How to Cultivate Discipline and Achieve More

By Lauren Rose Correa, January 18, 2025

How to Cultivate Discipline: Woman writing on calendar

Whether you are a career woman or a stay-at-home mom, you can benefit from having more discipline in your life. Learning how to cultivate discipline will see you reaching more goals, being more productive, and finding more satisfaction in your daily life.

Discipline can help you get to the next level in your career, take on a new hobby, or get the chores done while taking care of your children. It’s such an important skill to have, no matter what your occupation.

How to Cultivate Discipline: My Best Tips

I love having goals to work toward, and having discipline has helped me to achieve more daily. Here are a few tips for cultivating discipline in all areas of your life.

Define your goals and how you plan to achieve them

You will always accomplish more if you determine what you are trying to accomplish. Create a list of your goals and define what you will do to make them a reality.

I like to write lists of my goals in my journal, along with some ideas of how to achieve those goals. I refer back to these lists to refresh myself on what my goals are and ensure I am working in the right direction.

Create to-do lists to break down your plans into daily activities

At the start of your day, create a to-do list of smaller tasks that you want to accomplish that day. Work your way through the list and check things off once you complete them. This will help you take baby steps toward your bigger goals every day!

For me, to-do lists are also a memory aid. I can be forgetful, and lists are a great way to organize my thoughts and make sure I’m not forgetting an important task. I also get great satisfaction from crossing things off of my list!

Reward yourself for your accomplishments

When you complete a to-do list or reach a milestone that you’ve been working toward, take a beat and celebrate! When you reward yourself for reaching your goals, you’ll be more motivated to continue achieving them.

For me, I like to reward myself for a job well done with some relaxation. In particular, after I’ve cleaned my house I like to light a candle, grab a magazine, and bask in the coziness of my clean home.

Do the tasks even when you don’t feel like doing them

Don’t wait until you feel motivated to do your chores, your work, or even your hobbies. Set aside a time for work and do the tasks even if you don’t feel like it. I’ve found that once I get started, motivation follows and I am able to focus on the task.

I work on my blog at night after my daughter goes to sleep. You better believe there are nights I’m tempted to skip out on the blog and watch tv or sleep early. Without fail, when I choose to work on the blog, I end up feeling motivated after I get started. If I based my decision to start work off of my feelings, I would hardly ever accomplish anything.

Take a break sometimes… you need to recharge

Yes, it’s important to work when you are not motivated. But sometimes, you truly do need to take a break and refresh yourself. On weekends, I take a break from the blog and spend time with my husband instead. Pushing yourself too hard will exhaust you.

When I was younger, I would work long hours on projects, staying up late and obsessing over them. Eventually I would burn out and then not return to the project until I recovered. This was not the most disciplined way to approach a project. Part of being disciplined is having the discipline to stop working when your brain and body need a break. Your workflow needs to be sustainable in order to be most effective.