40 Discipline Quotes and 6 Tips to Build Self-Discipline

Last Updated May 20, 2022

Everyone has dreams, goals, ideals, visions. But do you know what separates the ones that achieve them from those that do not? Discipline. Seriously, it’s not as easy as it is to find a reason within you to endure all of the rough patches and close yourself off from everything going on outside just so you can focus on your work. But, it’s necessary, and I’m here to tell you that it’s possible. But you can’t do it the way you are. No offense, but think of it as art. In the beginning, it’s just a big pile of junk until it gets reshaped into something extraordinary. This is what we will be doing to you, starting right now.

Pinpoint your Weaknesses

The first step to solving a problem is identifying it. There is nobody that knows the reason you haven’t succeeded yet, better than you do. You have to be honest to yourself, though. If you know what aspects of your character or lifestyle are holding you back from being to where you want to be, now you know what to focus on when performing the next steps of this list. Also, one more thing. Don’t go around blaming someone else for your failure, or rather, lack of success. This is one of the most valuable tips I have to give to you, so you better take it to heart. Nobody is to blame for your mishaps but yourself, you are your worst enemy, and your brain is the only thing to overcome if you want to succeed.

Create a Clear Strategy

So, now you know what to focus on. You know your weaknesses. Hopefully, by identifying your weaknesses, you also found your strengths, which is good because you will need them. I’m not going to create you a “Multi-step plan to success” because, honestly, most of these don’t work. Every person is different with a totally different goal in mind. So, instead, I’m going to make you create your own plan. You know what is in your best interest, and you also know best what this is that you want. Now what you have to do, is answer the following questions: “What it is that I want,” “How will I do it,” “What do I need to do it,” “When will I do it/By when will I have done it.” Having a clear plan set in your mind not only makes the process easier, but it gives you the inner strength to move on, knowing that you are on schedule the whole time, always having the next step planned out, giving you a sense of progress and fulfillment.

Break your Strategy Down to Short and Long term Goals

Now don’t go ahead spouting, “I want to be the president by tomorrow,” ok? A plan is never that easy. If you want the best chances possible, you have to analyze your plan and break it down into smaller, easier, more achievable steps. This way, you yet again gain a sense of progress and fulfillment, and it’s easier to climb a staircase one step at a time than attempting to do the whole thing in one go. So, make a time table; here I’ll make an example. Let’s say that your plan consists of 6 steps, could be 5 tiers, could be 5 different weight goals or any kind of benchmark, and you want to do it in a year. The most logical thing would be to provide 2 months for each step, so you have a scheduled plan, but that isn’t always the correct case. If I have one tip to give you, it is to assess the situation. One step might be more demanding than the other, so give it more time. It’s like studying for a test, not all chapters are equally difficult, so you divide your time accordingly.

Start Small, Think Big

Once you’ve completely broken down your plan and are incomplete understanding what you should be doing, then one piece of advice I have to give you is this. Do the easy things first. Why? You may ask. Because you need to start with a win to get your confidence up. If you get to the straightest part right from the get-go and you fail, then your morale is going to sink through the floor. Plus, getting the easy stuff done first will get you into the mood necessary to tackle the most challenging parts later.

Get Rid of all the Temptations and Negativity

We all have things holding us back. But, what winners learn to do, is removing those things from their lives. If it’s a friend that is a really bad influence for you and your goals, then limit that interaction to the bare minimum. If it’s someone that doesn’t want you to succeed and keeps showing it, then remove him entirely from your life. If it’s your temptations, then find ways to limit them. Ask for help from your loved ones, or make yourself a “reward program” where you only get to fall to temptations when you succeed in a task from your plan to success. This way, you will have a clear head with no distractions on your way to success, thus increasing your willpower because nothing is holding you down.

Failure is your Teacher, not the Monster Under your Bed.

This is probably a tip that you will need a lot while going into the trip to success. I am not going to lie to you; failure is inevitable. You will experience many difficulties along the line, and sometimes you might not even make it. But nobody said that you have to do everything on the first try, that’s impossible. Also, nothing gets your willpower down more than a hard cold dose of failure. But, you don’t have to let it affect you. If you genuinely want to have the willpower to succeed, choose to see your mistakes are lessons that will help you become a better person. That way, there is no way to fail.

40 Inspirational Quotes on Self-Discipline

If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.
If we conducted ourselves as sensibly in good times as we do in hard times, we could all acquire competence.
The first and the best victory is to conquer self.
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
Man can learn self-discipline without becoming ascetic; he can be wise without waiting to be old; he can be influential without waiting for status. Man can sharpen his ability to distinguish between matters of principle and matters of preference, but only if we have a wise interplay between time and truth, between minutes and morality.
It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things to achieve a goal, are the happiest men. When you see 20 or 30 men line up for a distance race in some meet, don’t pity them, don’t feel sorry for them. Better envy them instead.
He conquers twice who conquers himself in victory.
I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul’s good to do each day two things they disliked. . . . It is a precept I have followed scrupulously: for every day I have got up, and I have gone to bed.
He who lives without discipline dies without honor.
That discipline which corrects the eagerness of worldly passions, which fortifies the heart with virtuous principles, which enlightens the mind with useful knowledge, and furnishes to it matter of enjoyment from within itself, is of more consequence to real felicity than all the provisions which we can make of the goods of fortune.
The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either, necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
Who dares to say no again and again to desires, despise the objects of ambition, who is a whole in himself, smoothed and rounded.
The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not do.
The time is always right to do what is right.
If you discipline yourself to make your mind self-sufficient, you will be least vulnerable to injury from the outside.
You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life.

One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline, and that’s the important half, for, without discipline, you wouldn’t know what to do with luck.
The secret of success is the constancy of purpose.
It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people’s lives.
No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Discipline must come through liberty. . . . We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.
Nothing of importance is ever achieved without discipline. I feel myself sometimes not wholly in sympathy with some modern educational theorists because they underestimate the part that discipline plays. But the discipline you have in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.
Hands untrained in the use of tools destroy what they want to build. It takes skill to use tools to achieve the result desired, whether it’s tearing down an old house or building a new one. Skepticism is a tool serving both purposes. But it must be used by a trained mind, a mind capable of disciplined thinking.
Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with others’ accumulation.
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work 12 hours a day.
Nothing is more harmful to the service than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.
In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves self-discipline with all of them came first.
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

First, we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they will conquer you.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees or the stars; you have a right to be here.
It’s not the work that’s hard; it’s the discipline.
Discipline is remembering what you want.
No man or woman has achieved a compelling personality who is not self-disciplined. Such discipline must not be an end in itself but must be directed to resolute Christian character development.
A colt is worth little if it does not break its halter.
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of most significant accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.
When you have several disagreeable duties to perform, always do the most disagreeable first.
I learned about the strength you can get from close family life. I learned to keep going, even in bad times. I learned not to despair, even when my world was falling apart. I learned that there are no free lunches. And I learned the value of hard work.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your promotion.

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