New Year, Self-Improvement: How To Develop Self-Discipline

Happy New Year Peeps! 2020 is here, it’s the start of a new decade. For this year one of the challenges I’ve set myself is to build my self-discipline. I want to do this so I can continue to improve myself and better achieve my goals. To that end, I’m giving up alcohol for a year. Continue Reading…

My Alcohol Journey

I’m not an alcoholic, let’s start there. However, I did spend the bulk of my formative teen years in the UK. In an all-girls Catholic boarding school no less. This meant that from a young age, I drank like a typical Brit, i.e. drinking to get drunk. Well, to get obliterated really. And when daybreak came, whilst regaling the night before with friends, you had to start your story with, ‘Oh my goddddd, I was soooo drunk…’.

This was the culture. But I had a choice. Go with the (alcoholic) flow or not. I chose to roll with it. I had the ‘If you can’t beat ’em, drink with ’em’ attitude.

And I’ve stayed that way for decades.

Why I’m Giving Up Alcohol For A Year

I love alcohol. Let’s start there. I mean, I have a cocktail shaker for gawd’s sake! I make a mean ol’ Cosmopolitan that Carrie (from SATC, helloooo) would be proud of.

But I’m at the point of my life where I need to make a lot of changes. For anyone else who’s wanted to change their life around, then you know that journey involves new things to take on, as well as what to eliminate.

I’ll save what I want to take on for another post, today I’m focusing on how I plan to change my lifestyle.

I’ve decided that this year, alcohol is what’s getting the heave-ho because:

• Simply put – I want sober weekends to get more shit done. This I cannot stress enough. I have more than one source of income which means that for the longest time, I’ve worked from Monday to Sunday. But there have been some weekends where I’ve accomplished fuck-all because I’ve resided in Hangover Land.
• I want to monitor the impact giving up alcohol has on my health. Last year, my growing pains intensified physically. My diverse medical files are growing and so is my medicine cabinet. As well as pharmaceutical drugs, my sisters (who are doctors) have advised me to have an altered diet, take vitamin supplements…Now I want to see if giving up alcohol will make me feel better.
• Speaking on feeling better – this year I want to continue to work on my physical as well as mental and spiritual health. So I want to try giving up alcohol for the year and see what that does.

These are my good intentions but it’s going to be no easy feat to give up alcohol. One of my social highlights last year was meeting up with a good friend of mine in a bar and having cocktails. Over a mean ol’ cocktail, we would talk career, men, life…I also enjoy going to dinner parties, clubbing, house parties…all those kind of social events have alcohol running through their veins.

So yes, giving up alcohol is going to take a hella lotta self-discipline.

How To Build Self-Discipline

Self-discipline puts you on the road to success. It’s a trait that every successful person has. You don’t need to Google a successful celebrity to figure this out. Study the habits of a good friend or relative in your life who has achieved tremendous accolades in their life. You’re likely to find that the time they wake up, how they exercise, the food they choose to eat, what they do to achieve their goals – none of this is left to chance. Pretty much everything they do takes self-discipline to achieve their goals whether small or large.

Giving up alcohol this year is going to take self-discipline and this is how I’m going to build my self-discipline this year.

Remove Temptation

I once read that removing temptation makes it easier to resist the next temptation. And this is true when it comes to giving up alcohol. For example, my fridge is normally stocked with alcohol but I’ll need to remove this temptation, so it lessens the chance of me having a cheeky glass of vino before a night out.

Start Small

There is no simple equation to success. Success involves how we choose to approach our different facets of life, the choices we make and the plans we create to execute them.

Giving up alcohol is just one of the steps I’m taking to achieve my goals. I’ll need to make other changes but I need to start somewhere, right? It’s my way to stop procrastinating and instead, take a significant step forward.

Friends Can Make or Break

I got good grades for my GCSE’s (important exam in the UK that determines what university you can apply for). And yes I worked hard for them, but I also always credit my success to a good friend I had at the time. You see she wasn’t in the girl group I was in, but I knew that to achieve the grades I wanted for my GCSE’s that she was the one I needed to study with. Reason being, she was academically focused, driven…she was inspiring.

Who your friends are matter. They can aid or hinder your self-discipline.

Make a Plan

I have a plan of what I want to achieve and how this year. I’ll need to see this big picture to keep the faith and give me hope when my dry life is proving hard to maintain.

So here are some of the ways I’m going to try and build my self-discipline. I’d love to hear from you on how you develop your self-discipline? What are the things you do daily to improve your body, soul and mind? Who do you turn to for inspiration? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Let’s Talk Fashion

The festive season may be over but that doesn’t mean we can’t take some sparkle and shine into the new year. This outfit shows how gold metallics can upgrade your day look. A statement gold jumper here, a gold wool hat there and an otherwise all-black outfit gets upgraded to ‘Street Chic Bling’.

I also kept my colour palette simple and clean – black and gold baby.

Till next time- Happy New Year!

Bisous

Outfit: Gold sequin-disc jumper, earrings and Culottes – Zara, Metallic tights – Calzedonia, Patent fanny pack and Gold wool hat- Topshop, Sunnies – Prada

Photographer- Sabrina Von Heide