Decision and Commitment using Discipline

There is a growing problem now-a-days with Decision, Commitment and Discipline. It has become a pandemic. Now don’t get me wrong; taking decisions is not a problem. But, after taking the decision, we have no commitment to continue or have discipline to complete it.

We take Decision to start things. Commitment is what puts us on the path to continue the journey. Discipline helps us complete the things, even the gets going tough.

Every day we take several decisions, like, when to wake up and retire for the day, how much coffee to drink and how many times, how to go to work, how to avoid traffic, what and how to attend meetings, what things to buy, what to cook and eat, whether to go out for dinner, what clothes to buy or wear, etc.

Some people are good at taking decisions on the New Year’s Day. They take radical decisions to alter their physique, change diet, to study further or to go to gym every day, etc. They do it (or just think about it!) for 15 days or a month, then, they call it quits. Why? Because, they don’t have the commitment to continue on whatever they decided on; while facing the initial hurdles.

Commitment wakes us up to keep up with our set goal. It gives us the fire in belly. It is the fuel to get moving in the direction to reach our post. This is where most of the people fail. How can we improve our commitment like the few who have it?

Simple. You need to alter your choices when you are taking decisions. If the decision is not right or not correct or does not resonate with you, your commitment levels will be automatically low. But, you will not know that the decisions you are making are not right for you. If you know, you will not make or take most of the decisions. You think that you are taking decisions based on your conscious awareness. No, when you take decision, you tend to involve your logical conclusions based on your estimation on yourself.

You need to involve your emotion while taking decisions. When you involve your emotions, it will trigger tight bondage between your decision and commitment to do it. This is the key. There is no other way. You got to bring your deep down emotions and put them to use while taking decisions. You cannot succeed without this step. That’s why mentors always say that Your Why should be stronger, then, How becomes easier or it will present itself automatically. When, the commitment becomes stronger, the discipline comes into picture.

You may ask do I really have to involve my emotions in all my decisions. No, it is not required. If you want your decisions to change what you are, how you will live, or related to life in general, then, it is mandatory to involve your emotions. Otherwise, you don’t have to involve any emotions.

We can look at some examples to understand it easily.

You want to clean your closet. This does not require involving your emotions or visualizations. It simply requires the decision to do it. Because, it does not give you anything more than a nice and clean closet satisfaction feeling than anything else. Of course, it might give you little confidence boost, but that’s it.

On the other hand, if you want to reduce your weight by 20 pounds, then, you need to sit down and think emotionally, how it feels to be 20 pounds lighter, how your clothing looks, what your loved ones say about you, how much self-esteem and confidence you will get, and all other positive things happen when you are slim. Not only this enhances your confidence, but also, it promotes your self-esteem multi-fold. Your perception changes due to your ability to take decision which alters your life.


We have seen when to involve our emotions and do not require them at all. But, it is essential to know when our emotions should not be involved at all while taking some decisions. Good example would be when we are talking about our finances. When, spouses or loved ones are talking about their financial situation, or future plans related to finances, they tend to be more emotional than normal. They never include their logical side of the mind to understand the math behind. They just get emotional. They take decisions on the heat. They do not think the consequences of their actions, when they are that emotional. This is very important to understand that at these times, we should not involve our emotions. This is negative side of involving emotions while taking decisions. If this happens you will be called emotionally imbalance person. Most likely, these types of decisions will lead you to repent later. By all means, everybody should take measures to avoid this situation.

Now, let us see how discipline helps us reach our goals. Discipline means, doing the same thing that you have taken decision to do. It is not beating, not scolding or cursing, not feeling guilty, not punishment or not timeout. It simply is doing (continue doing) the same thing (for which you have taken decision to do or reach) that you are doing time after time, even when it is boring to do, or getting difficult to continue. This gives you the ability to conquer the world; it is not conquering physically, but at intellectual level.

The biggest difference between those who achieve their goals and those who does not, is Discipline. The successful people know the importance of discipline. This is very powerful trait. Only way that we can master discipline is to twain ourselves strongly with our decisions. This will make a small thread link into a stronger rope and gives us the courage to reach our goals.