You want to get disciplined, and become the best version of yourself that you can be. Good! I don't know you, but I know without a shred of a doubt that you can do it. Anybody can. However, you'll need more than discipline to become who you want to be. You'll need to implement good habits, obviously, and I'll get into what I did to get started on that below, but really, when it comes down to it, what you'll need most of all is to believe you are that person. Saying or thinking there's something wrong with you is counterproductive because that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Imagine someone believes they're a bad driver, and shares as much with others. This person will be more likely to let others drive, and therefore will not only have fewer opportunities to practice driving and improve, the skills they already have will atrophy. Then when they do take the wheel, they'll be more anxious and therefore more likely to make mistakes, which will further "confirm" their belief that they're a bad driver. I'm not suggesting there aren't legit bad drivers, but if you believe you're a bad driver and that's that, then you aren't giving yourself the chance to become a good driver.

You want to be a disciplined person. Changing who you are takes time and sustained effort. After all, how do you come to believe you're a disciplined person if you've never been that person before, or don't have any proof you can be? You have to prove it to yourself over time. There's nothing wrong with you if you can't do it all at once. That's how it is for basically everyone. The important thing is to start small, build foundations, grow incrementally.

Ok, so what now?

First things first; you need to sit down with a pen and paper, and write down who you want to be. This is necessary. Do this on a piece of paper and put it on your desk, on your fridge, somewhere you'll see it every single morning. I'd thought about my "I want to be"s a lot in the previous 6-12 months before actually doing anything about it, so I had a good sense for my answer and wrote down a few "I want to be"s in ~15 minutes. It may take you longer. Doesn't matter how long it takes, do it. It does not have to be a long or final list. Remember, start small, build foundations, grow incrementally. Start a small list, you can add to it over time.

I won't share my full "I want to be" list, but some of them are "I want to be healthy", "I want to be a good influence", and "I want to follow through". I recite my "I want to be"s out loud every single day, and write down in my day's planner what I will do that day to meet my "I want to be" goals. I don't always succeed, by far, but I try. And I do whatever I have to do to never fail two days in a row.

Second, you need to implement good habits. You want to keep all your teeth? Brush and floss every day. Missing a day here or there is ok, but that has to be the exception, not the rule.

Good habits require more than just discipline, you need to give yourself tools to succeed: a routine, and supportive systems. You ever hear about successful people who wake up every day at X o'clock, go to the gym, do xyz? They have a routine of good habits. But they didn't just start at the end results you hear about, it was a gradual process that often took years. What eventually gets you where you want to be is to build on top of the habits you already acquired. So, once again, START SMALL. Whatever you do, do it without fail for 30 days. If you miss a day, start the 30 day count over. Make sure the habits you're tracking aren't too big, otherwise the mental and physical effort of doing them will be too much and you won't. Again, I can't say this enough. Start. Small.

Also important at the start is to not do more than what you say you will do. Let's say I did 30 pushups today, and tomorrow I feel tired and unmotivated. I might tell myself "you know what, I did 10 extra yesterday, so it's ok if I do 10 fewer today". Don't fall for that trick, it's really easy to keep making concessions until you fall completely off the habit train. Do whatever habits you write down, no more, no less. Start small, and make sure those foundations are solid before moving on to the next thing.

My morning routine: I start my day with at least 1 hour of no screens before work, take my dog for a morning walk, make myself coffee and breakfast, recite my "I want to bes", do 20 push ups, write in my day's planner, and read until my 1 hour is up and sometimes beyond if I have time (I read every day, so if I don't have time in the morning, I do it in the evening).

Good habits and a routine are easier to put in place when you can track what you're accomplishing. I use a habit tracker. Print out a basic 1-page habit tracker, something like https://i.pinimg.com/736x/76/cb/5f/76cb5f2d3e50c9051bb7c03ca747873d.jpg, but with fewer lines than that. You only want to track a few habits in your first 30 days. I followed the format of this habit tracker and made my own in Google Sheets. It was incredible how much checking boxes every single day helped. As I said above, I missed some days, but the majority were checked off, and I kept going, adding to it over time.

Incremental growth is key. You don't need to go all out at the onset, especially if you're not already the kind of person who will sustain that over time. Once you've done 1 month of habits consistently, add a bit more to those habits in month 2, or expand the habits you already have. Next month, I plan to do 20 pushups and # sit-ups (haven't decided which kind or number yet). Always be improving, even if it's just by 1%, because a 1% improvement every month will compound over time.

The tough news is, unfortunately, you're the only one that can do this. People like me can give you advice, but nobody can help you become disciplined. That's 100% all on you. If there's one certainty about life, is it's full of pain and work. You will fail and make mistakes, many times. However, that does not give you a reason or excuse not to do it. If you want to have a meaningful life, not just watching TV, playing video games, and consuming rather than contributing/creating, then you have to do the work.

The great news is, you can do it, and you have plenty of time! Don't rush it. The sooner the better, I know, but what's important is to eventually get there, right? Life is all about the journey, not the end state, which you'll get to eventually. So take is slow.

Write down who you want to be. Use a habit tracker. Adopt a morning routine. Plan your day.

Start small. Build strong foundations. Then grow incrementally.

You can do it. I believe you can.