When I was a little girl, the first thing I would do most times when I return home from school was to arrange my study desk, keep my school bag on the desk and run to my room to get ready for prep 😭. This is a core childhood memory, my darlings 🥹. I would spend hours studying, especially during test and exams period. I remember telling my dad that the next time I return home with my result, I will be among the top 10 in class and guess what? I did it!!! This was the first time I ever achieved a different and elevated result in primary school and this happened in primary 6 🥹💕. When I was in secondary school, I was among those who stayed awake at night reading (aka night burners) 🤣. One of my favourite memories about secondary school was being able to balance my rest & play time 😅 with my study time ☺️. This enabled me to live a fulfilled life in secondary school.
I recall when my class manager in ss3 asked what my parting words meant and I told him it’s about living a life of discipline. Also, it means doing what you have to do now and not procrastinate because time could pass and you still may not get it done. My class manager smiled and was pretty impressed.
When I entered university, I knew very well with my whole heart that I wanted to focus on my course of study, human anatomy and also, explore my passions through writing and blogging. I applied my parting words in the university and it kept me going till now. Honestly, this parting words are my life mantra. My educational journey truly reflects how I’ve created and lived a life of discipline. Today, I’m so excited to introduce you to the art of discipline 💃💃💃
Discipline is one of the most important values in everyone’s life.
WHY DO WE NEED TO BE DISCIPLINE IN LIFE?
✨ Discipline improves our relationships, thereby fostering effective and efficient communication.
✨Discipline improves time management. It helps in effective time allocation, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently leading to a balanced and organized life.
✨It helps to reduce stress.
✨It helps us to stay focused.
✨It helps us to build good and healthy habits and lifestyles.
✨It helps us to overcome procrastination.
✨It helps to improve our mental health.
✨ Our productivity and confidence increases significantly, and we’re constantly motivated to keep going, and do better every time.
✨ It makes us perseverant and resilient. Discipline enables us to overcome challenges because we have built structure and system to achieve our goals.
✨It enables us to stay committed to our plans and goals.
✨ A person who is disciplined in their personal and professional life, cannot fail because he/she will create the necessary steps and strategies to achieve their goals.
✨It enables us to build credibility and expertise in our field.
✨Being discipline is a blessing. For the past years, one of the most thoughtful things I have done for myself is to stay disciplined.
WHY DO PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO STAY DISCIPLINED?
There are several reasons people struggle to stay disciplined but here are a few points to consider:
✨Distractions
✨Desire for instant gratification
✨Self-doubt
🎉Pray for God’s Grace: It is the grace of God that will help you thrive throughout your lifetime and also speak for you. There are times when you won’t feel like working or very tired, pray for the Grace of God to stay disciplined.
🎊Have a vision and purpose: Start by defining what discipline means to you. Once you’ve structured your goals and plans, come up with smaller steps to reach it. Take everything one day at a time.
The vision and purpose of my education was the reason I could stay disciplined, grew and kept going, no matter the challenge, completed my university education and made an impact.
🎉 Build structure and system through the following ways:
🌟Make use of a planner to plan your day, week, month, year. Remember to follow the plan, not your mood.
🌟 Set an alarm clock and place reminders.
🌟Create a schedule for yourself: Daily, I have my morning devotion where I start my day with reading a devotional, the Bible and end with prayer. In the evening, I create time to study my Women’s devotional and Study Bible and now, it’s my favourite time of the day because it brings so much peace and light to my life. Also, I join Online Morning Devotion by Salvation Ministries from Monday to Saturday on their YouTube channel (a community-based devotion) and I attend Sunday Service by Koinonia Global on their YouTube channel. Structuring my spiritual life for the past years has helped me stay discipline in every other area of my life.
🎊Build Capacity: Read books. Listen & watch teachings. Teachings such as “The major key to your better future is you” by Jim Rohn available on YouTube.
🎉Rest! Rest! Rest!
Take calculated breaks. In fact, if you give yourself time off, it will improve your productivity and clarity.
🎊Do not doubt yourself. Trust and believe in yourself.
🎉Leverage your social media usage: Use social media for inspiration and jot down what you’ve learned in your spark journal. I discuss more about spark journaling in my blog post. Here’s the link:
🎊Stay Optimistic: You need to start looking at the world through a positive lens if you want to stay disciplined. Don’t let the negative thoughts get the best of you. When you are in a good mood, it’s infectious and it will rub off on people around you.
🎉Surround yourself with people and environment who encourage you to stay disciplined: Spend quality time with people who encourage you to be discipline. Also, be the person who encourages others to be discipline too.
🎊Hold yourself accountable: To be disciplined, you have to make sure that you recognize and accept when you haven’t reached the goals you set for yourself. Ask a friend, family member, mentor, or coworker to be your accountability partner.
🎉Build a network of people and make use of apps to stay disciplined.
🎊Keep going, even if you make mistakes or get distracted: Even the most disciplined and well-organized people, slip up sometimes. Plan for a potential future, but don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake or get distracted along the way. Sometimes, despite our best planning, external factors can get in the way.
KEEP GOING because it will eventually pay off. Discipline requires movement.
Even when you don’t see results, KEEP SHOWING UP.
🎉Reward yourself when you accomplish or achieve a goal. Celebrate little or big wins.
🎊Love and enjoy the process: When you are happy with what you do, you’ll be more energetic, passionate and optimistic to keep going. Forgive yourself for not being discipline. It is good to be ambitious, but do not be too hard on yourself. Life can get in the way of our productivity, and that is natural. Moreover, Life is a journey. So, love and enjoy the process.
Now you’ve viewed this article, I hope you start the work or phase of life you have been dreading about, keep going and complete it. Don’t forget to share your wins with us because we will absolutely love to celebrate with you. Remember, you are never alone. You got this and we got you! ❤️
Mastering the art of discipline is a life-changing experience.
The word of the year is DISCIPLINE.
Happy New Month, My Artoftruezeal Family 🥳🥳
How are you doing? And what’s your thought on this article?
Feel free to share your experience below.
“Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically”.
~Romans 12:11
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