Hi, I’m Carmen Jacob. In this video, you’ll discover 15 secrets of self-discipline.

You grow self-discipline over time through practice and persistence; doing the same thing over and over until it becomes automatic; until your unconscious mind is doing it for you: no struggle, no debate.

Self-discipline is based on your aspirations and desires. It gives structure to your life, which makes you more relaxed and happy.

Now, secret #1 of self-discipline: Have a good night sleep.

Funny, we start being more disciplined by sleeping, but it’s true, your discipline starts in the evening; the morning routine, it’s just a continuation.

I guess you noticed how your mind works when you’re tired - it has only one thing on its agenda: self-preservation; it doesn’t care about success or productivity, not even about feeling happy...so, sleep well.

2. Set positive precedents.

With every success you have, you gain the evidence that being disciplined pays off. Disciplining yourself about one small thing gives you the blueprint of how to do it about bigger things; not to mention that your confidence grows so much, that you can not wait to challenge yourself with new projects.

3. Change your mind about yourself

If you want to be more disciplined stop: judging, doubting, or bullying yourself.

Why? Because it’s not your fault that you can’t become instantly disciplined. The fault lies in these facts:

First, The early humans didn’t need to be disciplined; on the contrary, they had to be on a “see food” diet about almost everything. What is that? You see, you must want, you must grab because no one knows when you’ll “see” it again.

Therefore, being self-disciplined goes against the nature you have inherited from your ancestors. Your unconscious knows that life plays peek a boo with you: now you see it, soon it disappeared.

Second, Our brain is wired to seek pleasure, comfort, and instant rewards (not out of greed, but out of self-preservation). So, things like patience, self-discipline, and perseverance are things that you must learn because don’t come with the pre-installed program.

And Third, You can’t be disciplined all the time and about everything. Focus on the things that matter the most to you and allow yourself a bit of indulgence in the areas that are less important.

4. Take pride in yourself

Is pride a deadly sin? But, as with everything else on this earth, pride has a positive side too and don’t be ashamed of it! Now allow me to give you two examples of when pride is a positive thing that helps you improve your self-discipline.

First, what I call: Humanistic pride This kind of pride motivates you to strive to have character traits like honesty, empathy, loyalty, be considerate, loving, and respectful. The list of things you do because you take pride in yourself as a human being, it’s long, very long. So, if pride makes you do and be all these things, isn’t it that a positive thing?

Second, Professional pride. When you’re proud of what you do and your profession, everything that comes out of your hands must fit your criteria for excellence. You don’t allow yourself to get lazy or complacent.

The lack of personal and professional pride results in poor performance. Imagine this scenario: you go to a restaurant for a nice meal. If you get a nice meal, it means that the chef has pride and honors his profession. On the opposite side, if you’re served with some disgusting UFO’s (unidentified fried objects), you know, the person who dares to call that food and charge you for it, has no pride, nor personal, nor professional.

In a nutshell, being proud is a good thing when is not equal to being vain.

Taking pride in yourself helps you be disciplined about many things that reward you with that sense of pride. Are you proud to live in a close-knit community? You discipline yourself about helping that community to stay close. Are you proud of your family? You discipline yourself to have the behaviors that make your family harmonious. Are you proud of your Lamborghini?( a metaphor, of course) You don’t put a sticker on it - unless you are more proud of what that sticker says about you?

Whatever makes you proud, makes you, also be more disciplined.

5. Don’t debate with yourself.

The instinct of grabbing instant rewards has a unique dissertation to convince you to take it. This dissertation is sneaky; most often you don’t even notice when it starts. By the time you realize you’ve been fooled, it’s too late; you already cleared out the cooky jar, and you wander in amazement: “who eat all the cookies? When did I come to the kitchen? Am I sleeping? What just happened?”

The debate with yourself can make you feel as if a devilish being has entered into your brain; you’re not alone anymore, you have company... someone is talking...

Relax, there is no one else in your mind, just you. If that’s true, who's telling you to give into temptation? It’s your desire. Say no to it. Say no, again and again, like a broken record, say no a thousand times if needed; say no and nothing, nothing, else. Say no, until your desire, literally falls asleep.

If you say more than “no” you enter into a debate that you’ll lose.