Struggling To Find Discipline? Try This.

I expected my discipline to appear out of thin air.

Discipline is easily attainable.

Where people fail to find discipline is when they try to create a lot of discipline in a short amount of time. Instead of a realistic goal, they set something so high that they unknowingly set themselves up for failure.

In 2017, I quit my waitressing job. I had $7,000 in the bank and I thought it would be sufficient enough to help me live through the first few months of freelancing.

I imagined that within a few weeks I would be making AT LEAST the same amount of money that I was making waitressing per week ($600-$900).

I failed miserably. I didn’t have the discipline to be a writer that made over $900 a month. I wasn’t researching how to set up long term, viable contracts. I was counting on $50 jobs to pay the bills. I was scrambling to make money and wondering why I was struggling so much.

It was because I expected my discipline to appear out of thin air.

When you talk to a successful freelance writer, you’ll find that they’re organized. Their Google Calendar is color coordinated. They have a spreadsheet for their income. They know where their leads are coming.

I didn’t have any of that, because I tried to do everything at once — instead of focusing on one thing at a time.

This is similar to saying, “I’m going to lose 30 pounds in one month!”. It’s not an attainable goal because it’s not possible to figure out what exercises to do, what macro percentages to intake, and get work outs completed in enough time to lose that weight.

The best way to develop discipline is to set small goals that cumulate into your big goal.

For example, instead of quitting my waitressing job and deciding that it was time to be a full-time writer, I should have had a plan to fill 40 hours of my week with work.

I should have read 10+ articles on organizing a freelance business.
I should have used Google Calendar to plan my work weeks, allocating all extra time to marketing.

I should have figured out how much money I needed to live and only quit when I had enough saved or had enough work coming in that I would be able to sustain myself.

If I had broken my large goal of being a freelance content writer into these smaller goals that built the foundation of my business, I could have succeeded much faster. Instead, I struggled, my bank account depleted, and I made my life 10x harder than it needed to be.

Discipline is easily attainable if you start small and work your way into your larger goal.