10 Days to Lifetime

Self- Discipline

By Adam Rockman

Copyright 2016 By Adam Rockman – all rights reserved.

This document aims to provide reliable information in regards to the topics covered.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic
means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this
document is not allowed without written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction
What is your Motivation?
Surround yourself with disciplined inspiration
Developing your Bed Time Routine
Develop your Morning Routines
Possible morning routine activities:
So how do you want to start your day?
Maximizing Your Potential
Integrate New Habits
Self-Control
Motivation
Don’t Rely on Motivation
Destroying Self-Doubt
Improving your Focus
Extra help Resolving Procrastination
Build a Positive Mindset
Self-Discipline Boosting Exercises
Time Management Tips
10 Days to lifetime Discipline
Conclusion
Introduction
Discipline is the ability to willingly do what needs to be done with the highest quality of execution.
This may seem difficult if you have unfortunately developed a habit of laziness or resistance.
However, discipline can be built. And fortunately for you, the foundations of solid discipline can be
built in a short period of time given the proper conditions.
Optimal conditions may depend on you and your willingness to apply the excellent advice in this
book.
Soldiers are often considered the most disciplined people in the world. They have been and have
needed to be throughout history.
Over 2000 years ago Spartan men only had the option of soldier as profession and trained from the
time they were 7 years old. Discipline was their life. You may not have the benefit of a lifetime of
discipline, but people can change. If you joined some military organization of the world they would
likely put you through a few weeks basic training and then another few weeks of specialized training
and at the end of this program you would likely come out a much more disciplined person.
After a few days of waking up at 5:00 every morning, making your bed, quickly taking care of your
personal hygiene before completing the morning’s physical exercise and then doing very similar
things the rest of the day. You would eat at the same time, exercise at the same time and sleep at the
same time. What’s even more helpful is every time you mess up and don’t exercise discipline, you’ll
have a drill sergeant yelling at you to get your act together.
I’m not suggesting you join the military to deal with your self-discipline issues. Military training is
effective for building discipline for lots of reasons; a regular routine, social support from other
people following the same routine as you, intimidating superiors encouraging you to get your act
together, and other motivations to always be in top physical and mental condition.
Well, you’ll have to be your own drill instructor, whatever you envision that to be.
In fact you already are. Imagine your goals to be the destination you want to take your troops to. Now
as we know, life is going to throw obstacles and crap at you to throw you off your path. When you add
to this annoyance the fact you haven’t yet cultivated discipline it’s like leading undisciplined,
untrained soldiers into battle against the most highly trained Special Forces army of super assassins,
and a pack of hidden ninjas. On the path to your goals your troops will be predictably slaughtered.
Now maybe you don’t like this military analogy. But it’s logical and accurately describes how many
people approach discipline. They have goals that require discipline to achieve, but they don’t have
the support and encouragement to develop that discipline.
Social pressure is powerful, when you are with a group of people who are also developing their self-
discipline, and you get constant reminders of how disciplined you should be you are more likely to do
what needs to be done.
However that social pressure is not necessary to develop your self-discipline. As just mentioned, you
can be your own drill instructor. If you want, imagine the ideal version of yourself from the future
standing over you every morning, this man has accomplished everything you could ever dream of
accomplishing and even more. And every morning he’s yelling at you: “Hey! How the hell are you
still in bed! Get out and enjoy life and accomplish something!!” You don’t need to imagine it in an
insulting self-hating manner. This should be purely positive encouragement.
I’m writing this book because for most of my life there have been periods where I have been
extremely motivated to be successful, I desperately wanted to test my physical and mental limits,
learn new skills and see how amazing a person I actually am. I wanted to learn to play guitar. I
wanted to learn new languages. I wanted to become financially independent. I wanted to improve my
memory. I wanted to work out every day. I wanted to do a lot.
But it was difficult to devote enough time to the things I was passionate about. I slept too much.
Sometimes 10 or even more hours a night. Even when I used an alarm to wake up early sometimes I
just couldn’t get myself to get out of bed.
And there were a few other habits I had to change to develop my self-discipline as well. I tried many
methods, especially over the course of one year I was extremely motivated to make enough money to
quit my part time job and spend my time on things I actually care about.
I gave myself a deadline, 10 days to discipline. I marked the exact 10 dates down on a paper with a
plan for each day. I essentially designed my own boot camp to train myself.
I held myself accountable for every step of the process. I decided that for these 10 days I will do
exactly as planned, no matter how I feel. The first 2 days I had to “force” myself to get out of bed
early, do 100 pushups and then continue on with my new morning routine.
Within a few days this became my normal routine and I wouldn’t say I was forcing myself to do
anything. I was happy with my new routine and I’m sorry for sounding like an infomercial but it did
change my life.
This process worked for me, and maybe it can help you too. Using the advice in this book you can
gradually introduce new habits into your daily routine. It may be more beneficial to you if you have a
lot of lazy habits.
I kept track of what habits were the most difficult to change and rewarded myself when I successfully
completed the new habits and devised ways to encourage myself to avoid skipping these new habits.
When I do this I remain completely conscious of my cravings to go back to old routines and use some
techniques to handle those temptations.
Eventually I started suggesting this path to discipline in a 10 day plan to students of mine who I help
with various self-improvement issues.
Amazingly, most of them successfully implemented new habits, and turned their lives around after a
few days of this training.
It can be tough to hold yourself accountable if you aren’t used to it. But that is exactly what you need
to do.
You may have read that when you try to introduce numerous habits simultaneously it can often be too
much for many people to handle and they easily crumble under all the pressure and return to old
habits. Such as a fat guy suddenly eating healthy, going to the gym for 2 hours a day, practicing Tai Chi
every day for a week. Studies have apparently shown that such a sudden change in routine is often
counterproductive to weight loss progress and the fat guy is likely to revert back to old habits. The
alternative is apparently to introduce one or two key habits that create a domino effect that changes
your life. Such as paying attention to what you eat. You might realize you pig out on cookies and junk
food when you are stressed. So instead you keep healthy snacks around and start eating better. As a
result you feel better and eventually start going to the gym a few days a week. At least that’s what the
theory says based on a few previously lazy people who found success with this method.
If you want to choose just one habit that could easily change your life, I recommend to start going to
bed at a consistent time every night. By doing that you should be able to start waking up at a
consistent time every day as your body adjusts to your sleeping schedule. You can then start waking
up early. Get some sunshine, do some exercise and eat a healthy breakfast.
If you really want to get the most out of the 10 day period this book illustrates then you should be
willing to try the advice and make the most of this period.
 What is your Motivation?

Take a moment to think about why you want self-discipline. You are reading this book so you
probably have your reasons. It’s important to keep your goals in mind.
Some people might want the discipline to work hard and save money for the future or for an exciting
vacation.
Some people might want to be able to go to the gym every day.
Whatever your reason keeping your goals in mind will help you in overcoming the challenges this
book gives you on your path of developing self-discipline.
On top of the plan you will write to develop discipline please write down your goals.
Make them as detailed as possible. Also please explain to yourself how developing discipline will
assure you conquer all of them.
 Surround yourself with disciplined inspiration

How easily would a fat person lose weight if they spent every day with other overweight people
constantly engaging in unhealthy habits? If they are cool and get their confidence internally and aren’t
susceptible to external influences maybe they can make progress in spite of being surrounded by
uninspiring people with minimal or no goals. But most people seem to be the average of people they
hang out with. Your friends are often a reflection of your own habits.
When you surround yourself with other people who are already highly skilled and disciplined it
becomes a very positive influence on your own behavior.
When you are around people with similar aspirations to yours it becomes natural to follow their
behavior. You will have someone to compare yourself to and live up to. If you are competitive you
can enjoy some friendly competitions with your new found teammates to see who can build the most
muscle, lift the most weight, or accomplish the most in whatever endeavor. This can be an excellent
source of motivation.
When you first start out it can feel good when you realizing you are better than your friends.
However, it is better to eventually realize you should be improving yourself for you.
You can go to social events where people you look up to go. Go learn from them and spend time with
them. Learn about how they are able to perform so well. When you realize what is missing from your
life make an effort to include it in your own routine.
You can also find a quality online forum with advice about how to improve in some area of your life.
If you have questions, making friends with in these groups can be helpful.
Although, personally I never waste much of my valuable time posting on forums, or in online groups, I
can see how some people have gotten a lot out of these online support groups. In some self-
improvement related forums you are able to make a page/post recording your progress and other
members can read it and give your advice and encouragement. You might find that helpful, so I offer it
as a suggestion.
Reading books such as this one is of course also helpful, but if you really make an effort to change
and find people to inspire you to be even more disciplined and ambitious, you shouldn’t need to read
a dozen books about discipline. There aren’t many secrets to it. You just do it until it becomes part of
your lifestyle.
Ideally it will be helpful to find a friend who is motivated to develop his own self-discipline just like
you. You can try the 10 days to discipline challenge together if you want. If you know someone who is
struggling with discipline related issues it might also be very inspiring to them to see the immense
changes you make in your life over such a short period of time and this may also encourage them to
attempt the challenges you have overcome.
If you have a friend who actually cares about your progress they will hold you accountable for
everything you say you will do. They won’t let you give in to temptation and sleep an extra 3 hours
more than you even need. They won’t let you skip a day at the gym. Have high standards for each
other, and especially for yourself. Ruthlessly critique your weaknesses and make a commitment to
getting your behavior right the next time you are tempted to give up on your progress.
Before I started going to the gym, I had no idea what to do in there. But luckily a couple of friends
went with me and gave me a lot of valuable advice and encouragement.
When you have the support of other people with goals comparable to your own you increase your
motivation to accomplish a lot. But I do need to point out that your priority should be your own
opinion of yourself. Don’t rely on your friends to push you. They might occasionally get a little lazy.
Or maybe they stop pushing you to achieve because they see it as an excuse to be lazy too. Encourage
them. If they want to give up, it’s their choice. But it has nothing to do with your own efforts to
maximize what you get out of life.
 Developing your Bed Time Routine

What time do you go to bed? If you usually go to bed about the same time each night then good for
you. You have probably developed this habit over a lifetime and probably take for granted how
essential it is to your health.
However many people go to bed at inconsistent times. They might be addicted to TV or the internet.
Even though they are starting to feel tired, at 1 AM they are still browsing time wasting videos on
YouTube or some other meaningless content because it gives them pleasurable feelings they have
become habituated too.
I used to be like that too. I always wanted to go to bed early, but there were always books I wanted to
read, and TV series I wanted to watch online. How many times have you said to yourself, “just one
more episode” or “just one more page” and then find yourself staying up all night and then spend the
next day or two suffering from a sleep deprivation headache? Was it worth it?
In the moment you might be able to convince yourself it is worth it. But the truth is, these kinds of
poor decisions are symptoms of allowing your emotions to control your life.
When you play a video game, read an engaging book, watch a great TV series, or do pretty much
anything on the internet, you usually are getting a boost of dopamine as a result of interpreting this
activity to be pleasurable.
To keep that feeling you play a few more hours, read a few more pages and stay up several hours later
than you should just because you associate pleasurable feelings with these actions.
So is it you controlling your actions, or is it the emotions, dopamine, and your perception of reality
that is controlling you?
If you often find yourself staying up late doing activities like this, then you more likely are controlled
by your emotional reactions to the world.
Emotional control is something we will discuss much more in depth later.
The basic way to start changing this bad habit is first to realize how much of a problem it really is.
And I’m sure for many people you have already figured out staying up late reading books and
watching mildly humorous videos is detrimental to your health and the gains of a good night sleep far
outweigh the instant gratification you get out of this kind of activity.
No matter how much you logically agree with that fact, you still have to retrain yourself to go to bed
on time as you have already trained yourself to follow dopamine hits and pleasurable experiences no
matter how damaging they can be to your health and life.
Rationally you might keep thinking to yourself, “I should get some sleep soon,” but the emotional
mind overrides the rational mind and says, “No this is more pleasurable than sleeping, so this is what
we will do!”
And with this interpretation, you get the reward of a dopamine hit that becomes reinforced every time
you do this sort of thing and eventually it becomes an unconscious habit.
To retrain yourself, you can try something similar to the method we have suggested for waking up
early. Reward yourself.
Let’s say you want to start waking up at 8 AM and going to bed at 11:30.
At 11:00 you could start your bedtime routine. Shut off the computer, TV and any distracting devices.
Dim the lights. Brush your teeth and do any other preparations you should be doing before bed.

Some other options:

Listen to several relaxing songs or acoustic music
Meditate
Write down 3 things about the day you are thankful for
Write down your goals for the next day
Short exercise routine
Attack a punching bag for a few minutes
Draw a picture while listening to the relaxing music of your choice
Practice guitar or some other skill you are passionate about.
Take a bath
Prepare breakfast for tomorrow
Stretch
Yoga
It doesn’t need to be complicated of course. Just choose a few things to do before going to
bed each night.
We of course have the concept of a bedtime, and for many people that just means jumping into
bed. But if their conscious mind isn’t ready for sleep they may suffer from insomnia not be
able to rest no matter how exhausted they actually feel.
We should also have a preparation for bedtime time. It should be at least half an hour before
you intend to go to sleep. As this allows for some extra relaxation time to
prepare you for sleep if you complete all the activities in your routine.
By choosing to do a few pleasurable, relaxing activities before bed, you begin to associate
these activities with going to sleep. Your mind becomes used to this and you even begin to
enjoy the process of doing this routine and the most important reward is quality sleep.

The most challenging part will be the first time you try your new bed time routine. You are
used to staying up late and wasting time, but by devoting a few minutes to several relaxing
activities you will eventually associate your new regular bedtime with relaxation.

Here is a basic bedtime routine:

At 11:00 I turn off or ignore all electronic devices. This was of course challenging at first
as I was addicted to them and experienced withdrawal from not doing activities I previously
found enjoyable. However, the rest of my routine quickly replaced this addiction within 2
weeks.
I turn on some relaxing music. I have one song I play only when I’m getting ready for bed as
I want to associate it with going to sleep.
A few pushups and stretching. I love to exercise, but this isn’t anything like an intense work
out. I expend just enough energy to associate positive feelings with getting ready for bed. I
find stretching really helps to relieve tension too.
I write down my goals for the next day. I find this really helps with motivation for waking
up the next day. I know what I expect of myself and feel great when I actually accomplish
these goals.
Meditation. Meditation is one of the best things you can do to improve your life. I usually
meditate for at least 10 minutes before going to bed. It can be helpful to meditate in the dark
as you are about to go to sleep any way. I have also noticed that for me meditating for an hour
or even more before bed can leave me feeling very well rested the next day. So please
experiment with a meditation routine as it can be very beneficial. You can also find some
interesting guided meditations on YouTube that will make the process even more enjoyable
than just silently listening to your thoughts.
I’m usually ready for bed within half an hour of starting this routine. My mind and body are
relaxed and I usually sleep well and wake up motivated for the next day.

Design your bedtime routine

You now have all the tools you need to be able to enjoy getting ready for bed at a consistent
time each night. This chapter gave you a few suggestions of what to include in your bedtime
routine, but obviously you can add whatever you want to it. Maybe you can relax by
practicing guitar for 30 minutes a night. Do whatever you want as long as you can associate it
with getting ready for rest.
Now, write down your new bedtime routine. Be sure to include the time you intend to start
this routine and the time you intend to be in bed with the lights out ready to enjoy some sleep.
Put this routine near where you sleep. Start this new habit as soon as you can.
If you decided not to write this routine down and put it somewhere to remind you of it every
day than we already know you have decided to fail. Good luck.
Develop your Morning Routines

Your morning routine is just as important as your bed time routine. It is your first reward for getting
out of bed in the morning and getting ready to enjoy conquering the world.
As we mentioned before, waking up to responsibilities you hate and then sleeping a few more hours
to numb what you perceive as a painful unfulfilled existence is not the way to love waking up early
every morning. This kind of interpretation of your life will only make you hate mornings and have a
pessimistic outlook all day.
This book isn’t about how to change your life into something you are proud of, but I encourage you to
figure out how to do so as feeling tired all day is only a symptom, it is not the disease.
The least you can do is focus on the positive things in your life. Think about the things you have to
look forward to.
If you have nothing to look forward to, then that is one of your biggest obstacles to feeling full of
energy and life every day.
If you have no reason to feel energetic try to find some motivation. Find something to look forward to
each day.
Waking up at the time you desire starts with your first reward of the day. As we talked about before,
this can be piece of chocolate, an exercise routine, reading a book, or anything you find enjoyable.
If you don’t look forward to starting your day you build a habit of resisting reality. But when you find
reasons to enjoy starting your day you are less likely to resist and more likely to actually like doing
whatever it is you need to do throughout the day.
After this there are many things you can add to your morning routine to start the day and challenge
your mind depending on what your goals are.
 Possible morning routine activities:

Write down your dreams

When I started doing this I immediately started having lots of very vivid, colorful dreams. It’s
really amazing. You dream several hours every night, yet it’s difficult to remember them for
several reasons related to the chemistry of the brain during sleep. You can however train
yourself to remember your dreams by telling yourself to remember them before sleep and
writing them down in the morning.

Memory Practice

There is no such thing as a poor memory. Only trained memory and untrained memory. You
can train yourself to remember anything. It just takes practice.
You can find out how to memorize a list of 20 words in order in under one minute here: …. I
won’t go into detail about how to do this in this book but if you are interested in improving
your memory I found this book to be very helpful. It includes some helpful tricks and
exercises you can use to memorize anything. I do at least one daily and I am very satisfied
with the improvements I’ve seen.
I find it kind of strange we aren’t taught how to use many of the most effective memory
strategies our brains are capable of. The human mind has so much potential.
By spending a few minutes practicing every day you can build connections in your brain that
improve your mental health, and prevent the physical decay of a mind that goes unused.
A great app I found is called Einstein HD. It trains your mind in logic, calculation, visual
skills, and memory. It allows you to take short daily tests in these areas so that you can track
your progress over time. I really enjoy including this daily test in my morning routine so I can
start my day with a mental challenge.

Riddles and Math problems

Starting your day by giving your mind a challenge will make you smarter. How often do you
face new challenges every day? Most people get stuck in a routine and encounter the same
challenges often. By giving your mind new stimulus daily your mind will get used to tackling
new challenges and when you do actually encounter some new challenge in your daily life you
will be more prepared to think of a solution. It also won’t stress you out as much. The best
book on these kinds of mind puzzles is… It has hundreds of great puzzles and I usually do one
a day.

Gym and exercise

As we’ve already discussed, exercise is an excellent way of associating positive emotions to

activities. Try to get yourself to go straight to the gym a few consecutive days in a week
immediately after waking up and see how your sleeping habits change as a result.
One guy I know wakes up at 5 AM every morning and is outside jogging within 15 minutes
every day.

Accomplish the most important task

Poor habits keep us procrastinating. If you are always putting off the important tasks, it will
increase your stress as you constantly find excuses to do something else as you are reminded
of what you should be doing. By knocking out the most important/difficult task of the day first
and as quickly as possible you will get that addicting feeling of accomplishment that
procrastination pulls away from you. By getting something important done in your morning
you are setting yourself up for an awesome day because you have already made the decision
to start the day with success.

Cold shower

Showering in cold water increases awareness, improves the immune system, and fights
depression.

I highly recommend cold showers.

It might seem like a painful experience, but the truth is most people take the luxury of hot
showers for granted. Cold water has many health benefits, especially for your psychology as
you can train yourself to overcome stimuli you previously interpreted as uncomfortable. It
helps you face problems.

Oh is it a cold winter day? Well that’s great. You can be even twice the badass because you
are overcoming an even more uncomfortable challenge.
It’s only about 5 minutes, and after that you can spend a few quality moments next to a heater
if you really need to.

Don’t dismiss this without trying it.

If you can commit to 30 consecutive days of cold showering I guarantee you will see some
interesting changes in how you feel, and how you react to events you previously thought were
annoying.

Practice a musical instrument

Draw a picture
Prepare all your meals for the day
Test yourself on foreign language vocabulary
 So how do you want to start your day?

Write down your bed time routine, and your morning routing on a piece of paper and post it
somewhere near the place you sleep.
Ensure you can easily see it when you are preparing for sleep and when you wake up in the morning.
You won’t have any excuses to forget these routines.
Don’t beat yourself up if occasionally you aren’t able to follow through on your routines. It takes time
to build habits, and just make a better effort the next night.
My favorite morning routine is to wake up at about 6 AM, write down my dreams, try my luck at a
mind puzzle, go to the gym for an intense workout, and then come home to a cold shower.
This has been very challenging, but I’ve made it my routine. You can do it too.
Don’t listen to your excuses.
And I’m sure you’ll have excuses. I find it very peculiar that there are so many excellent self-help
books out there with life changing suggestions, yet people don’t try those ideas out. Is it because of
laziness? Of course in some ways it is. But more accurately it is because people are afraid of
breaking out of their comfort zone.
People generally do the same things every day. Eat the same food. Go to the same places. And
frighteningly, think the same thoughts.
There is so much fear in trying something new. No matter how effective some new idea is proven to
be. And that is just the first challenge.
The next problem is that even when you make a whole hearted effort to break free of that comfort zone
with the intent of changing your life you can still end up being pulled back into old habits. This is
especially true in the beginning stages of breaking an old habit and building a new one.
Why wouldn’t you make a decision for yourself what time you go to bed and wake up in the morning?
Why wouldn’t you make a decision for yourself about things that can change your life? The decisions
are always yours to make.
Maintaining a bedtime and morning routine will set you up for a day of disciplined accomplishment.
But the activities you pack into your day depend on all the habits and attitudes you’ve already
accumulated.
If you want to become your ideal self in every area, developing discipline is essential. You may need
to change your whole life and obliterate a lot of unnecessary addictions. Do this by living each day as
close to perfection as possible.
How much of your public behavior is just a façade to hide your more undisciplined traits? I don’t
want to insult you, I just hope you take a moment to be introspective about this. Do you dress well
when you need to go to work, but stay home without showering or changing clothes for a few days
because you have no one to impress?
You never need to impress anyone. Discipline shouldn’t be some mask you reluctantly put on to avoid
being disowned by society.
Discipline should be maintained in both public and private life. It is a way of living.
 Maximizing Your Potential

You probably have no idea how much potential you actually possess. You probably don’t know to
what capacity you could actually impact the world if you only tried.
Look at the people around you. What do they spend a majority of their time doing? Watching TV?
Playing games on their phones? How much of their valuable time is wasted on unnecessary
addictions? Now imagine if instead, they used that time to cultivate themselves and provide
something valuable to the world. They could definitely do something noteworthy. And so could you.
Unconsciously wasting your time makes you a slave to the biological process of addiction. Have you
ever played some game and immediately couldn’t stop yourself from playing a little every day?
Well that’s because you get a hit of dopamine and other neurotransmitters every time you perceive
yourself getting some kind of victory within the game.
Most phone and Facebook games are designed to take advantage of this. It’s disgusting. A lot of the
time these games aren’t even fun! But because people get addicted, they are willing to waste time and
money on them. I’ve been a victim of this myself a few times, but I always eventually convince myself
to stop for a week, and then just never feel the need to play it again. So I recommend you try the same
strategy.
Perhaps you’ve experienced something similar when you take a trip somewhere and don’t have
access to all the things and devices involved in your normal routine. When you come back you don’t
feel as inclined to watch TV as much as you did before (or whatever habit you had) but it is still easy
to fall back into old habits if you begin rewarding yourself for them again.
Different people will have varying degrees of success at kicking old habits and addictions.
Some people are more likely to become addicted to substances, and activities than others.
People who rely on their addictions for emotional and psychological support are also more likely to
go through some painful withdrawal symptoms.
Define your goals

Write down exactly what you want to achieve and every day do something to move you closer to these
goals.
Define how you will know you have achieved these goals.
There are multiple areas of your life you can assign goals to. Think carefully about how you envision
your ideal self.
You can create goals for any area or skill you wish to develop of course, however we will be
discussing the following core areas to focus on:
Physical
Attitude
Financial
Social
Consciousness
These aspects affect your entire life. What is your ideal health situation? How physically strong do
you want to be? What exactly do you want in each of these areas of your life?
Everybody has different goals. But I recommend you have high standards. You probably have some
goals in mind, but it is essential to write them down. Not only that, but record the date you write them
down, and the date by which you expect to achieve them.
You have so much more potential than you even know. So how could you not have ridiculously high
standards for what you want out of life? No matter how challenging you think it will be, move
towards those goals and maximize your potential.
Physical
Your physique is usually an accurate indicator of your level of self-discipline.
I don’t mean to imply all fat people are lazy slobs with no self-control over what they eat and do with
their body, but part of self-discipline is being mindful of what you eat.
Do you really need an extra slice of cake? Do you really need seven seconds of pleasurable taste in
your mouth if the consequence is a lifetime of unhealthy fat clogging your arteries and slowing down
your body?
Fresh vegetables and protein can taste good too. And even if it isn’t as sweet and appetizing as the
sugary processed foods many people seem to be addicted to, at least the healthier options give you
more energy.
Make time in your schedule for working out. If there is no gym around you, look up some physical
exercise you can do wherever you are.
Attitude
If you don’t control your emotions, you allow them to control you. Negative emotions have been a
necessity to evolution. In fact they are an ingenious trick to convince us to avoid stimuli that could kill
us and move toward things that could have survival benefits.
For example you if you get scared easily, you are more likely to run away from perceived threats even
though they might be completely harmless. If you’ve ever encountered an animal in the forest, you
know their instinct is often to run away from you. You probably wouldn’t have hurt it or anything, but
the animal immediately gets scared and avoids a potential danger. It doesn’t matter you weren’t
planning to kill and eat it. But if you were, it successfully avoided that scenario.
The animal wasn’t even running away from you. It was running away from the feeling of fear it felt
when it saw you.
This is the same thing we experience daily. When you get angry at someone that feeling of anger is
actually more detrimental to you than them. Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other
person to die.
We no longer live in the forest with numerous unknown dangerous monsters. We don’t need blood
boiling rage to handle conflict. The truth is your emotional reaction is always under your control.
It’s actually impossible for someone to make you angry. It’s always your choice.
Look at those stupid prank videos online. I recall there is one where a guy pretends to shoot
paintballs at people’s cars with an empty paintball gun. Obviously there was no actual damage done
to anyone’s cars, but everyone got extremely angry at the guy pretending to shoot their cars. Even after
realizing it was just a stupid prank they continued to attack the guy. They perceived a threat, and even
after realizing it wasn’t anything to worry about, their anger programming was still running. Emotion
usually overpowers logic. It’s just how our brains are designed, unless we make an effort to observe
our emotional reactions instead of being slaves to them.
Researchers have even found that the brain structures of people who meditate regularly change in
such a way that they are no longer as prone to negative reactions as before. Another study also found
that Special Forces soldiers actually become even calmer than their usual baseline when in the
middle of life-threatening scenarios.
This just shows that YOUR BRAIN will always become exactly what you make it. If you are
constantly getting angry over petty bullshit then you just reinforce that bad habit. If you practice being
calm and accepting whatever life throws at you it makes life easier.
Financial
Discipline with money is essential. It is a common place where people fail. How often do you buy
things you don’t need? How many opportunities have you missed to invest in something that could
bring you profit?
I don’t know about you, but my financial goal is financial independence. I don’t want to be a slave to
some job I don’t like. I don’t want to waste my time on something I don’t care about.
Financial independence is freedom, if I wake up today and realize I’m not as free as I want to be, then
I make sure that by tonight I’m a little bit closer to freedom. I’m digging myself just a little bit more
out of my prison.
It’s like primitive man had to go hunt for his food because if he didn’t he would starve and die. I take
that same attitude and apply it to my financial goals. Freedom or die.
I don’t want financial freedom to indulge in a luxurious lifestyle. I just want the freedom to eat what I
want, go where I want, and do what I want every day. I want to learn skills I’ve always wanted to
learn and do a lot with my life because I finally have the freedom to do it.
You don’t need to be super rich. I’d rather live in small apartment and have the free time to do what I
really care about than live in a huge house that I have to pay for by working 40 hours a week. Then I
would have no time for life at all. How much time for life do you have and need?
Social
How’s your social life? Do you have as many quality friends as you’d like? Do you have friends who
are interested in things you really care about?
Do you have connections to people you really want to know? This is something to think about. Social
life is an important influence to who we become. As mentioned earlier, it’s advisable to surround
yourself with positive influences.
Consciousness
How awake are you? How aware of reality are you? You would probably be surprised if you
suddenly realized the staggering depths of your unawareness. There are levels of awareness so far
beyond what people are normally capable of perceiving.
I’ve decided to include this in the section of your main discipline goals because this concept has been
fundamental in my own personal growth and ability to develop discipline.
Though for many people living unconsciously at the level where you are mainly consumed with only
your own survival, they usually have no idea how unaware they actually are.
Psychologist Dr. David Hawkins wrote in his book Power Vs. Force about a progressive ladder of
the different states of consciousness people can perceive. I invite you to take a moment to consider
the following scale and where you might fall on it:
Shame – Just a step above death. This is level is associated with self-hatred and complete loss of the
will to live. People who get this low might be considering ending it all.

Guilt – A step above shame, but you still may be thinking some dark thoughts. You are unable to
forgive yourself for what you perceive as mistakes and sins.

Apathy – Feeling hopeless or victimized. You feel no matter what you do you are stuck in a bad
situation. You feel you are at the mercy of whatever the world throws at you and you’ve given up on
trying to change it.

Grief – A state of intense sadness and loss. You might drop down here after losing a loved one or
experiencing depression. It is still above apathy because you are feeling something.
Fear – Everything seems dangerous and scary. Paranoia. There are many things you could be afraid of
such as losing what you have, being unable to achieve your goals, and embarrassment. Social
validation is a big motivator at this level.

You might be very worried what others think of you.

Desire – Craving to accomplish your goals isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but addictions, materialism,
and consumerism can limit your psychological growth. It’s easy to fall back into fear because you are
worried you won’t get what you want.

Anger – Frustration, often because you couldn’t achieve your desires. This level is still low on the
hierarchy, but much more motivating than the previous levels. Anger may encourage you to change
your situation.

Pride – The first level where you start to feel good, but it isn’t real positivity because it is dependent
on external circumstances. You may start to feel great that you’ve made some progress, but when
someone comes by to criticize you, it wounds your pride and throws you back down to anger.

Pride leads to irrational defensiveness, such as nationalistic societies and religious fundamentalism.
You become so proud of your beliefs you see any criticism of them as an attack on you.

Courage – The first level of true strength.

You finally start to see life as enjoyable and challenging instead of overwhelming. You finally start to
care about your self-development. You finally start to see progress in your life instead of
disappointment. Most people reading this book are probably at this level or pride.

Neutrality – This level is relaxed, and unattached. Whatever happens you go with the flow. You are
starting to get along well with other people and feel safe and comfortable. Your basic needs are taken
care of and you no longer worry what people think about you.

Willingness – You begin caring about doing a good job. Maybe you go to work earlier than usual. You
stop trying to cut corners to take as much as you can from the world and instead find new ways to
contribute and be productive.

Students at this level study hard willingly and employees work hard.

It becomes much easier to develop self-discipline at this level as willpower increases.

Acceptance – At the level of willingness you started to develop your competencies and abilities,
now you are ready to use them to achieve your goals.

You begin accepting reality for what it is and your role in it. A big part of this level is accepting truth.
Reason – At this level you begin to think clearly and rationally. At lower levels your behavior is
determined by emotional reactions. Such as something makes you angry, so you attack it. Maybe you
didn’t have a rational reason to attack it, you were just stuck in anger. But at the stage of reason, your
behavior and reactions are more logical.

This is the level where science and medicine emerge. It becomes easier for science and logic to
emerge once you reach the stage of acceptance, because you are willing to accept truth.

Obviously, most people never even reach even this stage.

Love –Hawkins is referring to unconditional love and universal compassion. At the level of reason,
you serve your mind, but then you see that you need a bigger context than just over-intellectualizing.
At love your talents and reasoning abilities are placed in the service of compassion and caring for
others

Your motives at this level are pure and uncorrupted by the desires of the ego. This is the level of
lifetime service to humanity. This is the level of Gandhi and Mother Teresa. Hawkins claims this
level is reached only by 1 in 250 people during their entire lifetimes.

I would guess it’s even less. Though many people probably experience this level temporarily.

Joy – A state of intense happiness. The level of saints and advanced spiritual teachers. At this level
life is fully guided by synchronicity and intuition. There’s no more need to set goals and make
detailed plans. You actually feel your consciousness start to open up as thinking and living become
increasingly effortless.

Peace – Effortless calm and transcendence of all the bullshit of life and the ego. Hawkins claims this
level is reached only by one person in 10 million.

Enlightenment – This level is extremely rare. So rare that many people don’t even believe it exists.
But it does. It is the highest level of human consciousness as far as we know. Many claim this state is
where humanity blends with divinity as there exists no accurate words for describing this unique
state.

You don’t need to try to reach enlightenment, it’s likely not necessary for your happiness, but it is
beneficial to yourself and all of humanity to try to improve your state.

People, objects, countries, cultures, businesses, and events can all be ranked on these levels. You can
probably see different levels in your life, and also determine your overall level.

You might be committed to goals and be willing to help out at work, but you have addictions that limit
your progress.

Think about everything that influences you. Which things raise your consciousness and which lower
it?
Dr. Hawkins pointed out that lower levels of conscious, such as pride, anger, desire, fear, apathy and
shame are all characterized by an energy taking attitude. People in these states of consciousness often
feel tired, drained of energy, and just generally negative.
For example, someone at the “Fear” level would be dominated by fearful thoughts. Of course this
doesn’t mean fear is the only emotion they experience, but that it is the dominant state of their
consciousness compared to others.
Above fear you get to desire, in which you finally start chasing your goals. And then you get to anger
because of frustration related to not being able to achieve your desires.
You may then get to pride after experiencing some success, but it is weak because you could easily be
knocked back down to anger. Like a guy who always wanted to be a writer (desire). He tries and tries
to publish a book but keeps getting rejected by publishers. As a result he gets really angry and
frustrated. Then he finally publishes something and feels proud of his accomplishment. But after
reading some nasty reviews of his work by internet trolls, he is crushed and falls back into a
predominantly angry mood.
Dr. Hawkins found that when people move beyond these lower states of consciousness they are
finally able to be less affected by life. They have more energy, are more positive, and provide more
value to the world.
Above pride is courage. Which is the critical level to become more positive and full of energy. Next,
I feel like Neutrality, Willingness, and Acceptance are very similar. Neutrality means you don’t make
lots of nasty judgements about the world any more. Willingness implies you aren’t as resistant to do
things for yourself and others. And Acceptance implies you accept the world around you. And
Reason is a level in which you highly value logic and science. My description is just an
oversimplification, but I think you basically can understand. For more information, I recommend
reading Power vs. Force and Dr. Hawkins other books.
Unfortunately most people in the world today are still in the lower levels of consciousness as defined
by this model, however you can still easily find people in the courage, willingness, and reason levels.
Very few people ever go beyond those middle levels, and don’t even think about enlightenment right
now, however it is an actual state of consciousness that can be experienced.
I include this in this book because I now believe awareness of your actual level of consciousness is
essential to your success.
There have been times where I’ve tried countless techniques to develop self-discipline and improve
my life, but nothing worked. The problem was not the techniques, but that I was stuck in one of the
lower levels. Primarily Anger and Pride with occasional courage. This state of mind was draining my
energy. So no technique was effective enough to convince me to get out of bed early consistently or
accomplish other things I cared about. I often had a slightly negative feeling that I couldn’t quite figure
out. After dealing with that and moving up to higher levels, like acceptance, I stopped caring so much
that I didn’t have the perfect life I wanted. I suddenly felt I had a lot more energy. And in fact that is
exactly what Dr. Hawkins predicts.
With this extra energy, I was now able to wake up early and willingly accomplish many things.
You see the lower states of mind below courage are focused on taking value without giving anything
in return. At desire you just want everything for free without willingly contributing to society.
You will work a job to pay for your desires but you do so reluctantly and probably hate your job.
At the higher levels you are giving more value to the world and as a result acquire much more
benefits in return.
You may have occasionally experienced this without realizing it. Have you ever had a very social
day? Maybe you went to some parties or events and had a lot of fun joking around with new people
and some other enjoyable activities with other people. And then when you got home you felt so high
energy that you just couldn’t sleep. Most people have experienced that.
But isn’t that a little counter intuitive? Weren’t you using a lot of energy to run around and interact
with everyone? Well yes, but the truth is you were giving value to everyone by your fun presence, and
that influenced you to feel even more energy. But at other times, maybe you are trying to take value
from others in your social interactions, and then you feel worse and worse and just end up going home
feeling like crap.
Consider what level of consciousness you are likely at. Make a goal to move up at least 2 notches
within the next 10 days and think about how you will do it.
The higher up you are on this model of consciousness the easier it will be to achieve any goal as your
energy will become more expansive.
At least consider if your dominant state is mostly negative and spend some time releasing those
feelings. Shame, fear, anger and pride are stressful and damaging to mental and physical health.
 Integrate New Habits

This book is primarily about building new habits and saying goodbye to old ones that don’t serve you.
As mentioned earlier, your morning routine will determine your entire day. If you can start the day off
with accomplishment you are setting yourself up for success.
Start by developing your morning routine and turning it into a habit. As you continue you can add
more tasks to your routine to develop your discipline.
And while we are on this subject, discipline shouldn’t be viewed as a sacrifice. It is actually laziness
that is the sacrifice. If you waste your valuable time on things that don’t bring your closer to your
ideal life and state of mind then you are not living up to your potential. Discipline just means you
work to build the habits that are most supportive to your success at life.
Keep yourself disciplined even when things get tough. Prepare your mind and body for whatever
reality might throw at you. Then when you actually do encounter some challenge you will be able to
face it without getting stressed out.
Discipline is resisting temptation. And that is a problem when your habit is to give in to the
temptations around you. By eliminating your bad habits, what is left is closer to the reflection of your
ideal self.
What are you exactly? Isn’t personality just a collection of habits? So why not design an awesome
personality with amazing habits that lead to success and a healthy life? The answer is simple. We are
addicted to the feelings temptations give us. You don’t really want to eat that entire cake. You just
want that feeling of comfort you get when it’s in your mouth.
These feelings become the addiction that drives our behavior and leads to unconsciously living
unhealthy unfulfilling lives.
With self-discipline you can ensure you are always making progress. You can throw out your bad
habits and decide for yourself which habits you need to reinforce.
You won’t become some joyless robot. In fact you will likely enjoy life much more as soon as you
start developing more positive and productive habits.
Self-disciplined people have more charisma, creativity, and confidence than those who lack it.
With these positive traits and the ability to focus on their goals they achieve their objectives and even
when they fail still persist in finding avenues of success. They know they can win.
We do this by building habits.
Think of some habits you have that you would like to quit. Now from today, start reducing the amount
you engage in this habit.
If you want to lose weight you could drink 1 less sugary drink a day until you’ve eliminated that habit
and drink only water and healthier drinks most of the time.
Or maybe you want to waste less time playing a stupid game on your phone. Calculate the amount of
time you spend playing each day and then force yourself to play 1 hour less each day. Or to check
your phone for updates once less each day until you no longer have that habit.
By gradually reducing your reliance on a habit you ensure you will eventually be able to remove it
from your life.
You might be reading a good book late at night and tell yourself, “just one more chapter.” Or watching
a TV series and convince yourself to watch, “Just one more episode.” And before you realize it it’s 3
AM, you feel extremely tired and then you sleep until the afternoon the next day. This is messing up
your sleep schedule and it’s just because you are addicted to the feelings these external stimuli are
giving you.
You are the only one who needs to take responsibility for your failure to behave in the way that is best
to your health and lifestyle. No matter how impressive your short term and long term goals are you
will accomplish nothing if you allow your emotional reactions to interfere with your plan.
We know this can be tough, but it’s definitely not impossible. Some people out there might be having
very negative thoughts full of doubt. Just because you haven’t been able to tackle this problem before
doesn’t mean you’ll fail the next time. Because this time you will guarantee yourself success.
Another problem is that, even though you may believe as I have stated here that you have no clue how
impressive your potential actually is, even if you can vividly imagine a perfect ideal life for yourself,
it might not feel like reality.
A lot of self-help books recommend you do such visualizations. And you know what, I do too, but it
should just be a daydream. Never be satisfied with only what your imagination can create.
At this point, it is now your responsibility to decide when you want to start working on your self-
discipline. It could be today, tomorrow, or a week from today to give you time to plan how you will
do it and build awareness of all your daily habits that you want to change.
But don’t wait any longer than that.
You know you are reading this for a reason and you are almost ready to push yourself in the direction
that will completely change your life.
So right now, write down the date you will start.
Here are some helpful tips:
Stick to a Routine
It’s vital you stick to your schedule to achieve your goals. Otherwise you will allow distractions to
waste your time easily. Finish your commitments you have planned for yourself before you indulge in
anything else. Don’t delay or skip anything in your routine or you will regret it the next day and
weaken your self-discipline. You risk becoming irresponsible and losing focus on your goals.
Also complete your commitments on time. Don’t procrastinate. Pushing important tasks back only puts
distance between you and our goals. Fight for your goals as if you were fighting for air to breathe.
Invincible Belief
Nothing is more powerful than belief. If you believe you can do it you are right. And if you believe
you can’t you are equally right. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous often realize that finally
believing they can give up dependency on alcohol is the core part of changing your addiction.
No matter what happens, don’t let it challenge your belief. Maybe you will encounter setbacks, but
don’t let it phase you. With belief you can change and accomplish anything.
Remind Yourself of Your Goals
Are we really lucky to live lives so full of time wasting distractions? On one hand, there are some
really interesting things on TV lately. Some really well written stories that I enjoy, and occasionally I
let myself watch a bit too much. It takes time away from working on stuff that will bring me closer to
my goals, but I don’t watch too much and try to spend an hour working on my life for every hour I
watch.
If you easily forget your goals it can be easy for these temptations to dictate your behavior. You don’t
need to spend all day finding something to entertain you.
Every day, take a moment to think about what your goals are. I recommend doing this at night, and
writing down your plan for the next day. Then when you wake up you know exactly what you need to
accomplish. And when you finally finish all the items on the list you will feel great.
Set Deadlines
By adding this sense of urgency to your goals you will help yourself achieve objectives. You will
force yourself to act quickly in doing what you need to do.
Not only set deadlines, but be mindful of them. Remind yourself when you want to finish the article
your writing, or whatever project you are working on. This will make you much more productive.
You will also develop determination.
 Self-Control

How do you react to the temptation to eat some more cookies, smoke another cigarette or do whatever
unhealthy activity you are convinced you need to be happy?
Unfortunately it’s easy to reinforce these unhealthy behaviors. Overtime these bad habits build up and
prevent us from accomplishing anything. It’s like a computer that overtime picks up nasty viruses that
change its programming to do things that aren’t in the computer’s best interest.
People with superior self-control choose their words, actions, and even thoughts more carefully. So
these things lead them in the direction they decided to go.
Fundamentally, your words and actions go back to your thoughts. And your thoughts are usually your
reactions to the world around you. Successful people are more unreactive. They don’t let the
nonsense of life affect them. In fact, it is they who affect the environment. However most people are
reactive to everything they encounter. They are constantly making judgments about what they like and
dislike.
When they dislike something they let it affect them negatively. This is helpful if you are actually in a
dangerous situation. But most of the time you are not.
If you are constantly thinking about what you hate about your life, be careful, because these thoughts
could be controlling you.
Knowing your goals is the first step. And by this point of the book I’m sure you’ve already written
down your goals.
Also, keep in mind how your reactions either take your closer or farther away from your goals. When
it is in your best interest to act on your emotional reactions, then it is probably acceptable to do so.
Otherwise, there is nothing to worry about.
Your goals can guide you in the direction your behavior should go. Without goals you are a talking
animal trying to accommodate the biological instinct for food, sex, and shelter. That stuff is great, but
I want much more than that.
You should also know when to reward yourself for when you’ve accomplished something. This has
been psychologically proven to reinforce behaviors you wish to keep. It works for pretty much all
animals.
Basically habits are formed by a process of:
1 trigger
2 routine
3 reward
Let’s say for example your alarm goes off in the morning. That’s the trigger for whatever routine you
have built a habit of starting at that moment. Perhaps your routine is to feel unwilling to get out of bed
and go back to sleep another 10 minutes or even longer. Which is also your reward. So now you see
how rewards should be used carefully as they can also reinforce bad habits.
You could change this by firmly planting your feet on the floor in the morning as soon as you hear the
alarm. This can become your new routine. And reinforce it with some reward. Such as a piece of
chocolate, or watch an episode of a TV series you like. In fact any reward is ok as long as it is
something you enjoy. Hopefully it is something that will also bring you closer to your goals though.
Whenever you do what needs to be done and finish a huge chunk of your new routine without
distraction, you definitely deserve a reward. And this will also reinforce your comfort with the new
routine. Eventually it won’t even feel like “discipline.” It will just be your enjoyable new routine.
Trust me, it works, it just takes time to train yourself to believe it.
Conversely, you should also be willing to give yourself penalties for not fulfilling your commitments.
This can mean skipping your usual evening TV watching time to finish working on some project you
procrastinated on earlier in the day. If you train yourself to get used to such consequences it will give
you more motivation to follow your routines.
You know what you need to do. You know what you want to do. You also know what temptations can
potentially interfere with your success.
My advice is always do what is emotionally the most difficult. At first this will be the biggest
challenge you ever face, but after a few days you will start to get used to your new routine.
As you slowly start to loosen your previous dependence on these energy draining temptations you
will come out of the fog and wonder how you could waste so much time, money, and other resources
on habits that gave you back no benefit at all.
Self-control is a muscle that can be exercised and built. Exercise it until it gives way. And then the
next day work it some more and you should be able to be just a little stronger.
It takes willpower to keep you focused on your goals.

Where does happiness come from?

How satisfied with your life? How do you know when you are satisfied?
You might think your happiness will come when you get respect from someone, or when you finally
get a job, or item you’ve always dreamed about having.
But when you focus your attention on external elements you will eventually be disappointed. When
your happiness is dependent on everything outside you going perfectly then your emotions are never in
your control.
Imagine you meet an attractive woman and you have a long, fun conversation. How will you feel after
that? Probably pretty good. Now imagine the next woman you talk to is extremely rude and starts
criticizing you and embarrassing you in front of other people. How would you feel then? Would your
good feelings suddenly turn negative?
If that’s so, then your emotions are constantly at the mercy of whatever is going on around you. It’s
like you are a tiny boat floating around on the ocean. Sometimes it’s sunny and a calm sea. You can
relax and feel like life is perfect. But as soon as the weather changes a little your tiny boat is ripped
apart by huge waves and other nasty conditions.
You want to be like a massive, immovable rock sticking out of the water. No matter how bad the
conditions get outside the rock just sits there and isn’t affected at all.
Your emotions are always your choice. When you train yourself to associate all emotions with
whatever is going on outside you then you are just that weak little boat dependent on the good weather
outside to feel good. Alternatively, you should start training yourself to become the rock. Become
aware of your reactions to things. This will help you realize when your reactions are unnecessary and
do not help you.
We are discussing this again because it is very relevant to self-control.
If you associate your “happiness” with things outside you that don’t actually give you any benefits,
then you deluding yourself into wasting your time and hurting your health.
Imagine someone who is addicted to smoking, yes maybe they associate that action with stress relief,
but in actuality this association is hurting them more than it is helping them.
As an intelligent human being you can make choices for yourself about what you want to associate
with happiness, stress relief, and enjoyable feelings.
If you have the routine of smoking in response to stressful situations, you could replace that routine
with something that is more beneficial to you. Such as doing some exercise, hitting a punching bag,
practice a musical instrument or some other skill, or learn about some topic that really interests you.
Slowly this new reaction will become your new routine and you can associate these positive feelings
with something that will actually improve your life.
It will take some effort and time, but it is possible.
And again, let’s go back to the boat and rock in the ocean analogy. When you become that rock and
you feel confident and happy no matter how good or bad the outside world is, then it becomes much
easier to change your poor habits into ones that are beneficial to you.
If someone can only feel the slightest bit of what they perceive as happiness by unhealthy, time
wasting habits then this addiction prevents them from ever experiencing real happiness.
A lot of people recommend regular meditation to help you develop this kind of internal confidence
and happiness. As mentioned before, it’s beneficial to include some meditation in your morning and
evening routines.
A simple form of mindfulness meditation asks you to sit comfortably with your back straight and not
pressing into anything. Pay attention to your breathing, the way you are sitting feels, your whole body,
to any sounds you hear, the temperature, and all the details you are sensing.
After a few moments of this bring your focus back to your breath. Don’t try to control it, just let it
occur naturally.
When a thought occurs in your mind, acknowledge it, and let it go with your exhale. Wait for the next
thought and let it go too.
It’s an interesting meditation as it allows you to see how active your mind really is. Thoughts keep
jumping into your awareness and it seems like random. This meditation is very helpful. As mentioned
before, you can find many more fascinating meditation methods on YouTube, or just practice in
silence for a few moments a day.
With practice you will slowly have more control over your emotions and they will have less of an
automatic hold over what you feel.
Your energy can then be directed to the best direction to resolve whatever issues you need to work
on.
Eventually, no matter what the problem is, you will be able to handle it.
Most people are unhappy because they have zero power over their reactions to the world. They are
hypnotized by fears, worries and temptations into behaving in ways that aren’t actually beneficial to
their lives.
They might not want to do the things they do. An addicted gambler doesn’t want to risk her entire life
savings, her home and relationship with her family just to satisfy her addictions. But it happens.
Uncontrolled desires interfere with the logical parts of their brain. The emotional part takes control
and demands satisfaction.
With self-control you can finally be happy. And it will no longer be a superficial happiness based on
satisfaction of your external desires. It will be genuine happiness based on your internal desire to be
satisfied with yourself.
With self-control you accept that there will be problems but you don’t allow fears or paranoia to
destroy either your progress or emotional well-being.
Developing a positive mindset will allow you to be open-minded to new solutions to the challenges
you will encounter. Most importantly though, your mind will finally be free and you can find
happiness and positive emotion no matter what you do.
Remember back to the diagram of the levels of consciousness/energy.
At the level of anger people get frustrated at not being able to achieve their goals. They can get so
depressed that they become apathetic. This means they have basically given up on success and feel
that no matter what they do life is negative and unbearable.
I have seen this happen to many people. In university they have a dream to graduate and get their
dream job. (Desire) but then they get frustrated that they can’t do it (anger). Reluctantly they take a job
they hate just to pay the bills (apathy). Perhaps they do find some success (pride) but it isn’t the
dream life they envisioned.
They have lost enthusiasm for their life and dreams. Their aspirations have been replaced by
negativity, anger, and attachment to their desires. But it is because they depend on these external
devices to give their lives meaning that inability to satisfy these goals has brought such negativity.
With self-control you can eliminate these poisonous negativities that hinder your success.
You may have only a mild dissatisfaction with your life, but that could still be diverting your attention
away from your path of self-growth.
How often has stress, or any negative way you feel served as an excuse to stay up late, or waste time
on some activity like video games or TV just so you could stop thinking about something that was
troubling you?
Avoiding the problem will not resolve it.
When you improve your self-control you can maintain focus on your aspirations and actually do what
needs to get done.
Maybe I’m spending too much time convincing you how useful self-control is but I hope you realize
how essential it is to achieving your life objectives.
 Motivation
Life can be tough.
In fact we can guarantee that no matter who you are life will throw some bullshit at you.
When it inevitably happens your first reaction could be to listen to
Fuck that: an Honest Meditation.
You can find it on YouTube.
After that, get back up on your feet, pick up your sword and slay some more dragons.
How do you ignore the negative thoughts when life can be so ruthless?
It can be really difficult.
Maintaining your motivation is vital to success.
It is also essential to find your own way to stay motivated.
To help you discover your own motivations let’s look at your values.
Everyone has their own drives and values that bring them focus.
If you value health, you will make an effort to eat well and get your exercise more than a person
whose priority is career success.
It is essential to understand your relationship to your values as they determine which goals are most
suitable to you.
Your values are determined by all the people, ideas and other influences that have contributed to your
identity. Through experience you realize what your priorities are.
When you feel a lack of motivation it’s helpful to remember your goals, and also to remind yourself of
your values. By doing this you understand what certain values motivate you more than others.
What’s important to you?
Here are some examples:
Health
Strength
Money
Sex
Career
Relationships
Friends
Creativity
Knowledge
Compassion
Power
 Spirituality
Validation

You can probably think of a few of your own. Write them down in order of most important to you.
This will help you realize which values are your priority. Think about what really excites you. Maybe
you dream of having your own band and music is your passion, or maybe you just want to provide fun
experiences for your friends.
When your goals are aligned with your values it becomes much easier to maintain motivation.
In general the things you care about most will be your primary motivators. In addition there are other
factors like praise and social approval that can motivate you. However these are external motivators.
For some people receiving these external rewards can in fact improve their performance. But do you
learn to play guitar so people think you are cool? Do you build your physique just to earn people’s
admiration? Probably not. Though you might enjoy being envied, it likely isn’t your primary
motivation.
Like mentioned earlier, reward yourself for your efforts when it is necessary as long as you find it
helpful.
However some people are more motivated by failure and setbacks. They see it as motivation to
become even greater than they were before.
Be mindful of all the things that motivate your behavior. Pay extra attention to the motivations that
bring you closer to your goals and make an effort to reduce dependency on motivations that take you
farther away from your goals.
If you are honest with yourself you can clearly see what values are driving your behavior.
Your motivations may also change depending on your level of awareness.
If you are at a very low level and feel like it’s impossible for you to do anything. Your motivation
might be to find something to care about, or find some way to feel more positive.
If you are afraid of many things your motivation might be to build confidence to achieve your goals.
And if you are angry you might be motivated to change your conditions into something more beneficial
to you.
And if you get to solid confidence/courage you might start to feel more motivation to contribute to the
world and act fearlessly. At least that’s the basic theory.
Your motivations may depend on what is going on in your life. But even more so they are determined
by what is going on inside you.
You don’t need to always feel positive feelings and think positive thoughts.
I’ve tried that, and I just feel an incongruence. However if I am in a good mood, positive thoughts are
just more natural.
Action Creates Motivation
Many people are stuck in their lazy habits and hope that eventually they can wake up one day with
extra energy and motivation.
Unfortunately it usually doesn’t work that way. At least naturally.
When you are stuck in an unmotivating routine you get accustomed to it. Motivation can’t just
magically appear.
At some point you need to take action first.
And then you reinforce that action with some rewards, praise yourself for accomplishing something,
and this will start building it into a new habit.
When you start to take action, you actually have a reason to believe you have motivation. Because you
can finally believe you can accomplish something.
Keep Your Motivation in Mind
Isn’t it annoying that some people seem to be constantly motivated to go succeed? They always seem
to be in a positive mood and nothing ever bothers them. What is wrong with those people?
I really don’t know.
But the best guess is that they’ve had a life filled with positive reinforcements.
Their parents, teachers, and friends have always reminded them how awesome and capable they are.
This social approval fills them with confidence. And as they are in a more positive mental state most
of the time, they also generally feel a lot more energy.
We’ve mentioned this before. It’s the difference between Power vs. Force mentioned in Dr. Hawkins’
book of the same name.
But let’s talk about it a little more.
You may know that people suffering from severe depression feel extremely lethargic and don’t even
have the energy to get out of bed, shower, or take care of the most basic responsibilities. Their
motivation is completely dead, and often they may lose the will to even live. Stress hormones act as
sedatives, limiting your energy.
However you may not be familiar with the opposite state of mind.
It’s not happiness.
Psychologists call the opposite of depression “mania,” because it is often accompanied by delusional,
socially inappropriate behavior.
However what is most interesting is that this altered state of consciousness comes with such an
intense amount of energy that people literally feel no pain, become fearless and feel they no longer
need sleep for days or weeks at a time. Unfortunately this often leads to other psychological issues
like psychosis and hallucinations. In fact people in this state often think they are deities. Including
many atheists! It’s not just a random delusion! It’s because they suddenly feel so much energy that they
can’t think of any other reason to explain it.
This level of energy people experience in this state is so intense it’s difficult for people who haven’t
experienced it to comprehend it.
But I just mention it to point out the connection between your mental state and level of energy.
When you are letting the world throw you down, and you are resisting the whole way, your energy
will be reduced.
But when you are feeling more positive, and focused more on providing to the world, then your
energy increases. You feel more and more motivated to wake up early every day to accomplish what
you care about.
Theoretically the amount of energy available to you is unlimited. You could be waking up after 7
hours of sleep a night or less and feeling excited to be living your life and you would be doing things
you need to do.
You could do it, if you eliminated the stressors from your life and started to perceive things as more
beneficial to you.
Learn from Your Failures
Even your mistakes and bad experiences can teach you a lot. Successful people learn from their
mistakes and failures. They are just part of the path to success.
If you are afraid to take risks then you always fail everything you never even attempt.
You might be disappointed in yourself if you fail, but view this as a learning opportunity and you can
figure out what to do next time.
Maybe you realized it’s difficult to start waking up early every morning. No matter how hard you try
you just can’t immediately get out of bed.
So to fix this you start putting your alarm clock on the other side of your bedroom so that when you
wake up you are forced to get out of bed to turn it off. And since you are already awake, you might as
well start your morning routine and start accomplishing as much as you can for the day.
This way you’ve learned from your failures and improved yourself. By making this one simple
change, maybe you’ve changed your whole life. Because now instead of sleeping all morning, you
finally get started making your small business and actually make enough money to quit your job within
a year and then you go have a lot of fun adventures you’ve always dreamed of.
I don’t know about you, but to me getting out of bed a few hours early is totally worth it if it means I
have a chance to earn my freedom.
Let Go of Negativity
We’ve mentioned this a few times, but let’s reemphasize that negative thoughts will drain your energy,
motivation, and ability to succeed.
When you hold on to anger and other negative emotions you are stuck in the past and can’t move
forward.
There’s a story of two monks who were walking by a shallow river. An old lady tells them she wants
to get to the other side and asks them to help her. So one monk carries her on his back to the other
side. The whole time this rude lady is complaining. “You got water and mud on my dress! You almost
fell down! You were too slow!” and then when the monk finally put her down on the other side, she
didn’t even apologize.
Later as the monks were walking, one says to the other, “What was that lady’s problem? She didn’t
need to be so rude, we didn’t need to help her, and she didn’t even thank us.”
The second monk says to his friend, “You put her down over an hour ago, why are you still carrying
her?”
If something is in the past leave it in the past. Our imagination is very powerful. Think of a memory
that made you angry and you can start feeling those stressful feelings again. But you don’t need that
kind of negative influence in your life.
Forgive people who don’t support you.
Forgive people who criticize you.
Offer the victory to trolls who try to tear you down and slander you out of jealousy.
Let go of the need to always be seen as the best. It’s just an insecurity that drains your energy.
You Can Only Accomplish What you ask For
Tony Robbins was once approached by a beggar who asked him for a quarter.
“A quarter? That’s all you want?” he asked.
“That’s right, just a quarter.”
So he reached into his pocket and when he gave the coin to the beggar he said,
“You can only get exactly what you ask for.”
Ask the world for just a quarter, and that’s all you’ll ever get. Ask for a million dollars and the
freedom to do whatever you want and you will be much more successful than the guy who is satisfied
with only a quarter.
You will likely get exactly what you need in life.
Some of my goals I wrote down and I got exactly what I wanted. But at the same time, I wish that
years ago I had made bigger goals. By now I would have accomplished even more.
It is a learning process.
But don’t be afraid to have big goals and elaborate plans to achieve them.
 Don’t Rely on Motivation

We’ve just discussed the importance of motivation, but we should also mention the potential problem
of being over reliant on it.
When you are connected with your motivation you are obsessed with achievement.
Nothing stands in your way.
You are invincible.
You are the Incredible Hulk devouring the sun like it was a piece of candy.
You can work for hours on a task without noticing how much time you’ve devoted to it.
But when something changes and that motivation disappears or weakens you no longer have the
energy or desire to finish what you were working on.
However, you can fix this by relying on habit.
If you do not yet have the habit of being self-disciplined no matter what your mood is, then your
priority should be building these new habits.
An easy example is your daily act of brushing your teeth. You probably don’t see it as a chore. It’s
just something you are used to doing every day.
You don’t need motivation to brush your teeth. Though the desire to have a clean mouth can motivate
you to brush your teeth when it stinks.
It’s just become a habit that you are used to doing.
 Destroying Self-Doubt

I’ve noticed that occasionally even though I have the motivation, sometimes there is just a bit of self-
doubt trying to convince me I can’t do what I want.
It’s a major hindrance.
When you are trying to develop your self-discipline, doubt can kick your motivation out from under
you and throw you in the river while wearing cement shoes. And what’s even worse, you are the one
who decided to wear those shoes today.
Pessimism and insecurity are unfortunate bad habits.
You can overcome these insecurities by understanding where they come from. Though debilitating,
these insecurities are connected to your stress response. Also known as the fight or flight response.
In a “civilized” society like we have now you usually don’t have social approval to fight people who
make you feel threatened or uncomfortable. Usually you aren’t even in a life-threatening situation at
all. Someone is just angry and take it out on you by yelling or criticizing at you. You can’t fight back,
so you feel the need to run away. But you often can’t run away.
Your mind balances positive and negative interpretations of reality to keep you safe and alive.
Some people perceive too much negativity and fear, this is known as paranoia. Whereas people with
the opposite condition are hyper positive and this is often seen as mania. Which as we’ve mentioned
before is extremely pleasurable, just usually not sustainable.
Most people never experience either of these extremes.
Yet they wish for more positive thinking, and less negative thinking.
You can force yourself to think as positive thoughts as possible, but your doubts are a habit that might
return.
Your doubts hold you back.
They are thoughts that jump up when you want to try something new or change your usual habits.
They are a combination of a lack of belief in your ability and also the ego’s resistance to change.
You lack belief only because you haven’t done something yet. But you’ve probably already noticed
that when you try something new for the first time that it can actually be enjoyable.
Some people are terrified of riding a rollercoaster. They think they won’t be able to handle it. But
when they finally do get on one, they find they actually want to ride it again.
The self-doubt was just an excuse to try to protect you from something scary or painful. But in fact it
prevented you from doing something you would actually enjoy.
Fear is essential because it’s a useful response to know how to avoid things that could hurt you.
If our ancestors weren’t afraid of anything they would have been killed by all the cute but dangerous
animals they tried to play with.
Your brain is not your friend. Its goal is to minimize risk and maximize survival so you can just
survive. It doesn’t care if you grow up shy with no goals and terrified to go outside to accomplish
anything.
You will easily develop habits of laziness and fear. These are just excuses to keep you away from
anything that could potentially hurt you.
Natural reactions that have evolved overtime but have outlived their usefulness in many cases.
This is just another obstacle to be mindful of.
When you are trying to change your habits, your old habits pop back into your mind and you will be
tempted to go back to your previous ways.
You are the master of your mind.
If you want to start waking up early, meditating, and going to the gym every morning that’s your
choice.
Don’t let your self-doubt convince you your role in life is to be a lazy loser.
What’s interesting is that voice of self-doubt will get quieter and quieter as you become more
accustomed to your new habits.
 Improving your Focus
In the beginning of your training, improving your focus may make the difference between success and
failure. When you are easily distracted it becomes easier to procrastinate.
With practiced focus you can get things done even with limited motivation.
This means even when you aren’t really feeling like it, you are able to concentrate on the task you
should be doing. Part of this comes from repetition.
So pay attention to this because maximizing focus is essential.
A major hindrance of focus and cause of procrastination could be giving yourself too many
responsibilities. It can get confusing to juggle all the things you want to accomplish. And if you plan
to fill a day with much more than you can actually handle you might convince yourself it’s impossible,
give up, and then regret the time you feel you’ve wasted.
If this describes you, think about why you might be doing this.
You might be trying to impress people.
You don’t need to impress anyone.
Also, when you try to impress people with abilities and time you don’t actually have it only backfires
on you.
Self-discipline is not only being able to accomplish what you know you can, but is also being able to
resist the temptation to try to do more than you can.
Or maybe you want to finish everything in as short a period as possible.
I think this one is much more common.
At least, I often try to fill a long list of tasks I want to accomplish in a single day. But I quickly realize
that by the second or third task, I will need several hours to figure out how to do something I
originally thought I could do quickly. And then that gets really annoying because there’s less time to
do everything else I wanted to do.
I’m sure some people can relate.
When you know the approximate amount of time each task will take you, then you can devote an
appropriate amount of time to each task before moving on.
But keep in mind that you could be overwhelmed by giving yourself too much.
If you had the time you could solve all the problems you face. But there often isn’t enough time in a
single day to do everything you want.
I have hundreds of books I want to read, places I want to go, skills I want to learn and other things I
plan to do. But I won’t be able to squeeze it all into a short period of time.
However, since I am aware of the massive amount of time I need to devote to my responsibilities,
tasks and other activities I want to complete, I try to maximize my time.
You can still relax when it’s appropriate. But that relaxation serves you better as a reward for doing
what you know you need to do.
Also, as you know you have so much to do, you can make better use of your time and include this fact
as motivation to build a habit going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.
This gives you more time each day.
Another reason people give themselves too much to do is they might want to challenge themselves.
Challenges do help you grow.
Extra weight builds your muscles.
But try to lift too much and it could crush you.
It’s helpful to be positive and believe in your ability to accomplish anything.
But be realistic at the same time.
Don’t overestimate your ability to completely change your life in a single day. Some people can do it.
But most are stuck in the habits programmed into their brain.
Underestimating challenges usually leads to disappointment.
You might dream of becoming a world famous physicist but if you barely understand simple math and
you’ll need to fill in the gaps in your knowledge first.
The same goes for building any skill.
With self-discipline, you will slowly be adding more and more new routines to your schedule each
day. And over a period of 10 days most of these should stick and help you to build a new routine.
But if you did everything completely different from the first day, it would be more challenging and
you would be more likely to encounter disappointment.
Be willing to challenge yourself. But do it in an intelligent way that you can handle.
You will eventually be able to handle much more than you do now.
Another reason people take on too much responsibility is they don’t know how to refuse.
They are just too nice.
Their boss asks them to take on more projects and their time just disappears into their work.
Inevitably they can’t finish everything, their sleep and health suffer, and even worse they may
eventually lose their job because of it.
At least that is the worst case scenario for our work example. You get the point.
Saying no can be hard to do.
Especially when you are refusing a task from someone whose respect you want.
If your boss offers you a difficult project and you feel its too much for you to handle, but you don’t
want to lose this opportunity you might be willing to work yourself to death just to impress your boss
and coworkers.
But does some empty praise from these people really add much value to your life?
Unless it’s your dream job, do enough to maintain your employment without needing to devote more
time and energy to it than needed.
You might be afraid to hurt someone, want to maintain a good reputation, or maintain a good
relationship with a person or group. But these are poor motivations for sacrificing your valuable time
and energy.
When someone makes a request of you remember it is only a request not a demand.
If you have the option to refuse, seriously consider it. Do you really get enough value out of following
their request?
If you have the energy and love helping people you can probably think of many exceptions, but in
general it’s helpful to realize that your good intentions may end up hurting you.
Don’t commit yourself to something you can’t or don’t actually want to do.
Especially if you have a valid reason to refuse.
You may want more time to work on yourself.
That’s a perfectly legitimate reason to take a break from completing people’s requests for a while.
If anything it’s actually better for your reputation than accepting to complete a favor you will later be
forced to abandon because you don’t have the skill or time to complete it.
Remember, knowing what to refuse is also a skill of self-discipline. It becomes difficult to focus
when you are doing too much, especially when many of those tasks are things you don’t even want to
be doing.
Pay attention to your emotions when someone makes a request of you.
Self-discipline and all these elements that contribute to it, values, goals, and motivation all take
practice.
 Extra help Resolving Procrastination
I’ve written this chapter on procrastination to share some techniques extra techniques for combating
it.
When you leave work unfinished you could be discouraged from continuing.
If you really are ambitious, you will likely have many tasks to conquer. It’s only natural you will
finish each day with more to do the next, and there is nothing your discipline can do about it.
Managing your time effectively is essential.
You’ve probably heard that before.
You know it to be true, but somehow no matter how much you want to prepare that paper you need to
write you give in to your temptation to watch another episode of Game of Thrones.
You haven’t yet gotten to a point in your life where you can completely relax every day and have
absolutely nothing to worry about.
(I’m assuming, since you are reading this book.)
Obviously this doesn’t mean you should as stressed out as a rabbit being hunted by a hungry wolf.
You are likely blinded by the level of comfort and laziness you can afford to have.
Of course your circumstances may be much more complicated than I am assuming here, so I’m
speaking in generalities.
What I see a lot of is people, awesome people full of potential, working their jobs, and then spending
their leisure time on activities that don’t really contribute to their lives.
This is fine in small doses and is likely an inevitable part of human life.
But that comfort is just a distraction from the fact you haven’t yet become your ideal self.
Perhaps someday in the future we will live in a society where the things that should be free, will
finally be free. Food, water, shelter, and access to information. These are necessities and it’s our
human right to have access to these.
When they are finally free, that’s when real competition starts! Restaurants will be forced to serve
quality food to get more customers because the price won’t matter. People will wear whatever they
want and the only excuse for dressing like a slob is that it’s your own choice.
You will be free to learn exactly what you’ve always wanted to learn but never had the opportunity
to. You will have the freedom and resources to develop yourself into exactly the person you wish to
be.
At least I assume that to be true and that’s exactly what I would do if I woke up in that future world.
But at the same time, there probably are a lot of people alive now who wouldn’t take advantage of
that reality to turn themselves into something so amazing we can’t even imagine it.
They would get lost in the entertainments available to them and these addictions would prevent real
growth.
And in fact, we can clearly see this exact situation today. I don’t want to criticize. And I agree most of
these people are individuals and awesome, fun people. Also maybe you disagree with me that humans
should be more focused on self-actualization once basic needs are satisfied. Well in that case enjoy
your mind numbing entertainments.
The point is, thousands of years ago, life was tough and people had to constantly struggle to survive.
Even 100 years ago most people worked literally 7 days a week, all day just to afford food to eat.
This all changed in the early 1900’s when Henry Ford decided his employees were too tired and
weak to keep working every day, so he started giving them Saturday and Sunday off. He and other
early industrialists quickly realized this made their workers more productive and also gave them
more time to spend the money they earned during the week. So it was great for the economy too.
As the world develops, leisure time increases. Unfortunately many companies in the developed world
still overwork their employees and force them into unfair conditions.
But someday we might see a world where the time you spend working is only 3 or 4 days a week and
employees are much happier with this arrangement.
So how does all this relate to developing your self-discipline?
Well ask yourself if you woke up in that perfect future world where everything you ever wanted to do
and learn was available to you, what exactly would you do?
I’m guessing at first maybe you would live out a few fantasies and really take advantage of the fun
stuff you could do in this world.
But eventually that novelty would likely wear off.
There was a candy store where the employees kept stealing the candy. So the owner made a new rule
that employees could eat as much as they wanted. They found that new employees would eat a lot the
first few days, but then they quickly got sick of it and rarely did it again. And by using this rule the
shop actually lost less money from candy eaten by employees.
And that’s likely would you would do at first if you woke up in the future where everything is
possible.
I don’t know what kind of perverted, crazy, exciting and ridiculous fantasies you have, but if there are
some things you’ve always wanted to try, then why not try? Within reason.
If you can actually get those things out of the way you’ll feel much more ready to tackle the bigger
challenges you actually care about. So think about what you would do first.
And after eating as much of the candy as you can, what specifically would your plan be to improve
yourself?
Would you want to be like Batman and master martial arts, languages and technical skills? Would you
train to become an Olympic athlete? Would you become the most creative musician in the world?
Would you become a writer and create the most amazing stories ever written?
Like I said, when that world comes into existence that’s when real competition starts. Because
thousands of people will have all the skills of Batman and more. That competition will be quite the
motivation.
And you know what, you are extremely lucky! Because you don’t need to deal with all that
competition!
All that information to accomplish all those skills I listed and many more are available to you for
free! On the internet and in the library!
The problem is its information overload and it’s easy to get distracted by stuff that makes no
difference to your path.
Really think about exactly what you would do if you woke up in that ideal world.
Write down exactly what you would do!
Now here is the vital question:
How does this list differ from the list of goals you wrote down for yourself earlier?
They had better be even more ambitious than the goals you wrote down before because in this world
anything is possible.
And if they are equally very ambitious, then good job, you know what you want from life and you can
probably get close to many of your goals with perseverance and self-discipline.
If you didn’t think of any interesting goals, then you have no imagination and shame on you for wasting
this perfectly good opportunity to be an amazing human on Earth and do something special!
I mean there’s arguably nothing wrong with just enjoying life and being satisfied with whatever you
already have. I’m sure some people will still love you. But you are still wasting an opportunity to
contribute even more to the world.
So back on topic…
Those ambitions are exactly what you should be aiming for in this lifetime! Because those are the
ones you really care about!
And now let’s get even more back on topic!
Time Management!
This essential can make or break your self-discipline efforts.
Now that you know exactly what your goals and ambitions really are.
You can make more intelligent decisions about how you spend your time.
It’s a strategy really.
Every time you want to do anything, ask yourself if it is helping accomplish those goals at all.
Sometimes taking a break and watching a movie is good for your spirit and actually helps you focus
when you get back into work mode.
So if you are sure it’ll help you, go for it. But if it’s just an excuse to forget your responsibilities then
find a more beneficial alternative.
So like we’ve mentioned, think about how much time you need to devote to each task.
Whenever you can get the most important tasks out of the way first.
This will set you up for success as you won’t constantly be reminding yourself that you are
procrastinating.
And that nagging thought really drains your energy and makes you procrastinate even more.
So just get your responsibilities out of the way as quickly as possible.
Next devote time to tasks you know require more time to complete.
It’s really up to you how you prioritize your daily tasks. Maybe you want to get your job related tasks
out of the way first and then work on things that make you a better person.
Efficiently finish your tasks as soon as possible.
The urgent tasks may be difficult and inconvenient, but that’s life. And you need to fight the temptation
to first focus on the easier tasks.
You have your preferences, but you are also developing self-discipline. So it makes more sense to
always do the more emotionally difficult task first.
Organizing Priorities

1. Be mindful of consequences.
When you are struggling to begin a task you know you have to do, visualize the benefit of getting it
done. That should be enough to motivate you. Unfortunately most people aren’t that logical and it will
probably help you to contemplate the consequences of not finishing your tasks.
2. Write down your priorities
You should have written down your intended daily routine by now. In addition, you will also have
daily tasks that change depending on what you plan to accomplish. You might have a lot to do and it’s
understandable if you don’t want to spend your valuable time writing it all down instead of actually
accomplishing something.
But at the very least write down the big priorities.
This helps you be more organized and less confused about what you should be spending your time on.
3. Remind yourself
Make sure your written plans are often near you during the day. Maybe you can put them on your desk
and by your bed. This way you’ll often see them and they can constantly remind you of what you
should be doing.
You can also use your alarm clock or reminder apps to remind you of when you should get started.
 Build a Positive Mindset
I’m sure I don’t need to sell you on the benefit of positivity. You know negative thoughts hurt your
health, mood and life.
But dammit they can be so addicting.
We’ve already talked about this a little, but this section is written to help you even more with building
a positive mindset.
So your brain creates a lot of neurotransmitters and hormones depending on how you perceive your
reality. If you think everything is threatening and scary, or if you are terrified of talking to strangers
and one innocently asks you for the time, then your brain might be producing cortisol and other stress
hormones for no logical reason at all.
It’s just that your reaction was to interpret reality as more threatening than it actually is.
The chemical reactions in your physiology are determined by your interpretations of reality.
The more often you react in a certain way, the more it changes your brain and makes your
chemical/emotional reactions automatic.
That means you get used to getting upset over petty nonsense.
This cycle continues until you change your response.
If every time someone is the slightest bit rude to you (unintentionally) your automatic response is to
feel offended, angry and defensive, you are possibly causing more harm to yourself than them.
But if instead you just laugh off their ignorance, then it can only add to your power and positivity.
If you fail to accomplish something, you might get used to giving up, getting frustrated or even worse.
But if instead your natural response to these inevitable scenarios is to remind yourself to “stay
positive,” or “That shit doesn’t faze me!” then you are much more likely to respond to setbacks in
ways that are actually productive and make you stronger.
Instead of drowning in self-pity you could redirect your attention to something enjoyable like reading
a good book, taking a trip, cooking an excellent meal, or whatever fun activity you’d like to do.
Like we suggested earlier, remember to pay attention to how you respond to everything.
Are your responses actually helping you or are they hindering your progress?
Which of your usual responses are actually hurting you?
What alternatives can you think of that would help you a lot more?
These are things you should think about if you want to develop your self-discipline.
If you want to recreate yourself into someone successful and self-disciplined then you really need to
consider changing some of your fundamental personality traits.
And that definitely includes how you respond to everything.
Avoid the responses that you know lead to negative moods and procrastination.
Express Yourself
Don’t hide your emotions. They will be even more impossible to control when they eventually erupt.
When you hide what you really want to say it can create negativity.
Talk with people.
Don’t be passive aggressive.
When you have something to say make sure you let people now. Now is your chance because you can
actually calmly express yourself with some tact.
You can also write down what you are thinking and feeling, or start some kind of blog.
You could find some form of artistic expression too.
Just don’t hide your complaints and fears.
Nobody is perfect.
And you don’t need to pretend to be perfect.
You are more human and likeable when we know there are things bothering you.
Cry if you have to.
There are probably some things in your past you’ve left unresolved and it could be blocking your
progress.

Question Negative Emotions

When you feel like crap ask yourself why. Ask yourself if those feelings are justifiable or not. If you
think you have a legitimate reason to feel bad then ask yourself if you have any good reason to keep
feeling that way.
You can start a new habit of convincing yourself these negative emotions no longer serve you.
Forgive yourself
When you feel guilty about anything it could trigger negative emotions without you even realizing it.
You won’t be as happy as possible because something will always be bothering you.
Maybe you’ve made some mistakes, failures or awkward embarrassments.
They are all just learning opportunities.
To help you forgive yourself, consider these steps:

1. Accept yourself and your flaws. Know that despite your flaws, you are okay as you
 are.

2. Remember that you are not a bad person. You can do something wrong while still
being a good person.

3. Talk to someone...

You can also regret a mistake while not letting it make you feel guilty and horrible. You can view
anything in a more positive way.

Manage self-esteem
What really makes you feel like shit?
Which of your usual thoughts are most destructive?
Your thoughts really are connected to your emotions. Negative, pessimistic thoughts can destroy your
self-worth.
Be mindful of which thoughts are helping and which are hurting you.
It can often be as simple as changing your thoughts. Though of course, this should become a strong
habit.
Whenever you notice yourself reacting to a situation with destructive, pessimistic thoughts, you can
remind yourself to “change!”
Then you have the opportunity to replace your usual reaction with a more beneficial one that will
boost your confidence.
 Self-Discipline Boosting Exercises

If you’ve been following the advice so far, you likely are seeing some progress. Here are some extra
exercises that can boost your Self-discipline.
Get something done right now!
If you have some clothes to wash, garbage to take out, or other similar chore then just go do it. It
sounds easy. You might not even notice it, but cleaning your room will make you feel better. Don’t
wait, just go get it done. Taking immediate action helps you overcome laziness and procrastination.
Give up your seat on public transportation
When you are travelling on the bus or train and see an old pregnant lady with a broken leg, it
probably would be nice of you to offer her your seat. Do you really need the seat so bad?
Though this seems like you are just being polite, you are exercising your ability to sacrifice your
comfort for something more important.
If you can do this it helps you control your emotions because you are doing what is more emotionally
difficult.
Take the stairs
I don’t know about where you live, but in the country I’m currently in I always see people crowding
for miles to slowly line up to take the escalator rather than walk up a few stairs. And these are mostly
healthy young people. The only reason they don’t take the stairs is it is the more uncomfortable
choice.
If it’s just a few stairs, take them. The same goes for stairs instead of elevators.
Making this kind of choice gets you used to not always taking the easy route.
There is no easy route to self-discipline.
Convenience may seem awesome, but it can also hinder your progress by convincing you that comfort
is an entitlement not something that needs to be earned.
Face your fears
You know what you are afraid of. Maybe you are terrified of talking to strangers, especially ones you
are attracted to.
Maybe you are scared to ask people for favors.
Maybe you are scared of traveling to a new country where you don’t know the language and don’t
know how to order food so are worried you would starve.
Maybe you are scared of disagreeing with people. Stop being Mr. Nice guy, you don’t need everyone
to love you, and also everyone sees through that fake nice guy act anyway.
Whatever it is, you need to face your fears for the same reasons already mentioned.
It will make you stronger.
I can only speculate what your fears are.
Don’t be tempted to convince yourself you are completely fearless. If you were literally fearless, you
wouldn’t care enough to be reading this book.
Whatever your fears are, include facing them as part of your goals.
You will slowly be able to give up unhelpful desires and temptations and increase your self-
discipline
 Time Management Tips

We are almost ready to begin discussing your 10 day plan to develop solid self-discipline.
So far we have mainly been discussing the positive mindset, values, motivations, and other
psychological elements that are essential in your success at building a disciplined life.
It can be challenging to force change, so it’s helpful to take some time to contemplate how first
changing your mind is necessary to change your behavior.
This section is provided just to provide some advice that may help you save time. When you do
become more capable of focusing on all your life goals, you find that there isn’t enough time in the
day to take care of what you want.
These are just 10 tips that could help you have more time for whatever it is you care about.
1. Delegate.

If you need to get something done but it is not one of your most important tasks, and it can be
done by someone else, delegate it. Sometimes you can get rid of half your to-do list by finding
others who can do the task as well or even better than you can.

2. Minimize Commute Time

If you worked a part time job 5 days a week and each day only 2 hours then it could actually
feel like you are devoting even more time just to travel to and from work.

Let’s say it takes almost an hour to get to work each day. That’s 2 hours a day that bite into
your valuable time.
That’s 10 hours commuting a week. That’s actually a big chunk of time you could devote to
something else.

So the smart thing to do is to actually only work 2 or 3 days a week, but for the same amount
of hours. This way you don’t spend those valuable hours in transportation and can devote
them to something else.

This not only saves time, but helps you maintain a more positive mood.

3. Get important stuff done early. Choose your top priorities, maybe 2-3 things that you need
to accomplish today, and get those done first.

4. Avoid meetings.

Not all meetings are a waste of time, but many are. If you spend a lot of time in meetings, but
would rather be doing your actual work instead of listening to other people talk about things
they could have sent you in an email, see if you can get out of some of those meetings. You’ll
get a lot more done.
I have weekly meetings with a small business I cofounded and most of these meetings I don’t
even have a lot of essential input to provide. The whole process is just taking my time. So
when I can I skip the meetings and ask for a summary of anything important discussed.

5. Know when it’s okay to skip things

You don’t need to experience every little detail of everything you are mildly interested in or
obligated to attend to. Just like knowing when it’s ok to skip meetings, there are actually many
things in your daily like you can either skip or summarize.
 Maybe you are watching a TV you like on the internet. If every detail isn’t essential to your
understanding of the plot of the story and you are just interested in what happens, you can skip
past many scenes and still understand exactly what happens. Doing this you can turn a 1 hour
episode into just 30 minutes.

This is similar to advice of speed reading courses. These commonly advise you to skip
sections that don’t appeal to you and just read a few beginning sentences and conclusions
from each page to understand the points of the author without digesting much of the detail. You
can read a book while enjoying the good parts and skipping a few boring sections.

There are probably other things you can think of that can also be skipped or summarized in
this way.

6. Learn to say no.

We’ve already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. Saying no is crucial if you want to
simplify your schedule.
Everyone will constantly be requesting your do something for them. Nobody will respect your
time unless you respect it yourself.
If we say “yes” to those requests, we are giving up our time and committing to doing
something for someone else. But if those requests aren’t in line with your priorities, then your
behavior is inconsistent with what you actually want. Learn to say no. Learn to tell people you
just don’t have the time.

7. Disconnect from the internet

The internet is full of distractions. You probably spend too much time on social media. Maybe
without even realizing it. It can be tempting to keep clicking on more and more nonsense.
But by simply disconnecting from the internet, and refusing to open your browser for a set
period, you are making a choice to devote time to something else.

8. Throw away EVERYTHING you don’t need

Clutter is distracting, unorganized and can negatively affect your emotions.

When you live in a clutter free home you can focus on your tasks without the distraction.
It’s more relaxing, and you also save time because you have less things to worry about.
You save time because you don’t need to sort through piles of clutter to find something you
actually need.
In life you will constantly be accumulating new stuff and old stuff. Keep the essentials and
don’t let anything else you keep distract you.
Go through everything you own and throw away the junk, donate stuff that is still useful, or try
 to sell some things.

9. Plan your weekly menu. If you plan out what you’re going to have each day of the week, you
can save a lot of time. First, you can go grocery shopping and get everything you need all at
once. You could also plan the menu for 2 weeks and save a shopping trip. You can also
prepare your food ahead of time and prepare it.

10. Do all your errands at once

If you have a few errands to run throughout the week, try to put them on the same day. Such as
grocery shopping, go to the bank, and other stuff like that. Try to plan your route in the way
that lets you get everything done in the fastest time.
 10 Days to lifetime Discipline
We are finally ready to discuss your 10 day plan to develop lifetime self-discipline.
The earlier sections of this book have been preparing you to think like the new you. The you who will
successfully accomplish all your daily goals.
Each day tasks you to add a little more to your daily routine. It’s a workout plan to build your
motivation and willpower.
Your strength will grow.
Read each day one day at a time and follow the instructions.
It is better if you do not read ahead more than one day. You may read what you will do the next day to
prepare for it, obviously.
This plan actually isn’t very complicated. It’s as simple as it could be to actually provide effective
results.
Now the only part is to adjust a few of the tasks to exactly what you personally need and commit to it
each day for only 10 days.
Day 0
You have completed ALL of the tasks included in this book:
Write your motivations
Write your goals
Write all the habits you plan to change
Write your morning routine
Write your bedtime routine
This is likely enough to succeed if you can commit to improvement.
It’s great if you’ve already tried to start sleeping at consistent times each night.
Today’s task, is to get in bed and turn out the lights One hour earlier than you usually do.
Ask yourself, “how valuable is this one hour to me?” The truth is quality sleep sets you up for being
more happy and productive the next day, so why not? At least just for tonight.
And when you are laying there, take a moment to visualize exactly how you will start your day
tomorrow. Imagine immediately getting out of bed, putting your feet on the floor, and starting the
morning routine you have planned for tomorrow.
And remember that for the habits you plan to change, spend less time, resources or energy on each
addiction every day. Such as less time watching TV, smoking less cigarettes, and drinking less
alcohol.
Make an effort to devote less energy on each thing that might be detrimental to your health during this
period.
Day 1
Welcome to your first day of building self-discipline.
You will not only survive this, but you will also enjoy it.
Just as you visualized last night, get up and start your morning routine.
Here is a sample morning routine we will be using as an example:
30 pushups
Meditate 5 minutes
Word/memory puzzle
Eat breakfast
That’s it really. Just use 2 or 3 interesting tasks for your morning.
It doesn’t need to be the same tasks listed in the example above, just a few things you would like to
do if you haven’t started your own morning routine yet.
I like to start with some light exercise to get my blood pumping. My body feels more prepared to start
the day. Then some meditation to put myself in the frame of not letting daily bullshit break my mood.
I also challenge my mind a little with some sort of brainteaser, riddle, or memory puzzle to improve
my mental skills. Then it’s time to eat breakfast and do whatever you normally do in the morning.
That’s it.
The rest of the day is yours to do with as you like.
The only other task will be to go to bed exactly when you start to feel tired, or at least at a time you
can consistently follow through with for the entire 10 days of this project.
Day 2
Well yesterday was really easy.
Today you have a few more tasks and habits to add to your daily routine.
It’s all worth it, so pay attention. Of course, start your day with your morning routine.
Waking up early at a consistent time EVERY day during this 10 days.
Even if you for some reason feel tired, force yourself to get out of bed. 7 or 8 hours should be enough.
Don’t let yourself sleep any longer than that. You should eventually get used to it. If you do not, I
recommend my book, Double Energy, Cut Sleep in Half
Tasks:
Pay attention to temptations that distract you from accomplishing your goals. What can you do
to either eliminate or reduce the impact of these distractions?

Start your bedtime routine. Again, at a consistent time, turn off all your electronics, and start
your bedtime routine. As mentioned this can involve some light meditation, reading, and
practice of some skill you care about.

Try to keep these activities within 30 minutes to an hour and be sure you can finish them by
your scheduled bedtime.

If you can’t, then don’t force yourself to do any more. Just go to bed, and remind yourself to
start your routine a little earlier next time.

WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS FOR DAY 3

This is important. In addition to tomorrow’s morning routine, write down any other tasks and
errands you wish to accomplish.
DAY 3

Hopefully you are ready to start accomplishing even more. You have your list of goals you
wrote down yesterday, and that’s your plan. Your past self entrusted YOU with the
responsibility to get those tasks completed and now is your chance to do it.

Challenge:

Take a cold shower. I mentioned it before, but there really are some great benefits to cold
showers. It’s 5 minutes of discomfort, it won’t kill you, and afterwards you will feel even
stronger and much more alert and ready to get stuff done through the day

Resist temptation. You have only just started your 10 day path to self-discipline, so you will
likely still need to face some distracting demons that have been holding you back. Remember
the earlier advice in this book and replace 1 destructive bad habit with a new productive
habit. Repeat this new habit throughout these 10 days.

Again, remember to write down your goals for tomorrow before you go to sleep tonight!
Day 4
Wake up with a smile and kick some ass today.
You’ve made some progress.
You also may have slipped up a bit and procrastinated a little. Don’t worry about it, just remember to
do better next time.
Challenge:
Go to the Gym. If you haven’t added a workout routine to your weekly schedule then you
should do so. Physical health is key to your brain’s health, and subsequently your ability to
succeed. In the book, Boost your brain, Medical Doctor Majid Fotuhi talks about research that
compares the brains of children who do a lot of sports and those who live more sedentary
lifestyles. The children who engage in more sports and are physically active have obviously
healthier and bigger brains. They also perform better at many tasks and tests at school. This
obviously indicates you should have some concern for your physical fitness and its impact on
your mental health.

Try to go to the gym at least 3 times a week. Though going 5 times a week is even better. If
you can only make it 2 or 3 times a week, then just work out hard and take shorter rests
between exercises.

If you live far from any gyms, find a way to get regular exercise anyway.
And take another cold shower right after your workout.

Day 5
Your schedule should really be improving by now.

If you go to bed and wake up at the consistent time each day so far, but still feel tired every
day, you likely have other psychological and physical issues affecting your health.

But for most people, it should be possible to adjust to this new schedule by now.

Challenges:

If you’ve decided, against the better advice of this book and many other people who do know
what they are talking about and have not included meditation in your daily schedule then
today, you must include at least 30 minutes of silent meditation either in your morning or
bedtime routine. You will likely experience some benefit. Some people even recommend that
 if you can’t find even 5 minutes to meditate that you should meditate for 2 hours! That’s even
better, but I’ll only challenge you to 30 minutes because I’m sure you can handle it. Especially
by now!

Get started on the most difficult task you have been procrastinating on doing. Something
you’ve wanted to do but have been afraid to will also be acceptable.

Day 6

We are half way through this short, but life changing process.

What have you learned so far?

What has been most difficult?
Have you been able to do much more than you thought?

If you haven’t written down any of your thoughts on this experience then please do so now.

You aren’t lazy. You know what you need to do and you do it.
Challenges:
Add a new habit to your morning routine. It can be anything as long as it is both new and you
believe it adds value to your life.

For every task you complete today, reward yourself. For every task you give up on, “punish”
yourself. This doesn’t mean punch yourself in the face, it simply means remove some form of
comfort from your day.

Some examples might be, sitting in the hard wood chair instead of the soft chair, eating the
less appetizing meal, forgoing watching the TV show you wanted to watch and instead
working on the project you should have finished yesterday.

This is actually effective, as it is the way our brains work.

The focus however should still be on rewarding yourself for good behavior as it is usually
more effective and positive than punishment.
Day 7

Feel like a warrior yet?

Like it or not you are fighting a war.

Everything and everyone around you is fighting for your attention.

Today, you are only allowed to pay attention to yourself. Within reason that is, I mean maybe
you have to work. And in that case all your time outside your work will be 100% your time,
and is not to be wasted on a single distraction.

Challenges:

No internet/phone today! Do not access the internet unless it is necessary for your work. If
you need to use a computer, do not connect to the internet. Today you will have zero access to
social media.
It’s distracting, addicting, and disgusting. You don’t need that energy draining noise in your
life, at least for today.
Also for today, turn off your phone. You don’t need to be constantly checking it to see if
anyone is contacting you. Only use it if there is an emergency requiring its use.
You will definitely survive a day without these conveniences.
Devote the extra time you now have in your day to accomplishing something amazing.
This may seem challenging, especially for internet addicted people and for people who text a
lot.
However, denying yourself your addictions can show you just how dependent on them you
are.
Today you will force yourself to do something besides what you normally do if all you do is
constantly check status updates on social media.
If you don’t spend a lot of time doing that, you will likely also find that today you have more
time to devote to some other tasks you care about.
You also aren’t allowed to be bored today!
 DAY 8
So what did you think about yesterday?
How many times were you tempted to use the internet or your phone but then remembered
your commitment to avoid them?
Most people find it difficult to intentionally cut these things out of their day.
Phone and internet are very convenient, and I do believe they are essentials to civilization.
However, many people treat them more as addictions than conveniences.
Challenges:
Turn on your phone but keep the internet off. It must have been annoying for your girlfriend
and mother to want to call you all day but not be able to reach you, so give them a chance to
get in contact with you.
However, today you will still need to be internet free. If many of your goals require the
internet, such as building online businesses, then today you still need to focus on tasks you can
accomplish without the internet.
Relax, you can use it tomorrow, we are just training ourselves to ignore the time wasting
clickbait that is inevitably found every time you open your internet browser.
Meditate 1 hour. If you’ve never meditated for a whole hour before, then give it a try. You
have time for it now that you don’t need to watch a lot random YouTube videos today.

Day 9

Congratulations, you can finally start using the internet again.

When you jump back on the internet, remember, it should now be easier to avoid the junk that
distracted you. You can now make a more mature choice about how to spend your time online.
If you slipped up and used the internet, then please, that whole day didn’t count, you must spend
another day without internet to make up for it or I’ll never respect you. Just get it done.
You’ve been waking up and going to bed at consistent times and also making daily plans for what to
accomplish every day.
You’ve also tried a few new things that will inevitably contribute to your success.

Challenges:
Completely eliminate at least 1 bad habit. Maybe you no longer need to play that stupid game
App on your phone. Maybe todays the day you quit smoking. Maybe you don’t need to react to
difficult situations with anger anymore.

Conquer a fear. There must be something you’ve been afraid of but want to do. Go do it.
Maybe you’ve always wanted to tell an attractive stranger you think she looks nice and give
her a chance to get to know you. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try surfing. Maybe you
want to get over your fear of awkward situations so you go order a big mac at Starbucks.
Whatever it is, go build some confidence.

There are many ways to build overall confidence. If you want extra help cultivating
confidence and conquering your social fears my recommendation is a program called
Collection of Confidence.

This program helped me build confidence and overcome some anxieties that used to bother
me. I only recommend it because it has been effective for me and I am confident it could
potentially benefit you too.

You can get a discounted copy through this link

Day 10
You’ve made it this far! Already 9 very self-disciplined days under your belt, so you can definitely be
even more disciplined today.
It should also be much easier today.
Because everything is starting to become a habit.
You no longer need willpower to get up early every morning. It’s just what you normally do now.
So wake up early, have a good breakfast and a cold shower and get started on day 10.

Challenge:
Do everything on your to do list. And do it ALL as fast as possible, with minimal breaks, and before
you’ve done anything that is purely for self-amusement, such as watching TV, looking at social media,
and texting friends.
This is just to show yourself how much you can actually focus. You can probably focus on everything
a lot longer than you could when you started this project.
Your next task will be to reevaluate all your habits. Decide which ones still need to be eliminated.
Decide which of your reactions need to be changed.
Decide new ways to organize your priorities.
You can also edit your morning and bedtime routines so they better serve your needs.
Congratulations! You have finished 10 days to lifetime discipline!
 Conclusion

So now that these 10 days are finished what are you going to do?
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you hold yourself accountable.
If you’ve followed through with the 10 day plan to Lifetime Self-Discipline plan as it is written here
you have likely experiences some results.
You have started to grow and get a taste of your potential.
You are also likely more aware of what you need to do to see real progress.
It may take more time and effort, but if you can endure and enjoy convincing yourself to improve for
just 10 days, than you can make it happen for any length of time.
Whenever you want, you can now access this self-disciplined part of yourself and train it to improve.
As mentioned earlier, the more you practice self-discipline, the more it becomes just a natural habit
and not something you actually need to work at to achieve.
Maintain your habits, and you can accomplish a lot more.
With more goal-oriented, self-disciplined people around us, it only influences us to become even
better versions of ourselves.

Thank you for reading!

I hope this book has helped you.
If you’ve gotten some value from this book please leave a brief review of it on Amazon. If you’ve
never left a review before all you need to do is flip past the last page of this book and review page
will pop up. It’s easy.
I’d also like to see feedback from other people who complete the 10 day program, and suggestions on
how to improve it as I am constantly tweaking it to get better results depending on the specific
student. It would be greatly appreciated. You wouldn’t just be helping me, you would be helping out a
lot of people.
 Recommended Resources

Collection Of Confidence
Excellent and effective confidence building program.
Find Your Focus
Focus and willpower program. If you still have problems with resisting temptations
this may be helpful.
The Power of Habit
A great read if you want a deeper understanding of how habits run everyone’s lives.
Double Energy Cut Sleep in Half
A book I wrote detailing numerous methods of increasing your energy and reducing your reliance on
sleeping too much.
Break Bad Habits Permanently
A book I wrote with more detailed suggestions on breaking your bad habits and building helpful ones.
I Don’t Give a Fuck: How to Stop Caring What People Think About You
Caring too much about what other people think of you can be destructive, this book may help.

Evolve to win
My website