Do it your self discipline!

Do it Your Self-Discipline!
Copyright © http://www.builddiscipline.com 2013 All Rights Reserved. Page 2
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But most of all… Have fun with the 'Do it Your Self-Discipline' eBook!
Copyright © 2013 Seph Fontane Pennock. All rights reserved worldwide.

Contents
Foreword ....................................................................................................................4
Technique Nr. 1: Routines and Rituals......................................................................5
Technique Nr. 2: Using Cognitive Dissonance .........................................................8
Technique Nr. 3: Eliminating Distractions..............................................................10
Technique Nr. 4: Using Peer Pressure.....................................................................12
Technique Nr. 5: Reward and Punishment ..............................................................15
Technique Nr. 6: Your Future Self ..........................................................................18
Technique Nr. 7: Visual Reminders.........................................................................21
Technique Nr. 8: Find your Weaknesses.................................................................25
Technique Nr. 9: Patience and Persistence..............................................................28
Technique Nr. 10: Find Friendly Competition ........................................................32

Foreword
Hi there!
First of all, I'd like to
thank you for taking an
interest in my eBook.
It shows that you take
your own development
seriously and that you're
willing to learn more
about self-discipline. I
admire that greatly!
My name is Seph, I'm 23 years old and I'm from the Netherlands. For
the last four years, I've specialized myself in self-development, with a
main focus on self-discipline. Since October 2011 I've started my own
self-development blog: BuildDiscipline.com.
Well, let's get started!
This eBook features the first 10 self-discipline techniques that I've
covered on my blog, put together into one nice printable eBook for you
to read. After reading the materials covered in this book, it will be all
up to you to go out and apply the things you've learned in your life.
I'd love to engage in conversation with you via the comments on my
blog, since through conversation we can learn from each other and get
as many different perspectives as possible.
In case you have any questions, recommendations, found spelling
mistakes, or need help with anything, just let me know!
Twitter: @Build_Disciplin
Facebook: Build Discipline
Email: info@builddiscipline.com

Technique Nr. 1: Routines and Rituals
What is a ritual?
One of the most important
things that you should know
about building self-discipline, is
that it takes willpower to do
anything that is not yet a routine
or ritual. Building self-discipline
is therefore not only about
finding ways to make yourself do
what you are supposed to do, but about lowering the threshold to
perform certain activities. For instance, brushing your teeth has
become a ritual for you. It doesn’t take a lot of effort nor willpower to
perform this activity, let’s say twice a day. The reason for this is
obvious; you've been doing this your whole life, so you don’t need to
think about it anymore.
If you need to build another routine later
in your life, wearing your contact lenses
for example, or taking them out, you can
easily create a new routine by coupling it
to your old routine (brushing your teeth).
Case Study: Mike is a boy of 16 years
old and likes to play the keyboard. No
matter how much he likes it, he can’t get
himself to practice regularly. He takes his
keyboard out of his closet at times and plays the same familiar songs a
couple of times which he enjoys. However, his music teacher has
already acknowledged his ability to play these old songs and has given
him more difficult ones. During the keyboard lessons, Mike feels guilty
because he hasn’t practiced these new songs enough. During the
lesson, he tells himself over and over again that he will practice the
new plays this week. "I will really do it this week!" This week however,
like all the others before, he fails to practice.
How can Mike lower the threshold to practicing the new plays in this
example? Well, the first thing would be to install the keyboard in a
"The secret of your
future is hidden in
your daily routine."
-Mike Murdock

more accessible place, such as the living room or in his own room. The
living room would probably be the best option, because he would feel
the social control of his parents and he will be more likely to want to
impress them by playing well.
To get the keyboard out of the
closet would be an action that
demands self-discipline already.
In order to maximize the chance
of success, we will eliminate as
many of these steps as possible
that require self-discipline.
Therefore, the music sheets will
need to be right in front of him as
soon as Mike stands in front of the
keyboard. This will prevent Mike
from playing the old familiar songs
he knows by heart and would
remind him to practice the new
songs.
After doing this, it will be a good idea for Mike to couple (or replace)
playing the keyboard to an already existing routine. Mike always
watches TV in the morning right after his breakfast before he goes to
school. In this case, it would be a good idea for Mike to start playing
the keyboard right after his breakfast and before going to school.
Doing this will help him replace an old and less useful routine with a
new routine which will help Mike to perform better and feel better
about himself.

To sum up:
Step 1: Define the new routine or ritual that you want.
Step 2: Lower the threshold to perform the new routine by having the
materials you need for this activity close to you, or at least in sight.
(e.g. If you want to go running more often, simply try putting on your
running shoes in the morning as a ritual)
Step 3: Couple or replace the new routine with an already existing
one.
These three simple steps will have an amazing impact on your
performance without the need to increase your self-discipline. You can
do the exact same thing for negative habits as well. In that case, it’s
just a matter of increasing the threshold. Now we will get into more
useful techniques for boosting your self-discipline!
What are your experiences regarding this technique?
Join the conversation by clicking here!

Technique Nr. 2: Using Cognitive Dissonance
What we often do is
deceive ourselves into
believing what we are
doing is important so
that we can pursue
what is fun, while
gaining a feeling of
relevance. This is
what's called 'cognitive
dissonance reduction'
that goes on inside
ours heads, that is
meant to create
consistency between our actions and our beliefs. There is a sense in
which you can say that you are fooling yourself. However, if we
wouldn't fool yourself dozens of times a day, we would most likely go
mad.
Our actions continuously conflict with our beliefs. The conflicting
beliefs and actions create feelings of discomfort of which we want to
get rid, that's what is meant by the term 'cognitive dissonance'.
Cognitive dissonance reduction is the elimination of a previously held
belief, or ceasing to perform a certain action, to create consistency in
your own perception again.
Considering this piece of information, the following self-discipline
technique can be very valuable to you. Think of all the things that you
are doing in your daily life that do not
bring you any closer to the goals you
have.
These things can be very simple such as:
surfing the internet, watching television or
going for a coffee with friends. Even in
your work place, you might find yourself
doing this by: chatting with colleagues, reading the news or checking
your email every 30 minutes.
"I will procrastinate
tomorrow"

How often are you telling yourself that these things are relevant, while
they are actually preventing you from doing the work you really need
or want to do? Keep the score for just one day and you’ll be amazed to
find the great amount of actions of which you tell yourself that are
relevant, while they’re actually not.
Self-Discipline Exercise: Ask yourself: Is it really necessary that I
perform this activity at this particular moment? Will doing so bring me
any closer to reaching the goals that I have set?
If you’re not working on any goal at that moment, any activity is
‘justified’. However, if you do have a certain goal for your day, or at
work, ask yourself the questions mentioned above.
Are you ready to supercharge your productivity?
Click here for the Ultimate Productivity Mastership Course!

Technique Nr. 3: Eliminating Distractions
Eliminate all the things that
distract you from doing what you
are supposed to be doing. Several
common types of distractions are
such as the TV (turn it off!), your
cell phone, email, other social
media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
and going for a cup of coffee. The
same goes for smoking, in case
you’re a smoker. Please note that
this self-discipline technique is
not about NOT doing certain
things but it is about not doing
them at particular times.
You can’t get in a state of flow, as psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi calls it, with your cell phone ringing all the time, or
emails popping up continuously. Ideally, what you want to do is to
have a couple of fixed moments each day during which you deal with
your email, text-messages and so on.
Isn’t it ridiculous to be interrupted from your activity every time
someone else wants to tell or ask you something, whether it’s
important or unimportant? It is, right?
That’s why I have developed a simple rule
to deal with all sorts of media that an
individual has to deal with in the 21st
century. I eliminate distractions by
dealing with all email, cell phone and
social media activities on fixed moments
during the day.
This allows me to keep my focus on the
right activities, to experience flow in
performing these activities and to live
more mindfully throughout the day, by
not being distracted every 5 minutes or so. Try this for just one day. If
it doesn’t work for you; money back guaranteed!
"Concentrate all your
thoughts upon the
work at hand. The
sun’s rays do not burn
until brought to a
focus"
-Alexander Graham Bell

Another thing I do if I really want to get in the state of flow is to just
be mindful or meditate for a couple of minutes. I find that even doing
nothing and thinking about nothing for 5 minutes can completely free
my mind. It stops me from thinking about everything I need to do and
allows me to get in touch with the present moment. So what I am
really trying to say is that the distractions do not solely come from
physical things or people in your environment. They can actually come
from yourself, out of your own head as well. Clear your mind from
these distractions by meditating for a brief period before starting with
what needs to be done. It will allow you to keep your focus.
Also, try not to go for a cup of coffee or for a smoke every 30 minutes.
You don’t need this in order to perform, and besides, it is often even
counterproductive. Drink sufficient water instead. As soon as you
manage to make a routine out of eliminating distractions, you will start
feeling more and more focused and get more work done in less time.
As Lao Tzu said in the Tao te Ching:
I'm excited to hear what you think about this technique.
“If I have even just a little sense, I will walk on the main road and my
only fear will be of straying from it. Keeping to the main road is easy,
but people love to be side tracked.”
-Lao Tzu

Technique Nr. 4: Using Peer Pressure
To ensure that you
stick to your plans
about the new habit
you want, try using
peer pressure to your
advantage by making a
public commitment.
You’ll realise that
there’s no turning back!
Yes, that’s right. Post it
on your Facebook page,
tweet it to the world,
send all your contacts
an email, and tell your plans to everyone you speak to in real life. You
don’t want other people to see how inconsistent or weak you are of
course. No one does. That is exactly why this technique works. This
self-discipline technique does not consist of the most positive sort of
motivation, but it certainly belongs to the most effective ones.
An excellent example to illustrate this technique would be those people
who want to quit smoking. Now, I’ve never been much of a smoker
myself, but I do know lots of them and I have seen their attempts at
quitting smoking fail more times than I can recall. In fact, if I had a
dollar for every time I’ve witnessed a failed attempt to quit smoking,
I’d probably be writing this from the
sunny climes of the French Riviera.
However, the few successful attempts
that I’ve witnessed all included the
element of 'public commitment', which
triggered group pressure or social
pressure in turn.
That’s right. All those smokers told
everyone around them about their plans
of becoming a non-smoker and thereby committing themselves into
doing so publicly.
“The only thing
exceptional about
successful people is
their ability to do the
work.”

Now, we’re not going to discuss how you can quit smoking here, but
we’re going to look at the force behind these commitments and why
they work so well. The force behind this technique is peer pressure.
We don’t care that much about looking bad to ourselves, but when it
comes to other people, we want to make a good impression, be
consistent and NEVER ever fail. You don’t have to fight these feelings
of public pressure, it’s just human nature. It’s an evolutionary thing.
Simply try to make this human trait work to your advantage!
I found out that the people from peer-pressure.com have designed a
system that allows you to achieve maximum results using this peer
pressure principle with the help of an iPhone app. There certainly is an
app for everything these days.
You can also join an online forum of people who are working on
creating the same habit as you. Whether it’s going for a jog every day,
eating healthy, training your public speaking or quitting smoking;
there is a forum for this. Simply join an online or offline community
and surround yourself with people who are struggling with the same
exact issues as you are. These people will mostly be very supportive,
give you all sorts of advice and provide the moral support that you
need. Beware of those that are too pessimistic and try to discourage
you.
Obviously, the more you care about what other people think of you,
the better this technique will work for you. Research has been done to
back this principle up and it has proven to have a significant effect on
women who wanted to lose weight. (U. Nyer & Dellande, 2009) This
study shows that the public commitment principle is effective
especially when the commitment is long-term. People who care more
about the opinions of other people or even have genuine fear of social
disapproval will benefit the most from this principle. Those who don't
really care about what others think of them, will unfortunately benefit
less from this principle, even though it can be a laudable trait.
What is often neglected, but in my opinion is one of the most
important steps in creating a new habit or quitting a negative one, is
to identify and eliminate the situations in which you are most likely to
fall back into your old patterns of behaviour. This hasn’t got much to
do with publicly committing yourself but is simply of major importance

for building that new habit you want. When are you most likely to light
that cigarette again? What are the moments when you just can’t resist
that big good ol’ burger? Think about these situations and try to avoid
them as much as possible.
If you want to reduce your alcohol consumption, don’t enter a bar! If
you drive past a fast-food joint that you can’t resist on your way back
home, just take a detour! If some of your colleagues are going for a
smoke every hour, don’t go with them. Socialize with other colleagues
instead, or just continue working and don’t allow yourself to get into a
situation in which you know you will succumb into temptation.
To sum up:
Step 1: Make a public commitment about your new habit
Step 2: Allow yourself to experience the social pressure
Step 3: Join a community of people that are in the same spot as you,
online or offline
Step 4: Identify and eliminate situations in which you are most likely
to fall back into your old habits.
Are you ready to become the master of your own fate?

Technique Nr. 5: Reward and Punishment
Feedback is very important in
life. Because the human self-
reflection capacity is generally
very limited, we need feedback
from others all the time,
concerning all aspects of our
lives. We need our boss or
peers to tell us which traits we
need to change in our
professional life. We need our
significant other to tell us that we are either over-caring, or not caring
enough.
If you’ve ever played a team sport, you have probably gotten lots of
feedback from your team members as well, which is good. Feedback
helps us see things that we could have never discovered by ourselves.
But the thing is this; if you are setting your own goals and no one else
is there to provide you with some useful feedback, how do we make
sure that we don’t fall into the traps that our limited self-reflection
causes?
This can be done by developing a system in which you get the most
objective and direct feedback out there. You get this feedback from
seeing whether you’ve achieved the goals that you’ve set for yourself.
Let me illustrate this technique
with an example. Let’s say you
want to go for a jog three times a
week, for at least 30 minutes per
run. You can either write this
down, or enter it into your digital
system or whatever system you
use to ensure you stay on track.
For instance, I always put a
check-mark behind my goals or
activities when I’ve fulfilled them
and a cross if I didn’t. By doing
this, I can easily add up all the
check-marks and tell whether I’m
"It matters not how strait the
gate,
How charged with
punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
-W.E. Henley

on track at the end of the week.
Pillars of this Self-Discipline Technique:
Research that has been done in the field of operant conditioning shows
us there are a couple of important elements when it comes to learning
a new behaviour:
Step 1: We need positive reinforcement (i.e. rewards) for positive
behaviours and bad behaviours must be punished.
Step 2: The sooner the feedback follows the activity, the more
effective it is. Make the reward immediate!
So for your daily or weekly goals, make sure there is a reward or
punishment coupled to them. The reward doesn’t have to be that
exuberant and the punishment doesn’t have to be too severe. Just
make sure that they are appropriate and don’t go against the goals
you’re trying to reach. For instance, if you’ve managed to stay clear
from alcohol for a week, obviously, don’t reward yourself with a beer.
The same goes for dieting. Make sure the reward or punishment is not
directly food related because this might throw your diet off balance.
Buy yourself a new pair of jeans instead of a chocolate fudge brownie.
In short:
Step 3: Make sure the reward (or punishment) is appropriate
Let’s stick to the example of jogging three times a week. You’ve set
your weekly goals on Sunday evening. (This is what I usually do) Now
if you’ve managed to go for a jog on Monday morning right away,
you’re off to a good start. As soon as you enter your room after the
jog, make sure you put a check-mark behind your daily goal or weekly
goal. This depends on how you’ve organized your goal setting system
of course. Having this check-mark on the paper is a reinforcing activity
in and of itself. It is very rewarding and stimulating and some people
don’t even need a reward besides their own check-mark.
An example of a reward can be that you allow yourself to watch your
favourite show for an hour with some nice food and a can of Coke.
Other examples include: taking a nice hot bath, buying a new book
you like, going out for dinner with your spouse or doing exactly what
you want to do for the rest of the day. Remember, don’t exaggerate!

If you decide that it is more useful in your scenario to punish yourself,
make sure you’re not too hard on yourself. This might evoke negative
feelings towards your goal, which can make you give up your goal
altogether. As for me, rewards work better than punishments but it all
depends upon the situation.
To sum up:
The next time you achieve your goal (or sub-goal), have a check-mark
behind the goal, reward or punish yourself immediately and
appropriately.
If you had to remember only one thing from this article, remember the
check-marks behind the goals that you wrote down. It’s a really
powerful stuff.
I'm excited to hear what you think!

Technique Nr. 6: Your Future Self
I once had a dream, about
a man. This man was no
ordinary man; he was a
highly successful man. I
remembered everything
about him. He had a green
shirt, he looked like he
was in an amazing
physical shape and was
well-groomed.
I still remember the food and drinks that were in his fridge, what his
house by the lakeside looked like and his driveway, everything. This
man invited me to walk down the street with him, which I did. He
started telling me all kinds of things that he had learned throughout
his life. They were insights that had changed him forever and
important life experiences. It was so vivid.
Then, all of a sudden, I woke up. I didn’t want to wake up though. I
wanted to stay in this dream forever, learn from this amazing man and
be part of his compelling ‘bigger than life’ lifestyle. I’ve never felt like
this before. It was too good. I had to wake up, as it always happens
when something is too good to be true. Whether it’s in a dream or in
real life, you will eventually wake up. I was wondering all day long who
this man was and why I had gotten this sort of 'vision'. Why was he
telling me all these things? What was my unconscious trying to get me
to understand? I finally got it at the end of the day: This man is the
future me, just waiting for me to become him.
It’s been a while since I’ve had this vivid, almost lucid, dream. My
levels of motivation and inspiration haven’t been the same ever since.
It feels like it’s completely clear for me what to do: I want to become
this man. I want to become this caring, loving, compassionate, self-
employed, well-endowed, well-groomed, strong, compelling man. With
a green shirt, mind you! There are NLP (Neuro-Linguistic
Programming) techniques out there that attempt to do exactly the
same thing as this dream has done for me. Some of them use (self-)
hypnosis and others focus more on visualization. I highly recommend

that you give it a try and see if you can make visualization for yourself
that is as epic as mine was for me. Perhaps, you’ve already
experienced something like this before.
In case you’re new to NLP, this product might be the best way to start
and learn about NLP. There is one exercise that I clearly remember. It
was an exercise from Christopher Howard’s NLP tapes, awesome stuff
which I highly recommend. I’ll describe the exercise as I remember it
below and add my own advice based on my own experiences.
Step 1: Make sure you are not interrupted during this exercise. Turn
off everything that can make an unexpected sound and in case you are
living with other people, tell them not to disturb you.
Step 2: First, lie down and relax. If you have any troubling thoughts
that are clouding your mind, write them down first, so you can forget
about them during this exercise.
Step 3: Just lay still for a couple of minutes. Try not to move at all.
Step 4: Imagine you’re on a beach. You can hear the sound of the
waves washing ashore. You can play this video during the exercise.
Step 5: Start writing numbers in the sand and let them get washed
away by the waves. You can start with the number 300, then 299, so
on and so forth. Obviously, you don’t have to go all the way to 0, just
count down until number 250.
Step 6: Then all of a sudden, you will find yourself at the top of a
staircase in a lighthouse. As you walk down this staircase, allow
yourself to relax more and more with every step you take. Drift off.
Step 7: At the bottom of the staircase, there is a door that leads
towards a bedroom with a really nice and comfortable bed with white
sheets. Lay down on this bed. Go to sleep.
Step 8: You are now in a dream, inside a daydream. (Inception!) In
this dream, imagine what you want your future self to look like. Try to
see everything, every tiny detail of your future life. What do you look
like? What kind of clothes are you wearing? What does the house look

like that you’re living in? This is your chance to design the life you
want! It’s like you are playing the computer game ‘The Sims’, but
infinitely better. Visualize yourself. Visualize the people around you;
your wife, kids and friends.
Step 9: Make your future self talk to you. Your future self is asking
you: "At the end of your life, do you want to be defined by the things
that you could have been? Do you want to become me? You know
what it takes!"
Try this exercise for yourself! Turn on some meditation/ relaxation/
lounge music on a low volume. Make sure it is instrumental music,
listening and trying to understand lyrics is a cognitive activity that you
will want to avoid during this exercise.
In case you have a hard time visualizing your ideal future, try visiting
a person that is a big inspiration to you. Or in case this person is
famous, watch an interview of this person or other video material.
Read biographies. See what their lives are like! Most people already
have an idea about what they want their ideal future to look like. They
(day) dream about it all the time. But there’s a big difference between
dreaming and visualizing!
When you are fully
conscious and
awake, make your
own Personal
Mission Statement.
Why do you want to
become the future
self you have
visualized? What is your biggest motivation for becoming him or her?
Use words that express the true underlying value of that which you
want to achieve, and the person you will become!
Are you ready to become the captain of your own soul?
“Your life will be what you create it as and no
one will stand in judgment of it, now or ever”
-Rhonda Byrne

Technique Nr. 7: Visual Reminders
Do you remember the last time
you were extremely motivated
to take action? You felt like you
could take on the whole world
out of a sudden and nothing
could stop you. Whether it was
for your work, personal studies,
your body or whatever, what
was the last time? Do you
remember what triggered this
peak in your motivation level?
In my life, motivational peaks
like these happen on a regular
basis. They were mostly
triggered by movies, documentaries, books and more often than not:
Music!
Songs can be so extremely uplifting and inspiring, it's amazing. Yet, if
you were to hear the same words without the music, they wouldn't
mean as much to you. Interesting self-help books are a common
source of short-term motivation as well. They can fuel your motivation
level immensely...for about a week. After this
week, you might lose your motivation again
and are back at where you started, except for
the fact that you have actually got some work
done.
When motivation disappears, the need for
self-discipline appears again. You will then
need to tap into your self-discipline skills to
take action, because there isn't any higher
inspirational source in your life guiding your every action. That's why
those who are intrinsically motivated or inspired to write a book for
example will hardly need any self-discipline. They will get up in the
morning and immediately get started with their work.
"For the existentialist
it is clear, that to live,
is to live passionately"
-Søren Kierkegaard

The question is how we can really trigger this mindset in ourselves.
How can we stay motivated for a longer period of time? Well, have you
ever wondered why the walls in the CEO’s office are covered with great
quotes? This is because it reminds you of the things that are really
important in life, your vision and your values. The following quote for
instance:
Now, this is an example of a quote that really gets people going. It
assures you that you can and will make a difference if you completely
commit yourself to a certain task with people around you.
I once saw a poster of Forrest Gump on the wall of a manager. This
means that this manager probably likes the idea of completely
committing yourself to goals that might seem out of reach at first, but
by pushing through with an almost autistic persistence against all
odds, one is destined to reach the desired destination. Or he simply
liked the movie of course...
The self-discipline technique that you can take home from these
examples is that you need to visually remind yourself of your vision,
goals and values, every day.
Make a mind map of the people or quotes etc. that motivates you the
most in your life. Perhaps, there is this one person in your life who you
really admire and who is a huge inspiration to you. If you were to
wake up in the morning and stare right in the face of this person (a
picture of your nightstand), would you still hit the snooze button and
stay in bed for another 10 minutes? Or would you jump out of bed,
take a cold shower and start working on your most important tasks
right away?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Meade

The tiny changes in your environment can have a tremendous effect
on the choices you make during the course of the day. That is exactly
what it is all about! As they teach
alcoholics during AA meetings: it is
not about not drinking ever again, it
is simply about not drinking today.
Tell yourself in the morning: “I'm not
going to drink today”. I mean, that is
an achievable goal right? It is
attainable. While not having a drink
for the rest of your life sounds
almost impossible, this goal is doable
for most alcoholics.
These visual reminders will keep you focused today and you will excel
in whatever you do today. You will feel so motivated that you will work
for 12 hours straight and look at your watch laughing, knowing that
you could easily continue for another 2 hours.
This strategy helps you visualize your goals every time you take a look
at that picture, or listen to that song. You will eventually find that it
becomes even more powerful, because your brain associates this input
with the values that you hold highest in your life and triggers
immediate action.
This tactic can be used for all sorts of goals. Whether it is a physical
goal, a financial goal or simply work that you need to get done, you
can get it to work for you. So make sure this visual reminder is out
there. Don't just carry around a small picture of your mentor in your
wallet. Make it available, or better yet, make it inescapable! Make sure
it's there when you wake up in the morning and make sure it is there,
perfectly available during your work.
You can also choose to make a sort of motivational poster for yourself,
on which you combine all your sources of inspiration. See what works
best for you. As soon as you find that the visual reminder has lost its
power, change it to a new one.
"Imagination is everything,
it is the preview of life’s
coming attractions"
-Einstein

To sum up:
Step 1: Install at least 1 visual reminder in your home, preferably in
your bedroom
Step 2: Make sure that this is something that you feel extremely
passionate about every time you look at this picture. Change it if this
isn't the case. The relationship between the material and your goals
must be abundantly clear.
Step 3: Do it now or you are not going to do it otherwise. Just print
out that picture or the lyrics you love and the quote that always keeps
you going!
Will you be defined by things you could have been?
Get Productive with this course NOW!

Technique Nr. 8: Find your Weaknesses
We have already started
addressing this issue in
technique Nr. 4. I ended by
saying; "Identify and eliminate
situations in which you are
most likely to fall back into your
old habits". During the course
of this strategy we are going to
look at the best ways of doing
this.
Let’s start by defining what a
weakness is. I’d like to call a
weakness a moment when you
want to do something, or want to abstain yourself from doing
something and you give in to your urges and act in a way that
contrary to what you wanted.
So an example of a weakness can be to eat fast-food, while your goal
was to not eat fast-food for two months. This is an example of giving
in to your temptations by doing something. An example of giving in to
your temptations by not doing something is watching TV instead of
going to the gym.
So according to this definition, there
are two kinds of weaknesses:
Weakness Type 1: Giving in to
your temptations by doing something
Weakness type 2: Giving in to your
temptations by neglecting to do
something
Depending upon the goal or challenge you have set for yourself (or
maybe your doctor has set for you), you have to find out which of
these two types of weaknesses is applicable in your situation.
"Our primary problem isn’t
that we’re weak; it’s that
we’re blind"
-www.changeanything.com

Examples of Weakness Type 1:
-eating fast food
-smoking
-drinking
-doing drugs
Examples of Weakness Type 2:
-not finishing your work of time
-not going to the gym
-not being attentive to the persons around you
-not visiting your parents-in-law (Thank god mine are awesome)
Dealing with these Weakness Types
By not doing something seems easier than doing something in the
beginning. Doing something implies action; not doing something
implies sitting down on your butt, right?
Wrong! As soon as it has come to the point of an addiction, or a habit,
it is really hard to get rid of this. The problem isn’t only that we are
weak and blind, but that we are now controlled by forces that we can’t
even see! Our mind is playing dirty, dirty tricks on us to get its fix.
From my own experience, I can confidently say that it is harder to get
rid of an existing habit, than to create a new one. Think about
examples from your own life. Now define your biggest weakness. (One
that you would like to get rid of)
After finding our weakness type and defining our weakness, we have
to look for the moments where we’re most likely to give in to our
weakness. During these moments, you are at your weakest. In your
head, you’re probably telling yourself that it’s alright to have that
smoke this time. Because tomorrow, you are really going to start
this…right…? No. Moments like these are happening every day in your
life, even though you might not be aware of it. In fact, most of these
temptations are unconscious. Most of our behaviour is unconscious
(scientists estimate 95%), and so are our temptations.
What is really important is to become aware of these urges. When do
they strike? Try making a little note every time you discover one of
these temptations. Is it in the morning? When you are under stress? Is
it only when you are alone? Discover the patterns.

So by now we know what weakness type we are dealing with. We have
defined the weakness and we know when to give in to our weakness
and are most likely to occur. Let’s find out what the last step is. Be
prepared when the temptations strike! These temptations are like
Steven King’s ‘Langoliers’, slowly, but most definitely consuming the
whole world. Make sure you keep moving forward, and don’t become a
part of, or long for, the past. The Langoliers love consuming the past.
So what is the exact thing that you will do when they come?
For smokers (or weakness type 1’s), this might involve grabbing
something else they can fidget with and hold in their hands, or even
put in their mouth. For example, a smoker can grab a toothpick every
time he feels the Langoliers coming. He then puts it in his mouth,
takes it out of his mouth and puts it in an ashtray.
For a type 2 weakness, you can prepare yourself by thinking of an
automatic response as soon as you hear the gnawing sound of the
Langoliers. By automatic response to my I’m-so-not-going-for-a-run-
today weakness is to instantly, as fast as I can, put on my running
outfit. Then, I know for sure that I will go for a run. Whether it is at
that exact moment or 30 minutes later, it is bound to happen.
To sum up:
Step 1: Find your weakness type
Step 2: Define your weakness
Step 3: Identify the moments when the urges are most likely to occur
Step 4: Prepare for these moments by having an automatic response
to them
What's your biggest weakness?

Technique Nr. 9: Patience and Persistence
Wake up! If you have a
40k credit card debt, you
will not be able to repay it
all in a matter of weeks or
months. If you are 20
pounds overweight, you
will not be as slim as that
woman on the cover of
Vogue magazine within a
year. Tell-sell programs,
magazines and other
media present us with the
idea that there is a quick-fix to our every problem. Get-Rich-Quick
schemes or Lose-Weight-Quick schemes are weapons of the modern
marketer’s propaganda. This all reminds us once again that:
We need to open our ears to that what
we hate to hear: people who are
successful in any area are not there
merely because of their talent but
because of their uncommon dedication
to their goals. A dedication so
profound, that it will make the
average-TV-watching Joe want to
throw up. There are still people who like to think that these performers
are there at the top, because they were born with a special talent.
Well, that’s an easy thing to say. With one sentence, it completely
wipes away all the thousands of hours a person may have invested to
get there.
I get it; it is comfortable to think of it this way. It is yet another form
of cognitive dissonance reduction, a way of letting everything make
sense in one's own head, so one doesn’t have to worry about it.
"There are no shortcuts
to any place worth
going."
-Beverly Sills

Long-term Goals
However, the stone cold truth makes way more sense. To lose weight,
you have to commit yourself to a diet that is based upon your long-
term goals and short-term persistence. As said before, you only have
to be a vegetarian today, if you want to be one for the rest of your life.
Just make it through the day, worry about the next day tomorrow.
Don’t expect to see results after 6 days but just be proud that you’re
six days in already and know that the results will come. Weight loss
serves as a perfect example for this. Here’s a question for people on a
diet: Do you want to lose weight temporarily, or is there a certain ideal
weight for you that you’d like to have for long-term? In case you want
to lose weight temporarily, sure, go on a diet. If you want to achieve
your target weight and hold it for the rest of your life, you will have to
change your patterns, habits and rituals.
Doing so requires patience and persistence but aside from the fact that
you will achieve the lasting results you want, it will strengthen your
personality as well. Disciplining yourself is counter natural, for we are
pleasure-seeking creatures. And time and time again:
However, once you realize the amount of pleasure that your hard-
earned achievements will bring you, the long-term wins even the
pleasure-contest from the short-term.
Patience
For me, patience doesn’t come natural, at all. I’ve always been the
person that instantly goes to the back of the book to look up the
answers. Cheatplanet.com was probably the website I visited most as
a kid. I just didn’t have any patience. Now, I find it hard to tell anyone
how to get more patient. For me, it just came with time. The older I
got, the more patient I became.
"Our best intentions can be hurt by the human need for instant
gratification or relief from boredom"
-Susan van Kirk

Besides looking up cheats on the internet for the games I was playing,
I have always loved statistics. As soon as I had the chance to look up
statistics of my performance in game, I would. Having played
MMORPG’s (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and FPS’s
(First Person Shooters), I was obsessed with terms like kill/death
ratio’s, hit%, experience points, the whole horror show.
Perhaps, this was one of the reasons for being very impatient as a kid.
I was so used to instantly look up walk-through's or cheats on the
internet to do better at the games I was playing. Yet in real life, there
are no answers at the back of the book. My parents or teachers
couldn’t give me the answers that I was looking for either…what was I
to do? So I grabbed my controller and was back online.
Now, what has all of this got to do with being patient, or what is the
take-away that we can extract from this story? The take-away is as
follows: Create ‘cheats’ and ‘stats’ in your life!
Cheats and Stats
A cheat can be anything you’ve heard or read about, tried out in your
own life with success multiple times and would like to keep on doing.
For me, a ‘cheat’ is to not argue with people any longer. Why? This is
because it almost never makes any sense. Think about it. One person
is completely convinced of his point of view, another person is
completely convinced of another point of view. They both try to impose
their point of view upon each other while the tension rises and the
discussion becomes more and more absurd because neither will
achieve their goal. (Note that there are exceptions here)
I read about this tactic at first, tried it out in my own life and found
that it works great. It was because I have to stay conscious about not
getting involved into an argument, I wrote it down as a ‘cheat’. (Some
people call it a 'life hack')
The same thing goes for statistics. Just create your own statistics by
tracking your progress. Whatever goals you are working on, write
down the steps you need to take to get there, divide those into smaller
steps and make a note whenever you have achieved or completed one
of these steps. Make the steps so small that you can make a note of
your achievement every day. It will be extremely motivating.

Are you ready to be the master of your own fate?
"Nothing better fuels high quality work and productivity, or
makes us feel more satisfied than deeply immersing ourselves in
a task. But really focusing requires resisting the instant
gratification of other distraction, and that takes effort."
–Tony Schwartz

Technique Nr. 10: Find Friendly Competition
Have you ever noticed
how much easier it is to
stick to your goals if you
have a partner with
similar goals? Whether it
comes to going to the
gym, losing weight or
maybe you remember
doing homework with a
friend, it is easier when
you’re in it together.
Why is it easier to stick
to your goals with a
buddy? You will be more likely to stick to your goals if they are shared
with another person, because you have to answer to them as well as
to yourself. By reason of the commitment you made, you can’t just
say “I don’t feel like doing this today”, because the other person is
there waiting for you, and you probably don't want to stand him up.
Furthermore, you don’t want to be seen as a weak person, especially if
your buddy does have enough willpower or self-discipline to do
whatever you agreed on doing.
A buddy of mine and I had a routine where we would go for runs on
every Tuesday afternoon. We did this for
almost a year, with maybe a couple of
weeks of vacation in between. To not
break the routine, we promised each
other that we would still go for a run
(separately) on Tuesday afternoon while
we were both on vacation.
This routine is one of the most effective
shared routines that I’ve had in my life
because:
-Excuses were not allowed
-We didn’t break the routine (not even
for vacation)
"Death isn’t sad: The
sad thing is most
people don’t live at
all"
-From the movie 'Peaceful
Warrior'

-We rewarded ourselves afterwards with a home-made milkshake
-We pushed each other to continue
-The time and place were always the same
Competitive Creatures
Do you see all the elements that are involved? It is the element of
rewarding ourselves after a good run. No
excuses or exceptions. No ambiguity
about the time or place, so neither one
of us could make a mistake and not
show up. Perhaps, the most important
thing about creating friendly competition
is that you somehow want to be better
than the other person. There is a
competitive element to it, if not
consciously then subconsciously. We are
competitive creatures, so use this to
your advantage and create a routine with
a person who is at your level of
performance, or ideally a little bit better.
You will improve or learn the most if your friendly competitor is a little
bit better. He or she will challenge you to come up with new ways to
win, be faster or stronger.
As a result of this, your level of performance will not stagnate, but you
will keep on growing.
It is of course important to set your own goals and not be dependent
upon the goals of your friendly competition. The other person might
just be less ambitious than you are, maybe overly ambitious, or
maybe he or she simply learns faster. It might well be that this person
has a different metabolism, which causes the physical results you both
have to differ, even though you’re doing the same thing.
So keep in mind that you are using your competitive nature to get the
best out of yourself, not to actually be better than the other person.
Therefore, it might be a very good idea to set personal goals before
using this self-discipline technique to challenge yourself.
"Depression comes
from inaction. People
often ask me: 'I'm
depressed, what
should I do?'
I tell them:
Well anything!"
-Wayne Dyer

It goes without saying that even though you have this competition
going, you will always be there to support one another. It is not about
reaching the finish line first, it’s about making sure that you both
reach the finish line. If you have run faster than you ever have and
improved your personal record by 5 minutes, and your buddy wasn’t
able to reach the finish line at all, you have failed.
I have personally found bigger groups (2+) to not work as well as just
having one training buddy. In a bigger group, it is much easier to say;
“Hey guys, I’m sitting this one out, have fun today”. However, you
can’t do stuff like that in a one on one situation.
Compete with Yourself
What you can try however is by competing against yourself. I
remember a game on the Nintendo 64 that I used to play as a kid,
Diddy Kong Racing. Aside from the fact that this game is simply the
most epic racing game ever made, it allowed you to race against your
past-self, your ghost. If you have ever been playing games like these,
you would probably have come across similar functions. The take-
away here is that you can do the same thing in real life. Keep track of
your previous performances and try to outdo your past-self.
Coaching Friendship
The friendly competition that my buddy (Joris) and I started out with
has evolved into a sort of coaching friendship. We always call each
other to ask how the other is doing with his ‘homework’. To us,
homework means studies, sports, movies, books, courses and
everything else that makes you grow as a person. In case one of us
isn’t able to talk for 30 minutes straight about all of the new stuff we
have experienced or been watching and reading about, the other one
knows that something is wrong. During this conversation, it literally
rains new recommendations of books to read, movies to watch, new
sports to try out, subjects to get into, everything. This is extremely
motivating and informative for the both of us.
If you have the chance to create a coaching friendship like this one
with a friend, or maybe even your significant other, do it. It is one of
the most valuable and fun relationships you’ll ever have in your life.

Do you also have a friendly competitor?
“There is a profound difference between pleasure and satisfaction.
Pleasure is cheap. A cheeseburger and a couple of martinis will do
the trick. But pleasure doesn’t last very long. Satisfaction requires
a more significant investment of effort – often to the point of
discomfort. The payoff, however, is deeper and more enduring."
-Tony Schwartz

Thanks
"Thanks for finishing my eBook!
It's all up to you now to go out and
apply the techniques in your daily life.
If there's anything I can help you with,
I'd gladly help you out via Skype or email.
Oh, by the way, you have probably noticed the
'Ultimate Productivity Mastership' course that
I've mentioned a couple of times in this eBook.
If you're ready to take your self-actualization to
the next level, you should definitely take this course.
It's well worth the $47.95 and there's a
100% Money Back Guarantee!
I hope to hear from you soon.
All the best!
Cheers,
Seph"

Do it your self discipline!

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Do it your self discipline!