Do you know of any adults who have successfully cultivated discipline? Based on those I've known since elementary school and still know today, perhaps 80% of the discipline I see in people can be explained by how much discipline they had at 10 years of age.
Ok, so what can one do? I have a genetic discipline disorder, as 23andMe could confirm you, if I could be bothered to do the screening. I possess exactly ZERO self-discipline, and in retrospect, I guess I never had any. I own my career to not having enough discipline to do my math homework at 13 - that's when I picked up programming. The lack of self-discipline is becoming an obstacle in professional lie though. How does one fix this?
Start small and don't expect results any time soon.
How small? I.e touch the phone when you wake up until you count to 20.. do it for a week. Add another small task (i.e clear kitchen table before going to sleep) and work on both of them. Try to do each task for 4 weeks minimum. After six months you will be doing so much of the small stuff that I will begin to impact your life in a really positive way, and you're self-discipline will grow.. Big time.
His basic philosophy is to anchor a very small habit to one you already do. For example, is there one thing you always do first at work? Make coffee, open email? Then choose a tiny habit you would like to form (it should take less than 30 seconds) and do it right after that normal routine habit. (I don't know, maybe write down one task you promised someone you would do and pin it on your monitor). Then after you have done the tiny habit, give yourself a small celebratory high-five. (Cheesy as it sounds, the tiny habit where I didn't do this little celebration didn't stick after the week long program).
Check out and sign up for his 1 week program (its free).
IE, get external forces working in your favour. You could use a coach or psychologist. Commit to tasks. Make sure they check up on you. Work closely with others. Pair programming or an environment where someone is waiting for you to finish something so they can start something else. Seek environments where you can't hide procrastination. discipline thrives in public.
That's what works for me. When the task is boring, the guilt of letting other people hanging pushes me to finish it. It doesn't quite work for personal improvement, though, at least for me.
This seems like awful advice to inflict yourself as a burden (pair programming, always seeking review and validation) rather than being self disciplined, autonomous and professional.
I'd suggest to stop thinking of yourself as someone without self-discipline. It's very hard to behave in a way if you believe it's against your nature.
For example, I've always considered myself to be a smoker. I tried quitting dozens of times, but I always gave in because I knew I was a smoker deep inside. But at some point, I realized that there's nothing about me that makes me a smoker. And then it was easy to quit smoking.
It's possible to change yourself. Nothing really prevents you from becoming a disciplined person. The first step is realizing you don't have to be a procrastinator (or whatever you consider yourself to be).
Yes. My boss is one of them. Cal Newport writes quite a bit about doing deep work. [1] Tobias Lutke of Shopify seems to be another. [2]
Most people are similar to how they were when they were in school, because most people don't deliberately put themselves in contexts in which they are forced to grow and develop.
Discipline, in my opinion, is seldom something that you develop entirely for its own sake– rather, it tends to be something that you develop to achieve some greater goal. Along the way you may find that discipline is a worthy pursuit by itself, but few people wake up at 20 and go "Jeez, I want to be really really disciplined!"
It's more like, you have some itch you want to scratch, and you realize the only way to do it is to train yourself.
I'm a different person due to the supplements and food I eat. I'm obsessed about always improving my nutrition and supplement stack. It's paying off in terms of how much work I'm capable of doing. "Give your body the right food and it will do the right thing" is something I believe in.
That combined with the routine of going to a 9-5, then afterwards going to a coworking space for my startup, I'm really getting a lot of work done. Before I would stay at home and do the bare minimum of contract work, waste time on the internet, and dream about doing a startup. I'd say I'm about 3 times as productive as I was when I worked from home.
Listing everything I do for nutrition probably won't help anyone - people can't be told to add/remove certain foods without a strong belief that it will be beneficial to them. It's like politics. You can't convince a die-hard conservative to suddenly become a liberal with a comment on the internet.
For example if I went back in time I could tell my teenage self everything about nutrition. Unfortunately it would be pointless. Even though I'd listen, without the years of experimentation, forming beliefs and learning I would never have the discipline to think "These foods are poison. Other people can eat them, but not me."
So it's a long process and I think people should discover what works for themselves. But since you asked, here's what I eat and don't eat as of now...
NEVER EAT: HFCS, DAIRY, processed foods, greasy foods, red meat, brominated/bleached flour, unfermented soy (especially soybean oil), alcohol, artificial flavored foods or things that you don't recognize the ingredients, basically avoid all restaurants even supposedly healthy ones
EAT: Tons of organic vegetables/fruit, things cooked in coconut or olive oil, organic chicken, organic eggs, sprouted wheat, high-quality spring water, home cooking flavored with herbs/spices instead of sugary/salty sauces, foods with high omega 3s or high antioxidants, cook everything yourself using basic ingredients
Things that are listed "never eat" I make no compromises for no matter the pressure... "Oh hey - it's our company's annual pizza taste-testing competition, you can make an exception this time can't you? Don't you want some of this amazing pizza with cheese, soybean oil and brominated wheat flour in it. NO!?! What's wrong with you? Are you going to risk your job by not participating???"
YES - I will quit my job before eating pizza... it's poison to me, I won't eat it.
I channel some of my motivation into cultivating discipline. I also apply discipline to periodically remotivate myself.
In practice this means I'll do a hackathon to build something I want, while limiting myself to using one new technology that has to be relevant to my startup.
To stay motivated I pitch everyone I can because nothing motivates me as much as other people getting excited.
As someone that used to lack motivation and discipline, this has kept be going on my startup for 4+ years.
