Discipline you either have it or you don’t. Most people reason this way. Disciplined people are masters at knowing that the statement above is not true.
In my mind, discipline is forced routine built on consistent habits, nothing else. You basically do something when you don’t feel like doing it. Thinking of discipline this way means it’s not some strict moral capacity only a few possess, but rather who you are. Who you become over time.
Why Self-Discipline Is an Identity, Not a Struggle
Ever seen swallow birds effortlessly flying happily? It seems so effortless, effective, and efficient. They look so natural because they are. That is what discipline feels like when you master the habits.
Birds fly because they have wings. Fish swim because they live in water. That’s who they are. It’s not necessarily what they do.
You and I, when we repeat certain habits, healthy eating, saving and investing money, we become those things. In financial habits, this could be religiously following a budget or perhaps investing a set amount, 25% of your income with or without a salary increase. Generosity, kindness, we basically become those characters.
Even refusing to increase your lifestyle inflation when all your friends upgrade their lifestyles is a form of financial discipline. Consistent habits of discipline become your everyday medicine, not something you rely on only when things fall apart.
Examples of self-discipline in daily life
Any parents here? When one raises a baby, you can’t be effective without routines and discipline. Sleeping time, for example, no negotiations, particularly when training a toddler. 7 p.m. means sleep time. It’s not about feelings.
Schools are experts in discipline. If you are a slow eater and break is finished, you can’t ask for extra time. Tough luck, you will finish your lunch at home. The school principal’s watch is not playing time. Since we gladly accept discipline from our teachers, parents and government, why shouldn’t we do the same for ourselves.
My friend, approach life this way most of the time and you almost guarantee yourself success and master discipline in disguise.
What nature teaches us about consistency and discipline
Even nature has certain patterns that repeat regardless, sunrise, sunset, seasons. No negotiations. Autumn means winter is coming. If you missed this year’s summer fun, you have to wait for the following year.
The military is a discipline school-like approach on steroids. I have never trained as one, but I have heard many stories of army folks. Day one trainees are way different from the end of training. They behave like veterans.
Mostly, what people admire as discipline is just consistent habits that are done relentlessly until they are hardwired in their minds, nothing else.
Why Motivation Fails and How to Build Self-Discipline
You see, discipline is not work or punishment, but patterns of healthy living as an adult. Motivation is good too, but it’s not enough to build true discipline.
In fact, external motivation from a motivational conference, self-help book, or dancing class at your gym is like fire built from maize stalks. When I was young, we used to play with fire built from dried maize stalks. The fire lights quickly, burns fast, and dies fast too.
That’s external motivation. Relying on this form of energy to build discipline is often futile and ineffective.
You get fired up on January 1st, perhaps from the celebration fireworks. It’s new year, new me. How often do we hear people saying this? And it fades off by the end of February.
Building Internal Discipline for Long-Term Success
In contrast, when baking muddy bricks, what we grew up calling an oven, not your fancy appliance you bought at Takealot, but bricks stacked together and heated mainly by raw green logs, not dry ones, in order to burn and bake bricks for days. This is discipline fire in the African context.
True discipline is internal. It’s fire inside your soul.
It’s the same energy marathon runners use. Basically, you put one foot in front of the other. Yes, it’s painful at times, but the fire inside is hotter than the sore legs.
You ask yourself, how does one run 56 km or 90 km? That’s the kind of internal energy, not the motivation war cry before the race.
Can Discipline Be Learned? How to Build Self-Control
Discipline is hard, it’s a fact. If it was easy, everyone would be. It is indeed work at times, but it can be nurtured and self-taught. There is often a cost to discipline too, no free lunches here.
Every successful endeavour in life is simply unattainable without discipline. If you need the easy way out, forget it, you will never build this muscle.
It’s freeing, though, to realise that you don’t need to build this muscle in a day, but every day of exercise counts. It’s the quality of your systems and strategies, and the power of repetition, that counts.
A Real-Life Example of Self-Discipline
On a personal level, my 8-year-old son resembles some traits of discipline I admire. This young dude gets up at 5:20 every school day. As soon as the alarm rings, I hear him singing in the shower.
Early on, he used to press the snooze button. I challenged him that alarm means getting up, no second option. Night is already gone. If you need to sleep in, tough luck, you have to wait for tomorrow.
He gets it. He doesn’t complain or moan like before, but rejoices in routine. Now that’s discipline well executed.
Was he always like that? No. Was it easy? A big no too.
The #1 Rule of self-discipline: Do it anyway
Sometimes you might feel like you don’t want to. That’s not the point, do it anyway. No one feels like doing hard things.
This is the most important muscle you can build, better than core strength training. Discipline is basically refusing to stop.
The true meaning of self-discipline
Just a quick Latin lesson. The word “discipline” is rooted in the Latin word discipulus, meaning “pupil” or “student,” and discere, meaning “to learn.” It originates from disciplina, which refers to instruction, teaching, and training, highlighting the idea of learning rather than punishment as most would understand discipline to be.
This means discipline can be learned, taught, and worked on.
Self-discipline is a skill you can learn
Don’t let your feelings lie to you that you are not disciplined. You can teach yourself this essential life skill in all areas of your life.
So, if discipline is learning, when you fail at something today, you don’t just give up. Instead, you recognise that you are still learning to improve and be better. You simply learn and move on.
This is the mindset that ensures and guarantees your success in personal finance or life in general.
How to Build Self-Discipline Through Repetition
Imagine the first day you got behind the wheel to learn to drive a car. Maybe it was easy if you grew up with cars in your family.
I am a first-generation driver; it was like learning a foreign language. After all, I was used to walking.
If I had given up and not persisted, I could have never learned the driving language.
This is the simplest way to mould yourself into a disciplined individual.
No magic. No special powers needed.
Just a willingness to learn, repeat, and learn more, again and again.
Start small, save and invest R500 this month.
Go to bed at the same time this week and wake up at the same time.
Rinse and repeat these two habits. There you have it.
You are now a disciplined person. If you were wondering how to build self-discipline, it starts by doing one thing again and again.
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