Self-discipline is key to achieving your goals and living a fulfilling life. While there are no shortcuts or magic solutions, there are several fundamental habits that can help you on your journey to becoming a more disciplined person. Adopting each of these habits reinforces all of the others, making it easier to succeed in the long run. In this article, we’ll cover five of the most important habits for better self-discipline: sobriety, quality sleep, meditation, exercise, and goal setting.
1. Sobriety
Benjamin Franklin, a prominent figure in American history, kept a journal for much of his life, where he outlined the most important virtues. Out of the 13 virtues, Franklin considered Temperance to be the first and most important one. He believed that by focusing on this virtue, the rest would follow.
In today’s society, it’s common to struggle with substance abuse, such as alcohol and marijuana. When you take a break from these substances, you’ll notice that it’s much easier to maintain a routine and form other good habits. Substance abuse not only impacts your motivation and productivity, but also your sleep quality, which can lead to a vicious cycle of poor self-control. Studies have shown that habitual alcohol use reduces the thickness of the neocortex and impairs top-down control over behavior, even when you’re not drunk. This can lead to a narrow time horizon, and make it harder to resist short-term temptations, such as junk food and more alcohol.
While sobriety is a personal choice, it’s worth considering the benefits it brings. By staying sober, you’ll improve your mood and motivation, making it easier to stick to other good habits.
2. Quality Sleep
Quality sleep is essential for maintaining good health and self-discipline. A regular bedtime and wake-time are crucial to ensure that you get the right amount of sleep. Busy schedules can make it tempting to sacrifice sleep, but it’s one of the worst things you could do to your health, both physical and mental. Consistent poor sleep can lead to a sluggish recovery after exercise, reduced knowledge retention, and weaker willpower.
One insight I found exceptionally valuable was Dr. Andrew Huberman’s avocation for early morning light exposure. Dr. Huberman recommends getting outside and getting some sunlight within an hour of waking — this helps regulate your circadian rhythm and improve your sleep-wake cycle. By taking a morning walk, you can increase your exposure to light and improve your sleep routine. Dr. Huberman has published a ‘Sleep Toolkit’ here with a lot of quality advice for improving our sleep.
3. Meditation
Meditation is a habit that can be difficult to adopt, but it’s worth the effort. Even a brief practice can help you stay focused and manage stress. Meditation also helps reinforce other good habits and can prevent them from unravelling. By taking time to meditate, you’ll improve your focus, mental clarity, and overall well-being.
I recently started using Sam Harris’ Waking Up app, and I haven’t missed a day so far all month. If you want a free trial you can use this link — I really do recommend Sam’s introductory course. I don’t get anything from you using my link, the guided meditations are just great. Sam Harris has a way of providing a very sensible, rational view of meditation, and he doesn’t make me roll my eyes like many guided meditations do. One concept he introduces is particularly useful, a reminder that at any moment you can begin again. You don’t need to wait for next January, or the start of next month, or any special moment to reaffirm a habit you’ve fallen off on. At any moment, the next ten days could be the best you’ve ever done at maintaining your routine, even if the last ten were awful.
Another valuable mental cue that meditation has helped me with is recognizing the sensation of resistance, fatigue, or laziness I often experience when I just don’t feel like it. Noticing this as just another thought, like any others, can be invaluable — and it makes it that little bit easier to override it. In a way, doing these things when you don’t feel like it is the best practice you can have for building a good routine — your bad days are the best opportunities to strengthen your habit of consistency.
4. Effective Planning and Accountability
A common reason for the failure of routines is often not due to a lack of willpower or discipline, but rather a lack of memory. We tend to get caught up in our daily lives, causing other commitments to slip away. To avoid this, it is crucial to have a reliable source of truth to hold yourself accountable, whether that be a paper agenda or a digital system like Notion. Regular checklists can also serve as an effective motivator to keep your routines on track.
For better results, I recommend having shorter-term plans, such as weekly and monthly goals, rather than focusing too much on longer-term ones. Long-term goals are important, but detailed plans for what you intend to do a year from now will likely be overcome by changing circumstances. This helps to prevent overwhelming feelings and keeps the focus on the present, rather than getting too caught up in future plans that may change. I swear by Notion to manage my planning, and make use of a Second Brain system to make sure nothing I’m working on falls between the cracks.
5. Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is an often overlooked aspect of habit building. Being too harsh on yourself for failures or mistakes can hinder your progress and make the process of building new habits a gruelling experience. It is important to acknowledge that failures are a normal part of the process and to forgive yourself. Instead of focusing on perfection, concentrate on making small improvements and building the life you desire.
Building successful habits takes time — sometimes one or two of these five fundamentals might slip, but recognizing whenever your routines are failing that you can refocus your efforts on these foundational skills can make it easier to built the diet, work-out regime, or start-up you’ve been hoping for.
