Rhythm & Discipline

As an evidence-based life and career coach, clients often tell me that they’re struggling to achieve their goals and then they ask me: how can I be more disciplined?!

hmmmm…

If you’re struggling to achieve your goals, the first thing my brain turns to isn’t discipline. [I actually ask myself: is this the right goal?]

But just say it IS the right goal and you’ve got all the other elements for successful goal-attainment in place. Just say the challenge really IS just a lack of discipline…

Then this is what I say –

Discipline is a limited resource and so to rely heavily on it can be risky. Instead, a great idea is to use the rhythm of your days and weeks to support your goal-striving.

Here’s an example:

Say you want to start writing for half an hour every day and you tell yourself that you’ll just have the discipline to squeeze it in at some point. But then you find yourself forgetting and doing other stuff and getting distracted and talking yourself out of it and by the end of the month you still haven’t written a word.

Then you decide that you will focus your writing for half an hour each day after you drop the kids off to school. You come home, put on your Uggs, make your coffee, sit in your chair – all as you always do – and then you write.

When you know that the activity is just something that always features in your day, it’s much easier for it to just happen. Regardless of how you’re feeling.

Tags: career-coaching, life-coaching, Melbourne