Assorted career takers strive a lot seeking for ways to keep their career growing and glowing. They Google search for different best impetuses that hit the right corner of their thoughts, attend diverse career guidance coaching as well as call to other perspectives, just to pick what drives best for career development.

Nevertheless, a university study proves that people who are the pinnacle of anything, motivation was maybe one percent of the formula, but self-discipline. Many of us fail and give up because we think motivations are the formula. "Winners don’t need more motivation, winners need discipline.”

A business blog defined self-discipline as the bridge between goals and achieving those goals, and also the number one trait that is essential to accomplish anything in life.

Why we need self-discipline to grow our career

Thomas Frank, author and entrepreneur said self-discipline helps in controlling our desires and impulses while staying focused on what needs to get done, as well as acts as the magic power that makes an individual virtually unstoppable. 

Experts say that self-discipline is the centre of bringing any dream into fruition, while building the baseline that allows you to act in accordance with your long term goals, no matter how motivated you feel.

"Once upon time, I had a heart-to-heart conversation with myself. I self-assessed and took completely ownership for all the lack of success that I was achieving, then made a decision to flip the switch and made the right changes to go into the kitchen of my life and cook up all the dishes of massive success, and quickly realised that a key ingredient is self-discipline,” says Alex Kamoso, an entrepreneur.

Self-discipline allows greatest opportunities for success. It gives you the gumption to stick with difficult tasks and allows you to overcome obstacles and discomfort as you push yourself to new heights as you develop career.

A self-disciplined employee or entrepreneur is a master of their patience, who sees the bigger picture and sticks to the plan. They trust their efforts and believe to achieve big, experts say.

Here are self-improvement techniques to help us maintain self-discipline  

Create reminders

Remind yourself why you are being disciplined in the first place and at the end of the day have a strong why for your actions, if you want to do them consistently. Try writing down the goals you want to achieve and put it on a sticky note, next to your bed, desk or computer so you can see it every single day and know that, this is why I’m building self-discipline.

Embrace the suck

Embrace the discomfort and resistance you feel towards doing something that takes hard work or that’s unpleasant.

"Just like going to the actual gym and lifting weights makes you better at lifting weights in the future and able to lift more weight next time you go in.  Every time you embrace discomfort, you are essentially doing a rep of the exercise and that is self-discipline because it is a skill that can be learnt. You are leaning into the resistance and that makes you better at doing so in the future regardless of what the task is,” Frank said.

Meditation

A study at Stanford University showed that people who went through compensation training which was specific meditation program, were better able to regulate their emotions afterwards, which is the most important matter for remaining disciplined, concentrated and being able to make rational decisions

Meditation has been proven scientifically to help people improve their level of self-discipline.

Practice new habits

According to Forbes, a business and entrepreneurship blog, we aren’t born with self-discipline; it’s a learned behaviour. And just like any other skill you want to master, it requires daily practice and repetition. It must become habitual.

Nevertheless, the effort and focus that self-discipline requires can be draining. As time passes, it can become more and more difficult to keep your willpower in check. The bigger the temptation or decision, the more challenging it can feel to tackle other tasks that also require self-control and have a plan which will encourage you to keep moving.

Patient

One must be patient to achieve discipline towards career growth. Success is a process not an event. Have a plan, do the best you can do and never neglect what you can do at the moment because it leads to miracles in the future.  

"The danger is looking at an undisciplined day and concluding that no great harm has been done today. Being undisciplined doesn’t seem like such a bad day, but add up these days to make a year and then add up those years to make a lifetime. Perhaps, you can see how repeating today’s small failures can easily turn your life into a major disaster.”