Author: Fei Xiaobai, the main creator of Intensive Reading. This article was first published on the Intensive Reading WeChat official account (ID: jingdu999), and the article has been reprinted with authorization.
01
When I was sorting out my computer over the weekend, I happened to see a movie I downloaded in the early years, "Roll it! A Xin", because I liked the protagonist very much, so I couldn’t bear to delete it, so I clicked on it again.
The mother who was mopping the floor saw Peng Yuyan on the screen and suddenly said, This gymnast is really handsome!
What she didn’t know was that Peng Yuyan was not a professional gymnast. In order to make this movie, he trained hard for 8 months, practicing gymnastics for more than ten hours every day, and made himself a professional gymnast.
After the film was released, Olympic gymnastics champion Liu Xuan and Chen Yibing couldn’t help but praise him. He was also shortlisted for the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor because of this film.
However, Peng Yuyan’s achievements in his work are not explained by the word hard work, but stem from decades of self-discipline.
Many girls were fascinated by Peng Yuyan’s high value and six strong chocolate abs, but they did not know that their male god was once a fat boy with a strong appetite.
In primary school, Peng Yuyan was only 158cm tall, but weighed 70kg.
This trend of horizontal growth has been maintained until the third year of high school, and Peng Yuyan feels that he can no longer gain weight.
Therefore, he began to exercise hard every day and became crazy about basketball. Later, he stopped growing horizontally and began to grow vertically to a height of 182 centimeters.
Later, in order to receive a good script after work, no matter how busy he is, he has to take time out to exercise for several hours every day, and his appetite is strictly controlled.
He confessed that he is fat-prone, and in order to diet, he has not eaten enough for more than ten years, and has almost forgotten what sugar tastes like.
I used to wonder, is a person’s appearance doomed from the outset, or can it be changed through hard work?
Peng Yuyan’s example answered the question in my heart.
As long as you develop the self-discipline that goes deep into the bone marrow, your appearance will also change.
02
Let’s take another example from a colleague.
Two months ago, I made a bet with a friend that if he could lose 10 kilograms of weight during a summer vacation, I would lose, and the bet was about 2,000 yuan.
During the period, since everyone was busy, they were too lazy to contact.
Yesterday, this kid came to me, I was really shocked, my whole person really lost a lot of weight, a big circle.
I pulled him up on the scale at home, and I was even more stunned. I actually lost 15 kilograms in two months.
I said, "You take medicine."
He rolled his eyes at me. "Whether you take medicine or not, you will lose anyway."
WeChat transferred the account obediently and invited him to dinner at night. I was too curious about how he lost weight.
I thought he was joking, but the two of them still ordered four dishes, but he really ate very little, causing me, a person who can’t see waste, to eat until my stomach bursts.
Later, he revealed the secret to successful weight loss: self-discipline and perseverance.
Eat breakfast normally every day, eat less at noon, and hardly eat at night. A glass of milk or a little fruit will be gone, and no matter how delicious things are placed in front of you, you will control not to touch them.
Every day, I run ten laps around the school playground not far away. If it rains, I will climb the stairs. Once I climb, I will go back and forth ten times without interruption.
Remember that I once read a saying: How disciplined a person is, how beautiful life is.
Many people are confused, their salaries are not high, and their careers are not going well. In the final analysis, they are all defeated by self-discipline.
03
George Bernard Shaw once said that self-control is the instinct of the strongest.
No matter in school, in the workplace, or in personal life, self-discipline is the most important factor for success.
Those who are not laissez-faire, do not sink, and have strong self-mastery must have an iron-like self-discipline.
The experience of extreme self-discipline is definitely painful at first, and it cannot achieve immediate results, but as long as self-discipline is integrated into the blood and becomes a habit, everyone will benefit for life.
However, many people are frustrated in the process of self-discipline, and one of the important reasons is that they ignore one thing: to form good habits and quit bad habits, the key is to focus on what you want to do, rather than on the bad habits you want to quit.
If you want to quit the habit of overeating, don’t always think about eating, but choose a good nutrition book, learn to eat regularly, and find things to do that you can’t remember.
If you want to get into the habit of regular exercise, don’t keep thinking about "it’s too hard", but think more about the benefits that regular exercise brings to you;
If you want to be debt-free, don’t dwell on the things you have to work hard to get out of debt until you pay it off. Instead, look forward to the ease and ease of being freed from overwhelming debt.
Be sure to focus on the things you want to do, not the things you hate. Expect the rewards you will receive, and you will rush towards the goal.
Secondly, the development of good habits must also recognize the importance of repetition.
Every action you take shapes your mind, and the more you do it, the more entrenched it becomes, says Meyer, author of Good Habits, Bad Habits.
Taiwanese writer Lin Qingxuan is already 60 years old, but he still requires himself to write 3,000 words a day, not for publication, but to practice writing. He says that writing is a work that moves forward at a constant pace, accumulating repeatedly in order to break through. He will not indulge himself.
Therefore, his writing has a long lifespan.
Therefore, deep-seated self-discipline is the repeated insistence on doing the right thing.
04
The question is, what do you do every day to live the life you want?
① Pay attention to your thoughts, words and deeds
Thoughts and words are the starting point for forming all good habits and breaking all bad ones. We must learn to say what we really need, not what we feel.
If you’re indecisive, don’t say "I’m in pain making decisions," but "I’m decisive." If you want to lose weight, don’t say "I can’t control my mouth, I can’t stop once I eat it," over and over again. Insist on how you are now, and it will always be the same.
Someone once did a survey: an analysis of 2,500 men and women who suffered failure found that "indecision" ranked first among the 31 major factors of failure.
It can be seen how important it is for a person to develop the habit of making decisions.
Excellence is not the same as perfection. The vast majority of procrastinators are perfectionists because they are forced to achieve perfection, but they are afraid of not achieving it, so they repeatedly procrastinate.
The so-called excellence is to accomplish ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
So here are three ways to improve discipline.I don’t know how effective it is, but I think you can at least give it a try.
Don’t procrastinate. Start by reading this article, think carefully, and set a goal, preferably in the short and long term.
For example, I want to learn PPT this month and be the best in the company; I want to win 10 customers this month; our team wants to earn 200,000 this month; I want to get my teacher certificate and accounting certificate this year.
According to your actual situation and needs, set a goal, write it down and put it in a prominent position, and always remind yourself how far you are from your goal.
Make a daily work and life list
You read that right, making a list of work and life every day doesn’t take you long, but it works well.
No matter how good your memory is, it is always better to write down the content of your work every day, and then complete it according to importance and priority.
Including work and rest time, when you need to rest, and when you get up, especially getting up is the best indicator of how self-disciplined a person is.
In short, it is a principle that today’s work must be done well today, and it must not be delayed later.
Turn off electronics
When working or studying, turn off electronic devices such as mobile phones and iPads. If you really need to keep your mobile phone open, then please turn off the Internet.
You will find that a lot of chatting is unnecessary, and a lot of news and information can be read after work and study.
In fact, if you can complete 90% of these points, you are already excellent. Self-discipline is not self-discipline because of self-discipline. It should become a habit and attitude of yours.
05
There is no deeper self-discipline than insisting on doing these three little things every day, which is also the standard habit of every elite.
Many people do not take their habits too seriously, but when it comes to fate, they will subconsciously sit upright, look solemn, and think deeply.
There is nothing wrong with valuing destiny, but there is a simple and practical truth that words lead to action, actions become habits, habits determine character, and character determines destiny.
The choices that really make people better will not be too comfortable. Be hard on yourself, and your future self will thank your current self.