Question: What are ways that can help you become self-disciplined?
A schedule! I am a huge fan of schedules, planning, processes, etc. My life isn’t very exciting, but I like the way it is because it’s also fairly predictable which I like and am OK with. I get up at 4am pretty much everyday, I do my morning meditation and prayers, and get ready for work to be there by 6am. I get home, I eat and relax a bit, do my evening meditation and prayers and chanting, get dinner ready, eat, watch a bit of TV or reading, sleep, wake up, repeat.
Self-discipline takes commitment. A lot of it. Most people fail at meditation or anything new really, because beginning anything new or from the beginning is really hard and people don’t like that. Most people just want to start something and be experts at it within 15 minutes, when sadly, life isn’t really that tolerant.
When I teach meditation classes I always tell people, “You can’t just meditate once a week for 10-15 minutes and expect results. Meditation is a daily, life-long practice that cannot be half-assed.” People think I joke, but I always have to enforce that meditation is not a therapy or necessarily a means of relieving behavioral disorders (I mean, it can be, but…) it is a discipline. Buddhist meditation is a dedicated discipline. The Buddha did not meditate for years because he had a headache he wanted to get rid, he meditated because he wanted to discover the truth about reality and suffering, and because of his discipline and dedication, he attained enlightenment.
So the most important thing when it comes to trying to discipline yourself with a practice is commitment and effort. If you can apply those two then you’re golden.
Smile and be well!