All too often, myself included, we make goals for ourselves and get really motivated for the first few weeks and then after a while the motivation drops off and we start to loose the momentum. This is usually the point in the goal journey when we start to give up because we don't feel motivated anymore but the truth is that motivation doesn't help you reach your goal in the long run. The trait that will help you reach your goal is being disciplined. Therefore I have put together 4 tips to help you build a disciplined mindset that will help you achieve your goals more than ever before.
Tip 1: Know Your Weaknesses
In order to build discipline you need to know what your weaknesses are. We all have weaknesses so this is an opportunity to be honest with ourselves and learn what is stopping us from achieving your goals. Now that winter is on its way, is the thought of getting up in the morning from a warm bed stopping you? Perhaps you find it hard to prioritise yourself and wellbeing because work gets in the way? Maybe you schedule in a workout but the time you had scheduled it for has passed meaning you don't do it at all?
Whatever your weaknesses are and excuses for not exercising, write them down and assess how you can improve on these weaknesses. Some examples I have listed below:
- Put the heating on the night before your run so you are still getting up from bed in a warm room
- Go for a run in the morning before work so you can't make an excuse for yourself
- Learn to be flexible with your schedule and accept that something can change
Tip 2: Have a Clear Plan
Having a clear plan that you can follow is super useful when it comes to keeping a disciplined mindset. The reason being is that you can improve and develop yourself by sticking to a clear plan and track your progress throughout. If you are a keen to do list ticker then breaking down your overarching plan to daily to do's is a good tactic as it allows you to feel accomplished daily as well as throughout your journey.
If you're looking for ideas on how to plan your exercise routine then click the link here
Tip 3: Hold Yourself Accountable
By holding yourself accountable you are accepting responsibility and a sense of expectation to others that you will complete your goal. You can hold yourself accountable independently by sticking to a plan, signing up to a sporting event or you can make yourself accountable through others by raising money for your sporting event, letting other people know your goals so you can feel motivated, setting up a social media page to track your progress and feel involved with others.
Tip 4: Focus on the End Goal
No doubt there will be moments when your mind is tempted to not workout one day or give in to your weaknesses but reminding yourself of your end goal is important and powerful as it will change your perceptive to work towards it. Why not set up a mood board with your end goal displayed on it so you can constantly remind yourself of the hard work you are doing to reach your final goal. Another tool that might help you is visualisation. Sitting down daily or weekly to visualise your goals and how you will feel once achieving them and when you will achieve them is so powerful as you are mentally painting that day into your future.
Overall and to conclude this post, if you are setting yourself a fitness goal or any goal in fact, use it as an opportunity to see how mentally strong you are or can be. Use goal setting and achieving as a challenge to yourself to not only prove to others that you can achieve your goals but more importantly to yourself.
Let me know in the comments what goals you have in place and how you will practice discipline.
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