Developing Disciplined Happiness
Having discipline takes work! Inga Stasiulionyte shares her tips below on how you can create a disciplined lifestyle and be happy at the same time. Inga is an Olympian athlete and javelin thrower, who was coached by the best coaches in Europe and the U.S. for over 20 years and competed at the Beijing Olympic Games. Many people quit too early. The key is persistence and going until the end. Stasiulionyte believes discipline is what gets you to your final destination - the realization of your dream. Continue reading for more of this Olympian's tips!
Inga Stasiulionyte
Developing Discipline
1. Set big goals. Don¹t be shy!
When you challenge yourself to achieve bigger goals, as, for example, being the best at something in the world, then you dedicate yourself to the craft. The more time you spend on it, the harder it becomes to quit. You feel shame that you have already spent so much sweat, time and effort on it, so if you quit, it will be for nothing. And you definitely don¹t want that!
2. Set clear goals
Goals can be set for a process or for a specific thing, for example, to be healthy or to buy a new car - but it has to be clear. Clearly define what healthy lifestyle means to you, and what you will do, exactly, to achieve your goal. Will you go running every day? At what time and for how long? Will you eat healthy? How will you measure if you are healthy? If there is no clear goal, there is no possibility to create specific steps that you will need to do to achieve it.
3. Every day matters
When you wake up in the morning, you need to know what¹s the most important for you to accomplish that day. Everything that you have set for yourself has to be done! It¹s a life and death matter, since you will determine whether your dream lives or dies. Every athlete knows that if they skip one training session, they are already behind. They know that in the competition that is still three months away, they will deprive themselves from winning if they don¹t accomplish the set plan today.
4. Do not debate the plan!
If you want to go to the Olympics, each training session matters. The same is with everything else in your life. When the process starts, you cannot question it. You have to work every day to reach your dream with full force.
5. No matter what!
The main mindset you will have to establish in order to become disciplined is ³no matter what, I will accomplish the task for when it is set to be done!² No matter what! Yes, you have to create pressure for yourself, otherwise, nothing will get done. By the way, there is a good stress and bad stress - and you have to make sure you are operating under the good stress, which means butterflies in the stomach - a manageable adrenaline that stimulates you.
5. Discipline is a planned routine
You have to create a routine that would become automatic. Athletes know the hour of their training, their lunch, dinner, and rest. In the training, they know they have to do a warm up and the main training, then cool down and recover. Everything is set to accomplish the routine.
6. Commitment
Discipline was instilled in me by my Mom. When I would ask her if I could start art, dancing or volleyball classes, she would say: Be careful in choosing on what you will be spending your time, because you won¹t be able to quit. You will have to finish it till the end and do it well.² That led me to think hard if I would be able to commit to something for a long time. Also, knowing that it¹s the only thing that I chose, made me explore how I could keep getting better at it.
7. Understanding a process of transformation
Your body and brain will do everything to resist the change and growth. You need to know that it¹s natural to feel lazy and undisciplined. But you have all the power to fight it, and you need to start with your thoughts.
8. Go above feelings
The hardest part about discipline is maintaining the actions needed to achieve your dream or a certain state of happiness. It requires constant hard work fighting against comfort and instant pleasures. To do so, you have to separate yourself from feelings that stop you, whether is tiredness, laziness or pity for yourself. You have to go above them, even if your feelings tell you that you are tired, stressed and alone in this struggle. Discipline is a direct training of a fighter.
9. Resisting the brain
All people are lazy - even the most successful businessmen, the most accomplished athletes, and the most dedicated professionals. However, to be precise, it¹s not simple laziness. Rather, it¹s your brain-saving the energy for you. Any movement takes the energy away, and the brain is doing everything to stop you from moving by sending body signals about how hard it is to move, and thoughts about how scary it would be if you fail. But you can trick your brain. Imagine your body is a beautiful machine, and you are operating it as a higher force from above. Separate yourself from your body. Play it as a computer game. You are the one who gives commands to your body to accomplish tasks.
10. Mindset - finding pleasure in hard work
Shift your focus to the process, and concentrate on getting the work done faster and better every time. Speed is important. You have to move fast in order to achieve perfection in a set amount of time.
Inga concludes by saying "The more you learn about your craft and your own capabilities, the minute you start seeing yourself change, the results will get you hungry for more. Self-improvement is an amazing drug."
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