#11 How to Stay Disciplined and Consistent With Your Goals

Siim Land (0:02)

We've all been in situations where we know what we need to do. We even have all the resources for doing them. But what prevents us from actually doing those things is this massive wall of procrastination. We've also been in situations where we've set a goal for ourselves, written it out on paper, made some glamorous social media posts about how we're grinding it out, but we don't stay consistent with it. And I believe every one of us can relate to the psychological warfare of dealing with these things. Your own voice of self-doubt, your excuses, hesitations, slip-offs, and the lies that you tell yourself.

Fundamentally, solving these issues comes down to being honest with yourself and then doing what you said you're gonna do. Like I said, you know what you need to do, but you're not doing it. Why is that? Well, it might be because of inflammatory foods that cloud your thinking. It might be because of a poor night's sleep. It might even be because of some past emotional traumas that make you self-sabotage your own success. But honestly, I believe those things can all be transcended with some good old discipline.

Simply doing the right thing because you know it's the right thing to do despite the weather, despite how you feel emotionally, despite what your friends might think of you and despite having no motivation whatsoever.

This topic is somewhat near and dear to me because it's one of the personality traits I can always rely on. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in today's Body Mind Empowerment Podcast with Siim Land. How to achieve indomitable self-discipline and stay consistent with your goals.

SPEAKER_2 (2:08)

Do you want to know what it is? Body Mind Empowerment gets stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (2:19)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_2 (2:21)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (2:24)

How come disciplined people are so disciplined? What's the deal with them?

When average Joe can't seem to stick to their diet or consistently exercise to lose weight, then Jaco Willink here wakes up at 4.30am every morning, starts working out and reading immediately while getting after it. Are disciplined people seriously so neurotic and psychopathic that they just push themselves so hard that they're forgotten about what it feels like to procrastinate? I think that I'm quite a disciplined person, so I can tell yes, but to a certain extent. When successful people are successful because they follow certain routines and tactics that allow them to be successful, then the same applies to disciplined people. Mustering self-discipline does indeed require willpower and it causes massive discomfort. And the more disciplined you are, the longer you can stay disciplined. The generic motivational advice about discipline is that you only need to punch yourself in the face and just do it. That's true.

You do need discipline and you do need to have willpower to stay consistent with your goals, especially at times when you just feel like snoozing in and eating that burger with french fries. I'm gonna tell you this. Discipline is what gets you started, but habit is what keeps you going. It requires a whole lot of discipline to begin moving, but once you're already in motion, it becomes increasingly less difficult to keep going. It's the law of momentum even Isaac Newton was talking about. Newton's first law is this. An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by an opposing force. It means if you're procrastinating, if you're slacking off, and if you're stuck in the vicious cycle of making excuses, then you're literally dragging yourself down into a downward spiral and it becomes more and more difficult to get out of there the longer you stay in it.

That's why addictions are so hard to break, and that's why broken dreams will most likely remain to be broken dreams.

Unless you're quote acted upon by an opposing force, which in this context is the overcoming of procrastination and growing discipline.

But not all discipline is the same. There's a significant difference between externally imposed discipline and self-discipline. Externally imposed discipline is based on authority and responsibility in front of others.

You do it just because you're forced to. For instance, in the military, the drill sergeant commands you to get out of bed, the government orders you to show up to court and pay your civil responsibilities, or your medical condition requires you to go on a diet, otherwise you'll get a heart attack and so on. Self-discipline is internal. It's based on your responsibility, not in front of others, but in front of yourself.