The Discipline of Discipline
How many times have you wanted to be discipline, wanted to say ‘No’ to that temptation, wanted to be able to make yourself go to the gym when every part of you is saying stay home? Discipline is thought to be one of the hardest things in life to develop, BUT it doesn’t have to be that way.
So what is Discipline in relation to training? It is:
The ability to get yourself to take action in order to reach great results and become successful regardless of your emotional state and abilities you have.
The key here is ‘Regardless of your Emotion State’. In essence what this definition is saying is, if you’ve had a bad day, you still go to the gym. If it’s been a long day and your tired, you still go to the gym. If you’re stress levels are through the roof, you still go to the gym. In fact if you feel depressed, moody, quiet, vibrant, ecstatic, melancholy, bored or just plain numb. No matter what your state is you still go to the gym. This is where many people get unstuck. It’s easy to go to the gym when you’re happy and full of life, it’s hard to go to the gym when you on some sort of emotional rollercoaster.
So how do you create discipline for yourself? Below is a list of how to do it.
1. Know WHY you want to train This is the beginning of everything. When you go to the gym not knowing why you are there then it won’t take you long before you’ll find an excuse to not go. Ask yourself these questions: a) What do I want to achieve? b) Why do I want to achieve it? c) What does it mean to me to achieve it?
Be clear about what you want to achieve, it will feed back into developing your discipline.
2. Set a training period Setting a training period is great for developing the right mindset. Think about it, there are a ton of 4, 8 and 12-week fitness challenges out. WHY? Because when you decide to commit to a training period you develop a psychological mindset determined to get to the end. Knowing the end date of your training is a great motivator to push yourself forward.
3. Clear Training Goals. Your training goals are an extension of point number 1. The most important thing when it comes to setting your training goals is to be clear about them and when I say clear I mean crystal clear. If you’re not sure about how to set your training goals then follow the S.M.A.R.T format.
Smart Goals:
S - specific, significant, stretching
M - measurable, meaningful, motivational
A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T - time-based, time-bound, timely, tangible, trackable
Your goals are you key to keeping the motivation going when you start to get the ‘Don’t Wanna Go’ feelings.
4. Get educated – learn what you need to do at the gym Here is where a lot of people get unstuck. Why? Because not knowing how to train leads to bad training technique, which leads to injury and then you have every excuse in the world not to go to the gym.
Educate yourself, hire a Personal Trainer and get them to run through a training program with you. They will instruct you on - all the correct techniques you need to know. - Show you how to avoid injury and how to push yourself. - Help you develop your motivation, discipline and consistency
Education is a crucial part of motivation, the better educated the better motivated.
5. Set your training program A training program is your anchor to the gym. BUT, it’s not enough to just have a program, you need to track the progress of your training.
Firstly, by using a training program you can map out your entire training period. This is very important because when you know what you have to do, you are already 50% towards achieving discipline. Why? Well you don’t have to think about what you need to do, it’s already there, you just have to get in the car and drive to the gym.
Secondly though, it’s not enough to just have a program, you also want to track you progress. There are a lot of training program apps out there where you can plug in your cardio and your weight training achievements. Tracking you progress is vitally important because when you start seeing your improvements it goes a long way to building your motivation which in turns develops your discipline.
6. Set your training program to your ability This is another crucial area that needs a lot of thought. Setting the right training program for your current fitness level is very important. Too hard a training program and you’ll get disheartened and quit. Too easy and you’ll get bored and quit.
As an example. If you’re just starting out for the first time, then you’re training program needs to be one that pushes you just enough that you can complete it with a little bit of a struggle. As your fitness improves you will find it will get easier ad then you can up the intensity.
The right training program plays a major part in developing you discipline because, when you struggle through and succeed you will feel great, strong, amazing and most of all motivated, you will realise there is more to you, an inner strength you didn’t know you had and this great feeling is something you want more and more of. It’s this feeling of achievement that helps you to develop the discipline you need.
7. Get help – have an accountability buddy Find someone who is going to support and encourage you. This couple be your partner, your friend, another person at the gym or your Personal Trainer. Having someone around to help is vitally important because not matter what, we all have good and bad days and having that person to get you through the bad days will be of great value.
Developing discipline isn’t as hard as you might think. Think about what you truly want to achieve when you go to your gym. Once you know that everything else will start to fall into place.
Give us a call on 9583 4715 and make an appointment to see one of our Personal Trainers and get the right program for you.
