Self-Discipline is essentially the ability to resist temptation in the short-term in order to achieve more important long-term goals. Lack of self-discipline is the most significant barrier to change.

Being able to implement this discipline is key to ensuring success in all aspects of our lives. Discipline allows us to achieve our goals by keeping us focused and ignoring distractions. Self-discipline aligned with focus leads to any number of achievements from learning a new language, to starting a new career or achieving academic success. Why then do so many people, even successful people, battle to implement self-discipline to improve their health?

We know that people realise the need to improve their health and that they are motivated to change. This motivation does in fact tend to trigger a change. However in order to improve health and prevent disease these changes cannot be temporary, they should ideally be lifelong commitments that we practice.  Discipline can be tough, however a lack of discipline is the reason why so many people fail at improving their health.

The challenge lies in appreciating that discipline is a pattern of behaviour where, we choose to do what we know we should do as opposed to doing what we want to do. Discipline is a skill. It is a skill that we all have, we just need to practice discipline in order to become better at it and, ultimately derive pleasure from having mastered the art of self-discipline as well as the health benefits that accrue.

It is our day to day lifestyle choices that contribute towards poor health. Our eating habits, our exercise levels, our sleeping patterns, how often we drink alcohol, whether or not we smoke, how much water we drink; these are all things we do (or do not do) on a daily basis. These lifestyle habits are what we need to be motivated to improve and be disciplined with if we want to be healthier. We need to consistently keep up with healthy habits and reduce bad habits.  

Self-discipline correlates with positive life outcomes. It is a complete process that involves; personal awareness, desire, determination, recognition and reward. Once a behaviour is recognised and rewarded it gets repeated.

We need to appreciate that if we apply discipline to a task for long enough, that task becomes a habit and no longer requires discipline.

So how do we do this? These are some things to consider;

If this sounds daunting to you, perhaps appreciate the 80:20 rule. Discipline only needs to be practiced for 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time we can and should afford ourselves a reprieve. This is where recognition and reward come in. Two integral factors that in turn drive change and improve self-discipline.

Article Credit: Kerryn Wuth (Gibson) a registered dietitian in private practice in Durban, Umhlanga and Ballito.