to use this anger to fight back.

A perspective that helps me regain attention is viewing distractions as nothing more than a failure to focus on what I claim to value most.

When you catch yourself falling into this trap, remind yourself of your values and the life you want to have, and this will bring you back to the present so you can re-enter your attention.

Now, will eliminating distractions to the best of your ability require a certain amount of willpower? Absolutely. But it’s worth it to create the life you want for yourself.

So, if you want to stay disciplined and conquer your goals, then you need to remove distractions. I can’t stress this enough. I want you to become militant about it and get tunnel vision on your main objectives.

Now that we have covered distractions, let’s move on to the second tactic for staying disciplined, which is to get rid of negative influences.

Tactic #2: Get Rid of Negative Influences

When I say negative influences, I’m not just referring to people, even though that’s definitely important. Influence is anything that has the ability to affect your character, development, and behaviors.

When we look at it from this angle, influence can be people, books, media, music, and anything else that has the ability to impact the way you think and act. The most important thing to realize here is that influence shapes your identity whether you like it or not. And your identity defines your thoughts and actions on a subconscious level.

Now obviously it’s not possible to just completely remove outside influence from your life. Nor should you want to, because where there is a negative there can also be a positive. What you need to do is make sure that these influences are moving you closer to who you want to become and not pulling you in the other direction.

When it comes to people, make sure that you are only engaging with individuals who genuinely want the best for you and are not constantly trying to break you down to make themselves feel better. I have become absolutely ruthless with this over the years, and I encourage you to be as well.

Sometimes it isn’t obvious that they are doing it, and I think they are even more clueless themselves. But once you pick up on it, you’ll immediately start paying more attention to how they talk to you. And if you see the pattern repeating, start distancing yourself.

You don’t need to make a big deal about it by calling them out or anything like that because it’s a waste of your time, drains you of vital energy, and they aren’t going to have the awareness to recognize it anyway. So, what’s the point? Just accept it for what it is and move on.

Now, regarding media and books, it’s pretty straightforward. You should only consume information that will help you become your ideal self.

I like to view books and media as software that I download into my subconscious mind, which is the operating system. That’s why the term “television programming” exists, because it is programming you. So, you need to become conscious about where you direct your attention and what you are consuming on a daily basis.‍

‍Make sure that these outside influences are serving your higher purpose, and by purpose, I mean the version of yourself that you are working to create. If they aren’t, then don’t invest your time and energy into it because you only have a limited amount of both, so make sure it’s spent wisely.

Now let’s tackle the third and final tip to staying disciplined, which is to keep moving forward.‍

Tip #3: Keep Moving Forward

You need to understand that you are going to fall off course every once in a while. And when this happens, which it will, the very best thing you can do is get back on track as soon as possible.

Don’t beat yourself up and make a big deal about it because this leads to self-loathing which accomplishes nothing.

Remember that you don’t just magically build discipline overnight. It takes repetition and consistency to see results. And events will unfold in your life that knock you off course, but you are a constant work in progress and will be until the day you die.

It’s also worth mentioning that the old you still exists and is going to resurface when you least expect it. It’s hiding in the shadows, waiting for a moment of weakness, so it can creep back in without your conscious awareness. But the more that you stay true to your vision, the less strength you will give it.

You weaken it each and every day by remaining disciplined, and when you refuse to give up, it will start backing down. Just keep moving forward at all costs.

Remember that this is a never-ending process, and you are a constant work in progress.