The Psychological Reason You Lack Self-Discipline

Some of us run on discipline, other of us run on obsession

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I like to believe that I can be disciplined. I draw up sophisticated to-do lists, habit charts and resolutions boards. I try to make new habits, and for a few days, it works. I do my daily work out, I write my thousand words and read up on current affairs, I brush my hair with 100 strokes and apply night cream and day cream and mid-afternoon to early dusk cream. For a few days, I really think that I have managed to turn things around, that I have become a self-disciplined person. And then it all falls apart — something comes up, I’ll miss a day, and then another, and then I’ll just let the habits slide.

I’m terrible at self-discipline. It’s not because I’m lazy or not motivated enough to do things, it just appears that my brain is better at working by obsession than by routine. I can do things intensely, but I can’t seem to set up healthy habits to keep the ball rolling. It’s annoying, because, although I get stuff done through my obsessions, it makes long term projects harder, and makes me yo-yo on things like healthy eating, exercise and sleep.

A lot of people feel they lack discipline. In the 2011 Stress in America Survey, 27 per cent of people said that lack of willpower was the biggest barrier to making healthy lifestyle changes.

Why is self-discipline so hard to obtain?

The answer I have found is that self-discipline may not actually be the thing you are missing. It could be one of the following things instead :

• Lack of a clear goal

When the thing you are actually working towards is vague and murky, it makes it hard to keep up with good habits. There is no instant gratification for many of the changes we’d like to make to our lives, you often need to give a lot of time before you can reap the rewards of your efforts. So you need to constantly bear in mind what you are doing this for. Two methods that are often given to do this are creating a vision board, with images of what you are working towards, whether it is a marathon or a book deal. Another is visualisation exercises: project yourself into the future you want for yourself. Before doing either of these…