Building Self Discipline

This article came off, to me, as an individual quest for self discipline. Unless I missed it, the author doesn't discuss the influence of other people on your attitudes and motivations. One addition that I think would help someone gain more self discipline is to associate with people (in the same field of interest) who have great self discipline.

As an example, I'll point to myself. I am not the most self-disciplined person. I had planned to do a lot of things this past summer which, frankly, I couldn't force myself to do.

However, about a year ago when I went to college as a freshman CS student, I joined my school's gymnastics team. Now, I've been a gymnast for most of my life, and I've generally been a lazy gymnast. When I first started practicing with my new team, though, I was incredibly motivated to attain the skills of my teammates, and to surpass them. Someone who was to become a good friend of mine asked one day during gym, "Why are you working so hard? Take things at your own pace, and you'll make progress before you know it," to which I said, "No, I need to keep working out like this. Otherwise I won't be able to contribute to the team."

Before joining that team, I had only really been working for myself. Men's Gymnastics, prior to college, is incredibly individual. Yes, there are teams, but before college the age range at a normal gym is 5 - 18 years old. There are tons of conflicting levels of maturity and motivation, and it isn't rare that someone will quit halfway through the season. Thing is, before college, this can help you more than it hurts you, because one more competitor is out of the way, making it easier for you to win.

Point is, once I joined my college team, I gained new reasons to continue to train. In college, no one quits mid-season, save for medical reasons and other emergencies. It is unthinkable to quit mid-season. Why? Because there are other people depending on me to do well, so that the team as a whole does well. There are people coming to me with questions and a desire for help, and I feel obligated to assist them and pass on any advice that I have. I feel obligated to be at the same level of skill as my teammates at minimum.

More than that, we keep against each other so that through competition, we will all become better at what we do. If we weren't in a team environment, it wouldn't be possible for us to have even half of the motivation to do well. If we weren't a team, then each of us would walk a lonely path to our goals.

To wrap up, being part of a group or team can have enormous benefits to your self discipline and motivation.