Why does it feel so hard to make real change in your life? It’s like you make a little progress and then move a few steps back. It seems like a never ending cycle without reaching the goals you set for yourself. You end up right back where you started.
This problem isn’t one that you’re facing alone.
You work so hard for a few days, weeks, or even months on a new habit and then miss a day or two, and before you know it you are right back at the beginning. It’s like a never ending cycle. After trying to pick up a new habit a few times, you just give up.
It doesn’t help that when you look around at other people it seems like they have it all together. You might even think to yourself “why can’t I be like that?”
Stop.
Don’t ever compare yourself to others. It doesn’t matter how alike you think your lives are. It doesn’t even matter if it’s your brother or sister and you grew up in the same house.
You are different. You have had different experiences. Your world views are not the same as theirs.
The only comparison that you should be making is comparing yourself to who you were yesterday. The most effective way to make real change in your life is make a little progress every single day.
But it’s not as easy as it sounds. Some days you wake up and just want to stay in bed. Other days you get sucked in to the new Netflix series that you friend told you about. Before you know it, the day is almost over and all you’ve done is watch TV and eat pizza.
You didn’t make any progress towards your goals. Then you start thinking about tomorrow and everything that you’ll need to get done since you basically lost a day. You end up stressed out and have even less motivation to pick up where you left off.
Forget about it and move on.
Don’t allow one day of momentary weakness stop you from making the most out of yourself.
The biggest battle we all face is with ourselves. Our inner dialogue and beliefs about who we are can be the most difficult obstacle to overcome in life.
Do not let temporary weakness define you. Do you want to know the secret to breaking through to the next level? Stop thinking about yourself as a quitter or someone who can’t pick up new habits.
It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve tried and failed. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen other people succeed where you feel like you haven’t.
Change your thoughts about yourself.
Did you achieve anything meaningful today? Good. That means you’re making progress.
Did you lay in bed scrolling through social media and binge eating sweets? That’s OK. Do something right now to make yourself a little better. Take a walk. Write out your goals for tomorrow. Any action towards your progress is going to be better than just sulking and thinking about yourself as a lazy person who cannot stick to anything meaningful.
Even tiny amounts of progress are going to be a mental win for you.
Tell yourself that you are going to be a person who doesn’t quit. Give yourself a mental pep talk. Remind yourself that you are someone who is going to succeed.
You aspire to be more than the average person. You have dreams that go far beyond where you are at right now. Eventually, you are going to crush the goals that you have now and you’ll create new goals to push yourself even further.
The only way to achieve this is to think of yourself as a person who can get things done no matter how hard it gets.
Be disciplined.
Discipline is the skill that is going to take your mindset and help you to blast through to the next level.
Being disciplined is how you go from being average to being the best version of yourself that you can be.
Keeping yourself disciplined is going to be a struggle. Discipline can be boring. It’s hard to do the same thing day after day. But it’s the only way that you’re going to get better.
Inch by inch, you will see yourself moving along the path that you created.
The daily progress that you make by being disciplined will turn into monthly progress and then yearly progress. Can you imagine how different your life will be in 2 years if you just progress a little bit every single day?
It’s hard to even think about. It’s like picturing yourself having $1,000,000.00 when you are currently living paycheck to paycheck.
The biggest problem is that some days you do truly just feel like accomplishing nothing. You want that Netflix marathon with some junk food. But how are you going to feel about it tomorrow? And the next day? Probably not very good.
It’s OK to take a break, but it’s so important to not let that break turn into more. You must maintain self discipline.
Instead of watching an entire season of that new show, watch 2 episodes and then get back to working on your dreams.
Your future depends on what you do today. You are creating a legacy for yourself.
What do you want that legacy to be?
Think about this the next time you want to waste the day away with nonsense. Is it going to get you closer to your goals? Are you going to be disappointed in yourself?
Use your mental strength and your positive self talk to ensure that you are going to stay disciplined and fight through the urge to be lazy.
Envision yourself as the person that you aspire to be.
Do you know how to get yourself there? Do you have a plan on what you’re going to do today, tomorrow, or the next day?
If you don’t have a plan, then start making one today.
Wrapping it up
We all struggle with discipline and self doubt. It’s not an easy thing to stop comparing yourself to others and it’s not easy to stay disciplined every day.
But these are two of the things that are going to make the biggest difference in your life.
Don’t look at other people and envy their position in life. Look at them and be happy for their success and truly believe that you will reach whatever level of success that you have set out to reach.
Make a little progress every day.