HOW TO BUILD SELF-DISCIPLINE

In the past, I've had many days where I sat in front of my computer and stared at that blinking cursor. I wanted to write a new video script and just didn't manage to write down a single word. After a few more minutes of staring at my screen in hopes of the cursor writing the script itself, I started to come up with all sorts of excuses. I'm not feeling inspired today, maybe I'm just too tired,  it's not the right time to do this tomorrow I can still get it done. I decided to drop it for the day and look for another activity

that wouldn't take me any effort. I would find myself scrolling through my phone watching another series on Netflix or napping at the side of my bed. No matter if you have to study for an exam prepare a business presentation or write a letter for that job application. We all know those times in which our

motivation is nowhere to be found. 

I think in general our lives can be separated into two different parts the life we currently live and the life we want to live or in other words our current situation and our dreams and aspirations and to get from one side to the other. We have to put in a lot of work along with the way and in my case, this work was writing a lot of good video scripts and realizing great videos to achieve my dream of being a YouTuber. But as you might know, it never is that easy to do the work because there is something called resistance. In between those two sides as Steven Pressfield says in his book ' The war of art resistance is a universal force that has one sole mission to keep things as they are it is the force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary whether it be rationalizing inspiring fear and anxiety emphasizing other distractions that require attention raising the voice of an inner critic and much more '.

So when I was coming up with all of these stupid excuses back then not to write that script it was a resistance telling my brain to do it another day even though I knew that finishing this task would help me achieve my goals but fortunately, there is a solution to this problem which is called self-discipline as Samuel Thomas davy says ' Self-discipline is about leaning into resistance taking action despite how you feel living a life by design, not by default but most importantly it's acting by your thoughts, not your feelings '. 

Over the last few years, I really learned how to push through that resistance and build different systems to fight that voice in my head. And today I want to share the four most important tips which help me overcome procrastination build self-discipline and actually, get things done so let's get started. 

1. Remove Temptations 

So if you truly want to create something great all of your attention has to be on one specific task for long periods of time. But as our attention became the new currency in this modern world there are now more distractions than ever before screaming for our attention there are cell phones the internet social media emails or annoying co-workers dropping by your desk. 

Hey, what are you up to man? to fix this, you have to remove all kinds of toxic temptations which could possibly distract you from your work. Because if you don't even have the option to indulge in these distracting activities. You will require a lot less willpower to withstand procrastination. What really worked for me was to just set aside specific amounts of uninterrupted time to work on a project or task so for me that would be two different work blocks throughout the day. So it would be from eight until 12 a.m and from 1 30 until 7 pm and in these time frames, I just get rid of all of these temptations to focus on one single task. Fortunately, I don't have this problem because I don't work in an office but if

you do then just close the door this will hold chatty colleagues back from popping their heads in and distracting you. And overall it will just lower the amount of noise alternatively, you can also just use noise-canceling headphones which eliminates any noise around you, and also it just shows other people that you're doing some focused work and you just don't want to talk right now switch your phone into flight mode and put it in a place that you can't immediately reach. Turn off notifications that don't require immediate attention so especially social media and emails. When you are at your pc or laptop try to cut out all sorts of distractions no matter what it is for you it might be WhatsApp or other messengers for me it is the email I just close my email program and let these emails accumulate over time. And then I have a specific time where I just get back to all of these emails and I reply to them in a batch, which is a lot more time-efficient and doesn't impact my focus on other tasks. Also, a good way to see what it's like to live without these temptations is to do a dopamine detox for seven days.

But now let's get to the next point.

2. Just Get Started

' Amateurs wait for inspiration to strike while the pros get up and get to work '. I really like this quote because it is just so true. Not feeling inspired is one of the most common excuses that everybody uses in terms of creative work and I've used it a hundred times back in the days. But

action should not be the result of inspiration or motivation because inspiration often comes from taking

action so it's not really a linear process but more of a loop of those three things of inspiration motivation and action. And each of these parts just reinforces the other one so you should just focus on getting that loop started instead of waiting for inspiration to strike it's all about overcoming that very first resistance because of almost all of the time as soon as you get started. After like five minutes you will be in a good flow of work and you will actually enjoy it. So for example in my case writing the scripts of these videos is one of the most challenging parts of my work. I'm just sitting in front of a blank page and I have to come up with a compelling story and so many times I've just looked for different excuses not to do it but over time. I just learned to detach my emotions from my actions even if I wasn't motivated I just showed up for work and I just got started and that was a massive game-changer when it comes to my productivity and creativity.

As soon as you write down the first sentence of that script your thoughts will start to form and you will make progress and then you will enjoy it you'll be motivated to write down another sentence and slowly you will find the inspiration and motivation to get the ball rolling and this applies to everything in life. Not only creative work but also fitness or talking to strangers

basically anything like if you just approach a stranger obviously at the beginning there's some resistance

holding you back from talking to them because probably you're scared or you think something weird might happen. But as soon as you talk to the person you actually figure out it's not that bad it's really easy and it's the same for fitness it's the same for your creative work it's the same for basically anything. I used to be a massive overthinker and never really got started with things I wanted to do but applying this mindset really made me a man of action if you want to say that and I don't really need any motivation to get started. So yeah this is a really helpful tip just get started do it don't let your dreams be dreams.

And now let's jump to tip number three

3. Prioritise Your Time.

I've talked about this before and I still think that I don't have any time is no excuse because time is all about setting priorities and if you actually want to achieve your goals you have to make them a priority

and pass on other activities. And one of the things that are really great for prioritizing your time and also scheduling your time throughout the day is to write to-do lists. I myself make a to-do list every single morning where I just sit down and where I write down the most important tasks that I want to get done

today. And when you make your to-do list you should really try to break down your tasks into concrete and achievable steps that lead to a bigger goal so for. For example, instead of saying write a video script, you should say finish intro or video script, or instead of saying apply for job applications you should just write down apply for three jobs just trying to create very concrete to-do's that you can actually achieve and take off and also try to keep them realistic. Because taking off these different to-dos will get you

more sparks of motivation to keep you going and it will just boost your motivation instead of draining it if you don't finish that task and besides those to-do lists. I also schedule specific time blocks for these

tasks in my calendar. I basically have four different calendars business private release and vacation.

Business is just business-related stuff private is like meeting friends going for dinner in release, I just keep track of all of the publishing days from Instagram posts and youtube videos and in vacation, there's basically nothing. So these different calendar groups really help me to separate the tasks that I need to get done and I define specific timings for things like appointments or calls or meetings which

need to happen at one specific time but for other things which need a longer time like shooting a video or editing a video.

I just define time frames of days or half days to have an overview of how much time I want to devote to that one task and in my release calendar, I  actually set deadlines for the different things. I have to do so if there's a sponsored video or if I work for a client obviously I have real deadlines that I just add in there but also for my own projects. I just set myself artificial deadlines

because I  think that deadlines really help you push your focus and your motivation to get something done obviously, you have to keep it realistic or else you're going to get stressed out. But I think that deadlines can actually be your friend so I really think that this combination of a daily to-do list and

an overall calendar to schedule your time blocks are the way to go at least for me, I don't write down every specific timing for everything that I do because I think that this is just overkill but having this overall structure. And this to-do list that you can follow really helps you reinforce the second point we talked about which is to just get started. Because you know when to get started with it, it's basically like you never go for a run because you don't feel like it. But as soon as you sign up for a marathon and you hear that starting shot you know what to do and you're just going to start running that was a pretty good

analogy huh.

let's get to the next tip

4. External Independence

Focus on what you are in control of. In my opinion, this is the most important mindset when it comes to building self-discipline and to living an overall happy life I truly believe in this I could probably create a whole blog about it, I probably will but for now, I'm just going to keep things simple so every person has something which is called their locus of control. The locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they as opposed to external factors have control over the outcome of events in their lives you can either have an external or an internal locus of control. If you have an external locus of control you believe that the events of your life are a result of external forces well if you have an internal locus of control you believe that the events of your life are a result of your own actions so for. For example, if you're sitting in class and the teacher just hands you back the results of your exam and you're just sitting there like damn. 

It's up again then the person with an external locus of control will say yeah the teacher just doesn't like me the exam was too difficult. While the person with an internal one would say maybe I just didn't study enough probably I should put in more effort the next time. And when it comes to self-discipline you want to have an internal locus of control because as soon as you have that 90 of the excuses you come up with when feeling demotivated will just disappear. Because you realize that it is completely up to you and not to external factors to see if something is holding you back from doing a specific task just ask yourself the question can I change something about it? If the answer is yes then find the solution to the problem and if the answer is no then stop draining all of your attention and energy on this one thing

and just get along with it because there's nothing you can change about it right the more internal your locus of control becomes the more solutions you will find to the problems you face. 

So, that's all for today. I hope that you learned something new and try to implement these things in practice.