Self Discipline: Doing What You Say You’re Going To Do

What is self-discipline?

To me, self discipline goes hand in hand with self respect and self control. Having discipline is respecting YOURSELF enough to do what you say you are going to do.

Lets put this into perspective…

If you told a friend you were going to drop them off at the airport you would do it. You wouldn’t ditch them the day of without a plan. You would do it because you have respect for them. Respect for their time, and respect for your friendship to stick to your word.

So why is it when it comes to commitments and promises we make to ourselves it’s different. Do we not respect ourselves and OUR own time?

When you have a work project due on a certain day, you do everything you can to make sure it is completed by the deadline. You have this discipline in your job because you respect your boss and the trust they have placed in you to get the job done (also because you’d like to KEEP your job lol).

When we set a goal for ourselves to achieve by a certain day, why does it not take that same level of importance? Do we not respect our own goals?

If you make plans with a friend and then cancel last minute, your friend would probably be left feeling disappointed, frustrated or pushed aside. We don’t cancel on plans with our friends last minute because we respect that they scheduled out their time to spend it with us, and we care to spend time with them.

Why is it so easy for us to cancel on the plans we make for ourselves? Do we not respect our own time and plan?

Self Discipline In Our Own Lives

When we make a goal for ourselves, like working out 5x a week. There is a purpose behind that decision, there is a reason or a “why”. Whether that is because we want to feel healthier, want to gain weight, lose weigh, gain muscle, etc. BUT sometimes in the busyness of our daily lives we can forget our “why”. There are so many other things going on in our mind that we forget the reason we made these promises to ourselves.

This is where discipline comes in. This is when our “why” becomes, “because I said I was going to” and “because I respect myself and my goals enough to stick to my word and do what I said I was going to do”. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired. It doesn’t matter if something else sounds more desirable.

A Lack of Self Discipline is Unattractive

I was listening to a podcast a while back and I still think of it often… especially when I find myself being lazy. It was an episode of the “Aware & Aggravated Podcast” by Leo Skepi. In the podcasts he talks about how a lack of discipline makes you “unattractive”. And honestly, even if it sounds harsh I completely agree. You wouldn’t want to be in a relationship, friendship, etc. with someone who lacks the discipline “to do what they say they are going to do”.

Think about it, when discussing problems in relationships something you’ll hear SO many times is “their actions don’t match their words”. “He says he cares but he doesn’t show it”, “She said she would come to hang out with my friends, but she still hasn’t”, “He says he wants to talk to me, but he never calls me”. No one wants to be in a relationship with someone whose words don’t line up with their actions. There is a lack of trust, credibility, and your words eventually don’t mean anything.

That is where we find ourselves in our inter-personal relationship when we don’t have self discipline. Our words mean less, we don’t have faith in our goals or dreams, and we deep down don’t trust ourselves. When we don’t do what we say we are going to do, we lose that respect and trust in ourselves. At the end of the day it is impossible to accomplish anything if we don’t BELIEVE we can.

Growth in self-discipline is definitely not linear. It isn’t easy. But this is your reminder to work toward being 1% better every day!

xoxo, jenny <3