What is the one thing holding you back from reaching your goals?

What is the one thing holding you back from reaching your goals?
 
Simple, just look in the mirror.

That’s right. The biggest stumbling block to our success is often the person looking right back at us.

Why? Because change is hard. Real long-term change, the grind isn’t easy. 
 
It takes us out of our comfort zone. We have to work, force ourselves to do it when the easy option is to quit, sit back and take it easy.

I mean it's much easier to sit in front of Netflix and eat junk food than it is to go get some exercise and cook a healthy meal.
 
When we start something that’s the fun part. This is where that wonderful word motivation comes in to play. Motivation is a nice and fluffy word that we all have in abundance when we decide to start a new project.
 
After all, starting a new weight loss program, diet …is fun. We are ready to dive with both feet in and see the change happens before our eyes.
 
Now for a few of us, this might be enough. Maybe we see enough consistent change to coast through on motivation alone.
 
But for most of us, this just won’t happen. It can’t be relied on.
 
But you know what can. What gets the job done every time?
 
Discipline.
 
Discipline beats motivation every time.
 
Discipline doesn’t care if you are motivated or not. All discipline cares about is getting the job done, seeing out the task at hand.
 
Discipline truly can guarantee you success in almost any endeavor. It allows you to stay true to yourself. True to your goals. True to your values.
 
Now that’s all very easy to say – just be disciplined but not everyone feels that way all the time.
 
Well, the good news is that discipline, like any good habit, can be cultivated and nurtured.
 
All it takes is some commitment to do it.
 
So how to develop discipline?
 
Let’s make this goal specific. If we put this in context of a weight loss goal with a diet and training program to elicit the desired effect.
 
Step 1- start off by asking yourself how important is the goal? Why is it important? Really dig down not only on what you want to achieve but why.
 
If the what and the why is not important enough it will be hard to develop discipline around that particular goal.
 
Step 2- make a commitment to yourself. Write it down. Sign a contract. Be able to pull it out and see it on a daily basis. I mean you are a person of your word aren’t you? Just having this visible reminder is easy enough to reinforce discipline. 
 
And by writing your goals down you are 70% more likely to achieve them, especially if you revisit them.

Step 3- put yourself in an environment to succeed and celebrate the wins. Sometimes we forget how far we have come. Change often happens slowly around us and often we take our success as the new normal but never take the time to look at how far we have come. Celebrate the wins no matter how small, they reinforce that the discipline is worth it. The more success we generate from being disciplined the easier it is to develop more discipline.
 
In my opinion, discipline leads to success in any aspect of life. It doesn’t guarantee it but without it, we are almost certain to fail.
 
What are you working on right now that you are needing to be disciplined about – I would love to know.