Discipline - mental attitude
Bronislav Klučka, Nov 08, 2025, 06:15 PM
Let's take a look at how to build discipline. The journey begins in your head, in your attitude. In your attitude toward the thing you are striving for, in your attitude toward yourself.
And you will need to take certain facts into account.
First up is your mental attitude. You can't have big dreams and goals and at the same time be unwilling to do anything about them. And it all starts in your head.
The ability to delay gratification
This is probably the first thing you need to understand: achieving what you want will take time, months, years... (can you hear your brain discouraging you from doing it? How much nicer it would be to give up and watch TV? 😉). The ability to delay gratification is the ability to overcome the need for immediate comfort in order to achieve a distant and uncertain goal. It is a prerequisite for even getting started. Yes, it will be unpleasant, yes, it will hurt, it will take a "terribly" long time, and in the end, it may not work out.
And maybe it will.
But the question is, what is the alternative? You won't do anything, and in three years, you'll be in the same place.
Look at the last year. Don't you sometimes think about how much time you've wasted? Where could you be today if you had started learning a foreign language five years ago? If you had started exercising six months ago? And above all, how quickly it has gone by... Another six months or five years will go by just as quickly, and you will either be in the same place as you are today, or you will have moved forward.
Small victories
You probably have big goals. And that's okay, don't be afraid of them, aim high and don't settle for less! On the other hand, this often leaves us feeling paralyzed. The goal is too big, where to start? How to achieve it when there is so much to do?
Every step brings you closer to your goal. Don't focus on what you have to accomplish in a year. Focus on what you can do today. Especially in the beginning, it doesn't matter what it is, just start with anything.
You can have two people with the same talent and skills, on the same starting line. One of them works on their dream day after day, the other does not. Who will achieve their goal? And yes, it's that simple. What often separates success/progress/achieving dreams is the willingness to work consistently on a given thing.
If you focus on the fact that you've been working on a given goal for three months and don't see the end, you have a long way to go.
Small victories are what can keep you going, so focus on what you've already accomplished, what you've done. If you only had an hour to work on your dream today and you made progress, rejoice! Praise yourself! We tend to be very good at criticizing ourselves, and sometimes that's necessary, but let's be just as good at appreciating what we've accomplished. The feeling of moving forward and a job well done will motivate you to repeat the process, and if you learn to appreciate the value of small tasks, you'll start to notice the results you've achieved more than the months and years ahead of you.
Fall in love with the process
Not only will it take a long time to achieve your goal, but you will probably spend most of your time doing uninteresting, boring, repetitive work. Do you want to achieve your dream? Or do you want to have fun every day with something new, something cool? Even boring work needs to be done.
Will the work lead you to today's small victory? If so, that's great! Okay, the work will be boring at times, but a small victory awaits you at the end. It's worth it. Everyone can do what they enjoy, but few can do what is necessary. Wouldn't it be amazing to be that kind of person? Someone who just gets things done? Enjoy the feeling of being someone who moves forward regardless of whether the sun is shining or it's raining.
Focus on the process: "If I do this, I will get that result." If you get bogged down in "Yeah, but that's going to be a pain, and then that will take time, and then I'll have to deal with those people," you're actually poisoning your own thoughts. You're filling your brain with all the bad stuff.
"If I do this, I will get that result" is focusing on the positive, on the result. Will it be boring? Fine, but once it's done, it will be behind you. Will it take 30 days? If you start today, tomorrow there will only be 29...
Plans and analyses
Plans and analyses are tools, not necessities. And sometimes they can even have a negative impact if we have unrealistic expectations of the outcomes. How much of the information is objective, fixed, and known facts that we can build on, and how much is unknown and variable?
Have you ever heard the term "analysis paralysis"? It is a state in which the number of possibilities, impacts, and combinations overwhelms a person to such an extent that they become unable and afraid to make decisions and take action.
Detailed plans that don't work out lead to frustration, even if you are getting closer to your goal, but it didn't work out exactly as you wanted.
You can only realistically plan what you have control over, and you can only use hard data for analysis; in other cases, it's estimates and wishes and the like.
There is nothing wrong with planning and analysis; they can be useful, for example, for exercises, but if you are operating in a complex system, such as starting a business, you do not and cannot have "all" the data in advance. You only have a limited amount of information with limited accuracy, which you then obtain through implementation, through actually doing things. Don't get overwhelmed by analyzing millions of possibilities; each step will give you feedback and narrow down what you need to consider. What will give you answers in such situations is not more analysis, but a step that actually answers the question. Similarly, be flexible with your plan. A plan is something that was created based on current knowledge. If reality changes, change your plans and adapt.
Why am I talking about this? Plans and analyses are often used as excuses for procrastination. No, you don't need to have a perfect plan or a perfect analysis.
Discipline will drive you forward regardless of whether you have a detailed plan and perfect analysis or not. Always ask yourself if there is something you can do right now, and do it. If you need a plan or analysis, set aside half your time for it and spend the other half actively moving things forward.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is the killer of your goals and continuous improvement. Just like endless planning and "analysis paralysis," it will stop you in your tracks. You will go round and round in circles, endlessly refining one thing in detail that ultimately no one cares about and no one will appreciate.
Perfectionism is often caused by fear. Fear that someone will see your result and criticize it. Yes, they will, and the more people see it, the more people will criticize it. Accept it. Take it either as meaningless chatter ("this sucks") or as relevant feedback that will help you move forward ("this button is very difficult to click").
Instead of asking "is it perfect?", ask "does it serve its purpose?" If so, move on. The most important thing is to start, continue, and persevere. Improvements can usually be made along the way.
Moreover, in most cases, "perfect" is not even objectively measurable. Don't let others manipulate you by telling you, "If you do what I want, it will be perfect."