When speaking to a group of students at the University of Washington, Warren Buffett said, "The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken." In other words, you decide on your habits and then they determine your long-term success. While talent, knowledge, experiences, connections and creativity are all valuable, self-discipline is one of the fundamental keys to long-term success. Self-discipline is the ability to follow-through on your commitments to both other people and yourself.

Here are five steps to strengthen your self-discipline:

1. Clarify Your Commitment To Another Person
2. Identify The Benefits Of Actually Doing It
3. Identify The Negative Consequences Of Not Doing It
4. Identify Why You Believe You Can Do It
5. Read Over Your Answers Daily
6. Focus On Repetitions

CLARIFY YOUR COMMITMENT TO ANOTHER PERSON

Be absolutely clear as to what you are going to do, write it down and state it to another person. This statement establishes the first strand of commitment you have to actually doing it. Without this step, it becomes far too easy to let it go and rationalize your way out of doing it. For the most part, I suggest that people make far fewer commitments and follow-through on a much higher percentage of them. Following through on your commitments is a powerful to strengthen your self-esteem and to build strong relationships with other people. Others know they can count on you and in turn will give you greater opportunities to make a contribution. Ultimately, this is what top performers want: the chance to add value and be effective.

IDENTIFY THE BENEFITS OF ACTUALLY DOING IT

Writing it down and describing it to another person is only the first step toward establishing true commitment and increasing self-discipline. At this point, you may have compliance, but not commitment. In other words, you may say that you are going to do it, but there is no real intention of following through. Therefore, the first Commitment Question is, "What are the benefits if I actually follow-through and do what I said I would do?" Take out a sheet of paper and write down your answers. Try to think of as many benefits as you can think for both yourself and other people if you do what you have committed to doing. Now that single strand of commitment is starting to be reinforced with each additional benefit that you identify.

IDENTIFY THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT DOING IT

Sometimes you will be more inspired to action by realizing the downside of not doing it than by the upside of doing it. So make a list of all of the negative consequences to yourself and to others if you don't do anything. Again, you are strengthening your commitment to taking action. The second Commitment Question is, "What are the negative consequences if I do not follow-through and do what I have committed to?" This may seem like unnecessary grunt work, but I can assure you that without taking the time to reinforce your commitments you will let things go. They just won't seem as important two days after you said you would do it.

IDENTIFY WHY YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT

The third Commitment Question is, "Why do I believe that I can do it?" Make a list of all of the reasons why you think you can successfully execute what you have promised. Recall past success stories, identify why you are passionate about this topic, and zero in on why you will follow-through. Many times people will see the value of doing something and the downside of not doing it, but they will not move into action because subconsciously they believe they really can't do it. It is very important to consciously identify why you believe you will do what you have committed to doing.

READ OVER YOUR ANSWERS EVERYDAY

The whole point of answering the Commitment Questions is to increase the level of MENTAL commitment that you are making to the action you have promised to do. Unless you are mentally committed, then there is a very good chance you will fail to physically follow-through and do it. Through daily reinforcement of your answers, you will continually strengthen the importance of doing it within yourself.

FOCUS ON REPETITIONS

The final step is to repeat the action over and over again. One repetition does not equate to strengthened self-discipline. Only when the new action is repeated over and over again does it eventually become a habit. At first, the habit is too light to be felt, but over time it will become too strong to be broken. The key is the continual repetition of the action you have committed to doing.

As you apply these five steps in one area of your life, you will soon find that they can be repeated over and over again in all of the other areas as well.

About Dan Coughlin

Visit Dan Coughlin's Free Resource Center on Business Acceleration

Dan Coughlin teaches practical ideas on how to improve business performance. He is a business keynote speaker, management consultant, executive coach, and author of four books on leadership, sales, branding, and innovation. His books including Accelerate, Corporate Catalysts, The Management 500, and Find a Way to Win. His clients include GE Capital, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Marriott, Boeing, Abbott, Toyota, Subway, Kiewit, Prudential, Denny's, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

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