Discipline is a key element when it comes to achieving relatively complex goals both in the areas of private life and work, that is, those that can only be achieved by developing projects and applying organizational measures in learning.
However, there are those who underestimate this aspect of life, assuming that success comes spontaneously through improvisation and innate talent. The truth is that although having an innate predisposition to perform well in certain activities helps you stand out from others and acts as a motivational actor, What makes the difference is knowing how to manage our efforts appropriately through discipline
What is discipline?
We can define discipline as the set of emotional and behavioral self-regulation strategies that, when applied, They allow us to achieve ambitious goals by distributing time in a chain of actions that allow us to multiply the results
Being a disciplined person implies having an eye on the long term and staying on a project in which work and learning feed off each other, generating a cumulative effect; But in order not to lose this inertia, we must maintain consistency, or else a good part of our progress will be lost in a few days. This is the price to pay for keeping this cumulative process in operation that allows us to get closer to our goal constantly, optimizing the use of time.
It is an engine that can help us achieve better performance on a daily basis and to give the best of ourselves in any task we perform daily, with order, diligence, perseverance and commitment.
Although discipline is usually applied in work activity, it can also be useful in many other fields, such as studies, sports or life as a couple.
What is it for?
These are the main reasons that make discipline so important not only from a productive or professional point of view, but also psychologically in general.
1. Helps us improve performance
Since we do not have a special innate talent in most activities, people we need to be constant and systematic in the learning processes to achieve brilliant results in any objective we set for ourselves.
Integrating discipline and hard work into our daily lives will allow us to progressively train the different knowledge or practical skills that are required to achieve success in our work.
2. It allows us to optimize and take advantage of resources
Discipline helps us not to waste our effort, to channel the resources and time we have available in the best way, instead of trying hard in the first phase and ending up throwing in the towel out of pure frustration and exhaustion
That is one of the most important facets of discipline, its ability to keep us constant and focused at all times on what we want to achieve in life.
3. It helps us learn from our mistakes
Discipline also predisposes us to learn from our mistakes, since it allows us to see our mistakes as part of the learning process and helps us set aside time to think about what we have done wrong instead of getting angry and stopping thinking about goal anxiety. This happens because planning and global vision of what you want to achieve, going beyond the assessment of our here and now, is part of the development processes based on the discipline. It helps us not to be defenseless in the face of frustration and the desire to forget what we had set out to do.
In addition to that, putting into practice a habit of discipline in our daily life also allows us to more effectively overcome possible failures that we may commit, and helps us rethink our action plan and find new solutions for the same problem.
4. It allows us to lead a healthy lifestyle
Hard, disciplined and systematic work helps us manage time better and finish all the daily obligations we have during the day sooner, both in the professional and personal and family spheres.
This substantial improvement in time management and in the balanced distribution of all work or study hours of the day allows us to have more time to rest during the day and also to sleep or eat better.
Sleeping all the necessary hours at night and implementing a healthy and balanced diet are habits that positively influence our health both physically and psychologically, which also prepares us better to face ambitious projects
5. Prevents work overload
People who work with greater diligence and discipline in their daily lives can be better organized at work and prevent cases of work overload due to setbacks. When work is more distributed over several days or weeks, it is easier to correct what we do on the fly
On the contrary, people who are not very consistent, who do not organize their work in the long term or who leave everything until the last minute may run the risk of suffering from overload in their workplace, something that can affect their mental health and potentially develop cases. of anxiety or stress.
6. It allows us to organize and make better use of the day to dedicate time to others and leisure
Discipline also allows us to have more time to carry out other pleasant activities to occupy our free time, and facilitates family balance.
These types of activities allow us to disconnect and rest in our free hours, enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done, and also help us give free rein to our creativity and intellectual concerns. In other words, helps us disconnect ; On the other hand, those who feel that they are procrastinating and have a lot of accumulated work will be more likely to think about those responsibilities for a good part of the day, even if they are not working on them.
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