I recently had to prepare for an IELTS test, an international standardized test for non-native English speakers. Before starting, I contacted people who had taken the test. They explained the structure of the test. It includes four sections: Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. This helped me understand the nature of the test. It also clarified what motivated them to achieve results with the test. Five people, five different stories. And one pattern in each of the stories. It was hard to achieve results without getting a tutor to help me prepare for the test. That looked strange because I have always prepared myself for different exams. However, I visited a language school. The school played a crucial role in my success, preparing me for the test and making hiring a tutor a viable option. During my first visit with the school representative, I had to listen to lectures about how people are disorganized today. If I do not hire a tutor to help me, it will take me at least twice as long to get remarkable results. While achieving the best result was never my primary goal, I prepared myself. After a month of preparation, the day of the exam came. To my surprise, the test was not so difficult, at least for me, but people in the room were nervous and looked insecure (A girl sitting next to me broke her pencil three times during the first part of the test). The room was quiet, but sitting next to the window and having a view of a beautiful park in front of me, I was relaxed and not thinking of what would come. Two weeks after the test, I was sitting at home when I got an email saying that my results from the test were ready. Opening the link in the e-mail took me to my account on the organization responsible for the test-taking website. Surprisingly, I scored 8,5 out of 9 for the whole test. While I was surprised by the result I got through the feedback section, I understood that two parts contributed to my score – punctuation, which is my weakness. I always had what to improve, and the listening part was where I was distracted by the girl sitting next to me, who was breaking her pencils and didn’t answer five or six questions.
At work, my colleagues asked me how the test went the next day, and when I shared the result, they looked shocked. A lady whose son was living in England told me this must be a mistake because the number of people with such a score is not high, even after more extended preparation periods. This sounded unnatural to me, but at the end of the same day, I sat down to examine what had happened in the past month to get the results I had achieved on the test. Looking back in time, I saw several defining steps. The significance of this score was not just a number; it opened up new opportunities for me, both personally and professionally. It also underscored the value of introspection and reflection in our personal growth and achievement.
Despite the initial disbelief, I took a moment at the end of the day to reflect on the past month. As I revisited the defining steps of my journey, I began to see the path to my success more clearly.
Shock from the news
While seeing the preparation materials on the website, I signed up for self-preparation and was more than surprised. More than sixty hours of training videos and practicing parts that exceeded twenty-five hours. This was like a shock for me, compared to the eighteen hours of training proposed by the organization offering certification to the participants. The only difference is that I had to invest those eighteen hours, seven complete weeks, and then sign up for the first possible date for the exam. This could have meant that I had to invest up to three to four months in preparation and examinations without knowing if I had succeeded or needed to do it again. While shocked initially, I quickly got on my feet and moved to analyze the part of my journey. That lowered my stress level and gave me some perspective. The shock from the news, which was the sheer amount of preparation required, was a wake-up call, a realization that success often requires more effort than we initially anticipate. Being shocked by new content or a situation is a common experience. But moving from shock to action is even more critical if you want to succeed.
Analyzing the whole agenda
The second important step for achieving success is getting the whole picture in front of you. You cannot have a good plan and stick to it if there is no clear vision of the final goal and why you need to achieve it. With the analysis, the main milestones for your plan are quickly showing up.
A well-defined plan is crucial for success, with each milestone clearly outlined. Understanding the significance of each step is key to staying on track and achieving your goals.
To discipline yourself for executing an action, you will need to first understand what the action that will be started will lead to in the end. Then, and this is important, evaluate the value of the final result for yourself, not for others, but for yourself and what you think might be a success for you.
With these preparation steps comes execution, and discipline plays a crucial role.
Now, let us go forward and see how discipline creates success. Let me start with a story. It is a trivial one, but it happened to me many times. I have tried to get in shape several times in the last fifteen years. No diets, no trainers, and no apps helped me. I was excited at the beginning of the process (as many others are), but I realized several months later that I had failed again. I have tried again for many years until a year and a half ago when I sat down and analyzed my past actions. There are no trainers, nutritionists, or dietitians, just me. And I have found a pattern in everything I have done. Starting the plan for getting in shape wasn’t the problem. Most of the plans even answered all my needs and specifics as a working person. The problem was somewhere else. And that somewhere else was in my head with the willingness to stick to the plan accurately and long enough to build the habit of the change I needed. So, to achieve my goal, I finally had to decide on a strategy and stick to it. After much reading on the topic, I have built a plan, which has shown excellent results. However, what helped me most was the discipline I constructed and the supporting factors I implemented in my environment. Here is how I did it, and I hope it helps you to do the same.
Stop everything and move backward.
The fast-paced world around us does not help build sustainable habits. It exists to show us that we must act according to the moment we experience. But doing that hinders long-term results and removes meaning from our lives. You have taken the first step when you stop and look at what you are for as long as you need to realize your statement of mind and body. No prerequisites are required, just the willingness to overcome the temptation to act directly and focus on what may come as you calm down and look at things differently. This understanding of yourself is a powerful tool, empowering you to take control and shape your life with confidence.
Group what you have found.
Some findings may be disappointing, but what makes us make mistakes in our diary is that we tend to solve all the issues as we see them. It is human nature to show how successful we are, and unfortunately, the joke is on us in situations like that. What you have found is crucial for the following decisions you will make, and the better you catalogize them, the better your action plan will be after that. Grouping all information into buckets helps not only with understanding it but also with the next steps. The more precise the building of these blocks or buckets is, the more accurate and up to the point the next steps in the process will be.
Look at the bucketed information one by one.
Now, you have the information in buckets, and looking at it as a whole is more effortless. Many people do just that- scan the information and make quick decisions. But that can’t be further from what can be done here. Collecting information by buckets allows one to only look at the bucketed list and focus more precisely on the details each bucket offers. Excluding what is not part of the bucket’s topic helps focus and better understand what has happened and what has led to the consequence.
Collect the most important points into one picture.
Picturing is not a new technique, but many people and leaders still miss it. Using the main points from each bucket and structuring them into a bigger picture is another milestone that moves the person toward the goal of building sustainable self-discipline over time. Piece by piece, slowly coming up with what was mentioned or found, and finding its place in the big picture. Although this exercise looks simple, it is still one of the most challenging in building sustainable self-discipline.
Create several versions of your plan to discipline yourself.
People often start a change with the intent to finish it. However, as humans, we are intended to stick to what we know best and what makes us feel comfortable. I have made the same mistake. Like one of the levels in my plan, I stuck to it until realizing there was no progress, and I was even regressing to what I was initially. So, I started thinking of what was wrong. In the end, I realized nothing was terrible, but the version of my plan differed from my personal level of internal growth and willingness. This is where I created three plans: realistic, pessimistic, and optimistic. All three plans represented part of my journey with different levels of success. But what is essential is that every plan is a step forward. It should happen the same with you; creating a plan means that the person should be able to recognize their limits at the moment and create different growth scenarios that add value. Of course, the value will differ as a weight in the three plans, but the main point is adding progress, no matter the chosen plan.
Revise and mix wherever needed.
I don’t like plans that stick to what is defined and don’t look outside of it. It is the same with the discipline building. When something is too easy or looks irrelevant, and you still follow it just because it is part of the plan already created, you are forming a mini comfort zone and hurting your gains. Building discipline and habit out of it is an action agenda where you constantly challenge yourself. This makes you stronger and creates opportunities for personal growth and change. A disciplined person trying to bring something new should do what is needed and not stay in their comfort zone for long. The more they are in, the less progress is made, and the more they start turning into the negatives and conformity that kill the gains. Revising the plan and making adjustments when needed is a drive for stimulating change and adding value for yourself and others by building your new look. Remember, modifying your plan is not a setback; it’s a step forward. It’s a reassurance that you’re on the right path, and it should fill you with confidence in your approach.
Appropriately praise your moves.
Now, we talk so much about praising, and still, according to a Forbes article and research published in 2023, only thirty-one percent of people feel that they get the appropriate praise and rewards. People are award-driven beings. With the intent to be praised, we do many things. We put some more effort into work, hoping to get a bonus; we shop at a store to reach a particular sum to get a special discount, etc. But in many situations, it turns out that we fail dramatically when we try to praise ourselves. That is why it’s essential to focus on finding those personally valuable praises for the specific person, you, and create a list of them with associations of where and when praise should be used. It is like a stimulus and reaction exercise. However, knowing what reactions can lead to a specific stimulus (praise) softens the agenda and makes people do things in one particular and more structured way that can lead to that final praise.
IN CONCLUSION:
There is much to say about self-discipline, but regardless of what we write or say, building internal discipline is a structured process with soft elements that require attention. The better the elements are understood in the process, the more likely the person is to change in the desired direction and achieve the desired results.
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 