No one wants to be seen as no fun, too serious, and regimented. When you think of the term "self-disciplined," you may think of a hard-nosed military-type person. That thought alone can be a big blocker in your mind to becoming a self-disciplined person. It’s no wonder that people have trouble becoming more self-disciplined. They’re not understanding the positive factors of developing this skill.

Let's look at some reasons why self-discipline is so hard.

Lack of Understanding of What Self-Discipline Really Is

Self-discipline is a combination of skills that are put into effect consistently to achieve the results you want. It’s a long-term practice of a lot of behaviors designed to help you reach your goals. Avoiding temptation regularly so that results can occur is required. You’ll need to develop all these skills to become self-disciplined.

Not Realizing How Important Organization Is to Self-Discipline

As mentioned above, self-discipline is a way to describe many behaviors that lead to reaching goals at a high level. One of the keys to being able to do this is knowing how to organize your schedule in a realistic way, along with putting together logically everything you need to do in a day.

The Fact That Most People Don’t Know How to Break Tasks Up to Make Them Simpler

A person with self-discipline knows that when they have a goal, they need to break it up into smaller tasks that they schedule in their calendar to do regularly until the whole thing is done. They also know that this requires a lot less discipline than most people think.

Underestimating the Importance of Consistency

One of the real keys to self-discipline is to be consistent in your turning down temptation to achieve the long-term goal. For example, you know eating fewer calories on a regular long-term basis will lead to weight loss. Writing one page of content for your novel will eventually lead to a finished book. Small steps make a big difference, but they also must be consistent.

Knowing That Being Mindful Is a Factor in Self-Discipline

If you don’t know when you’re getting ready to give up or give in, or when you are reaching the end of your comfort zone and you’ve never experienced pushing past those blockers, it’s hard to know whether you can have self-discipline or not. You need to be aware of your own feelings and responsibility for any results you get in life or work.

Once you understand that you can develop all the skills associated with being self-disciplined - such as organization, goal setting, time management, and mindfulness, you can start to set up your life in a way that makes it easy to experience self-discipline and the results.

When someone is referred to as self-disciplined, it means that they’re intrinsically motivated enough to avoid short-term temptations to achieve long-term goals. They tend to be the person everyone else can count on to get things done. They are highly reliable people who are often very successful. They are people with integrity.

If you’re self-disciplined, you:

* Take Personal Responsibility for Your Actions – If you want to demonstrate self-discipline, at its core it’s all about realizing you are responsible for your own actions and no one else’s. When things go right or wrong, you look at how your own behavior affected the situation and then note what you’ll do again and how you can do better next time. * Believe You Are Responsible for Yourself – A person with strong self-discipline doesn’t usually need outside influence to do the right thing. They are very sure of their core values and will put them ahead of what they "want" and do what is right.* Understand Your Own Potential – People who have strong self-discipline tend to realize that they have a lot more power than the average person thinks they have. Due to this, they set up their lives in a way that will lead them to succeed because they know they can do it.* Know How to Set Goals Properly – When you know that your actions make a great deal of difference to your success, you’ll place a high level of importance on learning how to set goals properly. Learn about SMART goals so that you can set yourself up for success.* Set Schedules and Routines for Daily Life – Everyone is handed the same 24 hours in a day. The way highly successful people use that time is the only difference. They tend to schedule everything and do things at certain times ritualistically, because it helps them do more in their lives and experience more balance.* Feel Grateful Every Day – Looking on the bright side is a trait of people who have self-confidence, because they tend to believe in their life and the world around them. Keeping a gratitude journal can help anyone learn to feel more grateful. * Are a Lifelong Learner – Sadly, most of the world doesn’t read after they’re finished with school. But a person who has self-discipline is usually a lifetime learner. They like reading and learning and always make time for it.* Take Care of Your Entire Self – The reason self-discipline helps you take care of yourself is that you’re able to see how some hard decisions made today (such as not to have that piece of cake) will pay off tomorrow.* Are Confident, Patient and Calm – Because you don’t feel powerless, and because you know how to make goals and plans to reach those goals, you can feel a lot more confident, patient, and calm. There is no reason to get into anyone’s drama and even when things are tough, you know you’ll make it through if you follow the steps and your schedule. * Forgive Yourself and Others for Their Imperfections – Since you constantly work on yourself, you realize that no one is perfect and that it’s okay. Human imperfections are what makes everyone interesting.

The most important thing to realize about self-discipline is that you don’t have to be perfect from day one. If you want to improve your chances of experiencing success, working on your self-discipline is the key to that success.

The simple answer is Yes! People who spend time developing themselves tend to experience life more fully, make more money, have better and more fulfilling relationships, and are more satisfied with their place in the world. The reason is that you cannot get to where you want to go without taking small daily actions to get there. Your personal development plan is the map that guides you to where you want to go.

So what are the benefits you'll get from your personal development journey?

You’ll Become More Self Aware

Being self-aware allows you to look to yourself, the only person you have any control over, for the change that is needed to reach the success you desire. For example, if you realize that you are prickly around criticism during your self-study do you just say, “Don’t critique me because I cannot handle it!” No, instead you teach yourself with the help of books, courses, classes, counselors or coaches (or all the above) to learn to handle criticism better.

You’ll Develop a Better Sense of Direction

When you really know who you are, who you want to be, and you know how to get it you’re going to have a much better idea of where you’re going than the average person. Knowing what you want to get out of life is an important aspect of what helps you set your own course. You also learn not to overwhelm yourself trying to do too much at once because you know that when you set your goals right you will achieve them.

You’ll Become More Focused & Effective

One of the things that you want

most from personal development is clarity. Developing SMART goals for your life

in all areas of your life is one way to develop that clarity. Once you have it

you can become more and more focused on doing the right steps to get there that

you will also become more effective at realizing each success. You’ll be able

to toss away roadblocks, obstacles, and threats because you’re doing it with a

plan.

You’ll be Much More Motivated

Motivation can be hard to come by for some people. However, with experience and success, comes motivation. Think about how motivated you feel any time you get good news about an action you took that turned out positive. That’s why you will become more motivated. You’ll have more experience with success due to following your personal development plan.

You’ll Become More Resilient

When you are sure of yourself and where

you’re going, something happens along the way. You’ll feel good about the

things you’re doing, too. You become a much stronger person. One of the first

things you may notice is that you can bounce back faster from issues and

roadblocks.

When you know how to plan using

actionable steps, to get to where you want to go, there seems to be fewer problems,

issues, and roadblocks, simply because you know you’re capable and know what to

do. You will have tools, crafted from the development of your personal plan, to

help you overcome issues that would ordinarily delayed your progress. There is

no way to control the negativity around you; however, you will have more control

your actions and reactions.

You’ll Be a Better Friend, Spouse, Parent, Etc.

One of the things you will learn very well as you work on your personal development plan is that you have full control over your own actions. It’s true that you cannot control sometimes how you feel but you can control how you react. It can be hard to realize it but once you fully accept it your relationships will improve dramatically.

Routines are neither good nor bad. It all depends on the context by which you apply them.

If your routines are making you crazy, or in a rut, it may be time for you to

break away from them, at least temporarily. On the other hand, if you don’t

have some structure in your life, routines may be what you need.

If you are feeling in a rut,

consider going on a vacation. This can be

a great way to reset the ordinary. It can also lead to meeting new people or

opening up opportunities. How many stories have you

heard of people going on vacation and falling in love with the place they

visited? Of course, when you uproot your life to this great new place,

eventually what you do there will become routine.

Another way to shake things up is

to join a club that you wouldn’t normally join. For instance, if you never

tried a certain type of craft, join a local club where you can learn all about

that craft. Or, join a group that plays music together. You may have to learn

an instrument or try out with the group as the singer. No matter what the

activity, try something that is different from what you normally do.

If your life is a bit unstructured,

and that isn’t working for you, try to introduce some routine into your life. This could be as simple as creating a to-do

list. However, if you tend to be a person who hasn’t had much routine, you may

want to find someone who can hold you accountable to the routine. People form

accountability partnerships for this purpose. You can hold your partner

accountable for whatever they are trying to accomplish.

Many people find having a mix of

routine and spontaneity works best for them. Doing something spontaneous helps

to break up the routine before the people get into a rut. Getting back to those

routines after taking a break will restore order in their lives. This isn’t necessarily the way everyone will

work best. But, it is something to try. Give yourself some time before

dismissing it as not working, however.

Only you can decide whether you

need to incorporate a routine or if you have too much routine in your life. You

also are the only one who can determine if you need to do a mix of routine and

acting spontaneously.