7 Key Behaviors of Highly Disciplined People That Lead to Greater Success in Life
In truth, it is an unnoticed characteristic that differentiates between successful people and the rest of the pack in careers, personal relationships, and health. It is the ability to control impulses, delay gratification to the maximum level, and do consistently what needs to be done even though it may be very difficult to.
While opinion is divided regarding self-discipline having an innate virtue or not, there is common agreement that it can be cultivated as a skill. By incorporating these strategies, any person can build their self-discipline and become part of the rolls of successful people.
Power of Self-Discipline
Research has proven that well-disciplined people tend to enjoy much success in all aspects. Aside from being diligent students in school, such people also get attractive performance reviews at their workplaces and live healthier lives.
They also give birth to healthier relations with their close ones. Self-discipline is something that promotes all-around development and growth. Advances in neuroscience show that self-discipline is trainable, not a fixed trait. Here are some core habits and mindsets that people with self-discipline tend to follow.
- Goal Clarity
Disciplined people know their direction and purpose. They set clear, measurable objectives and then develop a concrete plan for achieving those objectives. They can channel their energies with more acuteness because of the clarity in what they want to accomplish. This clarity helps them keep on track and avoid distractions.
- Consistent Routine
Self-discipline feeds off routine. Outstanding disciplined people create habits around the ordinary features of life-for instance, sleeping, eating, exercising, and working. Such habits make right behavior instinctual, thus performed without unnecessary in-house conscious control; thus, willpower will be left for more difficult work.
- Delayed Gratification
The much-publicized “marshmallow test” demonstrated that children who resisted immediate gratification for a larger reward later in life became more successful.
A disciplined individual knows how to resist gratification because massive achievements often come at the expense of the smaller, pleasurable things today to deliver something much bigger tomorrow. This makes them endure short-term pain or discomfort to achieve the long-term goals.
- Environmental Design
Self-controlling people understand that willpower is very much a rare resource, so they arrange the environment to limit temptation. This may mean organizing their work environment in advance, preparing the night before such that they’re making good eating choices and not tempted to unhealthily graze, or turning off applications to limit distraction during periods of focus work.
In such a manner, individuals set up an environment that enables them to save willpower for where it counts.
- Mindfulness
Most disciplined people apply mindfulness in their lives. Self-discipline is achieved via mindfulness meditation because mindful people are empowered to exhibit self-control and superior emotional regulation. Mindfulness aids people in gaining control over thoughts, emotions, concentration, and deliberate choices that work towards the realization of individuals’ goals.
- Tolerance of Uncomfortableness
High-performance professionals realize that growth sometimes requires stepping out of the comfort zone. They are willing to experience discomfort knowing that short-term struggles often provide long-term gains. The capacity to tolerate discomfort becomes one reason why professionals can be more resilient. At the same time, it can help build their tolerance for future challenges.
- Personal Responsibility
Last but not the least, disciplined people are owners of their choices and results. They don’t blame circumstances, genes, or luck if they fail or succeed. Instead, they see failure as opportunities to learn what they can improve on, and they are responsible to themselves, led by a sense of inner drive to have what they want.
Self-control is the foundation of success in anything a person ventures into. If such a person masters and practices these seven habits or mindsets: goal clarity, consistent routines, delayed gratification, environmental design, mindfulness, discomfort tolerance, and personal responsibility, he can make his capabilities even stronger.
