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WHAT I'VE LEARNT 50 DAYS INTO THE 100 DAYS OF SELF-DISCIPLINE CHALLENGE ✨

1. Discipline is a skill that must be developed just like playing the piano or lifting weights at the gym. The first time you go to the gym you don’t try to lift a 100kg, you start with 5kg and then move up from that as you gain strength, with self-discipline is the same. First, you need to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable and then progress begins.

2. Everything in life is about trial and error. There is close to little chance to get things done perfectly the time you do them. You first need to try them see how it goes and look for ways to improve it, whatever it is. Trial and error.

3. Just keep going even if you feel you are making no progress because you are. And if you stop you will lose all the hard work that you have put in until this moment. And there is no fun in that. Believe me when I say I’m sick and tired of always being a beginner or at the start of everything because I just quit and then it all goes to sh*t. Keep that in mind! Just put your seatbelt on and pull through. It will get better I promise.

4. Find inspiration/motivation from whichever source/s you like the most. The more the better. I personally use YouTube (Fearless Soul, Be Inspired, Motivation2Study, Matt D’Avella, Nathaniel Drew, Lavendaire, Muchelle B…), Castbox (a free platform for listening to podcasts: The Ground Up Show, The Lavendaire Lifestyle, Kwik Brain, Optimal Living Daily, College Info Geek…), and Twitter (The Secret, Jay Shetty, Jen Sincero, Ted Talks, Vex King, James Clear…). Tumblr [cwrote is my favourite] and Instagram too, but not so much). They help me to think positively and be in the right mindset for growth and personal development.

5. Talk to people about your struggles you are not alone, and they might help. Just be careful who you share that information with. I am a person who doesn’t like to share personal stuff, like feelings or fears with anyone, literally. But this past month I started taking walks with my dad in the evening and it has helped me to open up a little bit and better my relationship with my dad. I told my dad how I was struggling to go to bed and that it had been going on for months and it wasn’t like I couldn’t sleep, just that I couldn’t get myself into bed because there were so many things to do. After that talk, I found myself going to bed at the time that I had planned and I believe that was from the push my dad gave me to just to it and feel uncomfortable. Because I wasn’t going to feel right at first and also because I felt I wasn’t alone I felt supported.

6. And if you still don’t feel comfortable enough sharing your emotions, just write them down. Let it out. It doesn’t have to look pretty or be grammatically correct just let the words flow out of your mind and read it afterwards. Is there anything that is my power that I can make to improve? If the answer is yes, do it; if not, burn the paper or at least throw it away, there is no use in revisiting your sorrows. This works for me very well because I’m still reserved and still feel uncomfortable talking openly about my feelings.

7. You cannot do everything at the same time especially if all those things are new (habits). What I mean by this is that if you want to create a morning routine habit and a night routine habit (like me, or something completely different), don’t try to form them at the same time because it won’t work, especially with routines because it isn’t just one thing, it is a chain of lots of little things that you need to do and remember.

If you’re new to this self-discipline thing, just like I am, you cannot expect everything to go right as soon as you start doing it. When you attend your first dance classes you are clumsy and you don’t know what to do, but as the weeks go by you develop the skills you need to dance and your confidence in yourself grows. Here happens the exact same thing. Note that in the example I didn’t mention the drawing class I wanted to go to, and neither the creative writing one. Choose one, focus on that one and when you have developed the skills and confidence move on to the next one.

8. To have a great day you need to have a great night. And no, I’m not talking about that kind of night ;) What I mean is if you want to have a good day in terms of productivity, energy, and happiness you need to have had a good morning, but before you have to have a good evening/night. If you go to bed at 3am without having prepared your bag and clothes for the gym for the next day or without organising your room, you probably will wake up late the next day, tired because of the lack of sleep; you probably won’t feel like going to the gym and you will feel overwhelmed because your room is a mess and so is your mind. (I’m talking from experience here). Instead, if you have a night routine or at least prepare the things for the next day and get 8h of sleep, your morning will be much better and therefore, your day will go as amazing as you planned it to be.

9. It’s okay to f*ck up. Forgive yourself. And do not look back, just go forward. It is okay if yesterday wasn’t a great day or if today didn’t go as you planned. Forgive yourself and look ahead. Get it together and ask yourself what am I going to do tomorrow?

10.  And now my favourite quotes for inspiration/motivation by the most amazing human being (Will Smith) - link to youtube video

“The road to sustained happiness is through disciplined behaviour. When you say you love yourself, it means that you have behaviour towards yourself that is loving.”

“DISCIPLINE is to forgo immediate pleasure for the exchange of long-term SELF RESPECT.”

“I believe that SELF-DISCIPLINE is the definition of SELF-LOVE”

After all this rambling... the thing that I was so proud of was that I went into the library, spoke to the librarian, got registered, asked her where the dewing and art books where AND I spent around three to five minutes looking and the books on the shelves while there were people studying in the room.

Hey there! How are you doing? Tomorrow will be my first day of uni after the summer holidays and I thought I would show you some quick and simple things that you can do to skyrocket your grades without much effort. Note that the title says good grades and not A’s. I don’t want anybody to feel they need to get an A to have good grades. A good grade can be a B or a C even. It just depends on what we want to achieve and by no means that has to be the same for all students.

🌸 First of all, is organisation. I know for many of us is a much-dreaded word but in this case, it is crucial.

Organise your tasks: weekly and daily planners. Scheduling is a skill you will need to acquire sooner or later, and to-do lists will become your best friends. It will make your life easier, trust me on that. (Todoist is my #1 app for creating to-do lists and Evernote the one for notes)

Organise your schoolwork: binders and folders. Make sure you don’t lose anything, and everything is right where it should be. (I put everything I need for every subject on a plastic folder, so there aren’t any papers scattered around.)

Organise your room and more importantly your desk: no overcrowded spaces or distractions. The more organised (or clutter-free) your room is, the more willing to study you will be [untidiness often leads to frustration which is not something we’re looking for]

🌸 Pay attention in class. Go to class and while you’re at it pay attention and if you’d like to take a step further, sit at the front (maybe not in the first line, but certainly not at the back). This tip may seem a little bit silly, but it can significantly help us for various reasons:

1. Usually the people that sit on the front roles are the ones to be more interested in the class, that means they won’t be talking in class or making paying attention any more difficult than it already is.

2. It makes studying at home a lot less difficult because we have already listened and somehow understood the topic in class. It is easier to understand something you’ve had explained, than something you have to figure out alone.

🌸 Doing homework. Although it might seem childish, it really makes a difference. It helps to find possible doubts we have on the topic we are learning, it’s a way of studying or revising, it keeps us up to date with the class syllabus.

🌸 Taking breaks. Breaks are essential to relax our brain from time to time before going full-blown into studying again.  It doesn’t matter if you study for half an hour and take a 10-minute break or you study for a full hour and then relax for 20 minutes, it is all up to you, but remember to put yourself to study again!

For these breaks try doing something not engrossing, like snacking or taking your dog out; watching just an episode of a series or a chapter of a book is never a good idea, we all know how that ends.

🌸 Teach somebody (or something) [my corkboard is a pretty good damn student hahaha] This method really works, and you don’t have to have anyone listening to you, just explain out loud the topic you’re studying, and it’s done. This way you may find that you’ve completely mastered a topic or realise that there are some points you don’t comprehend fully yet. This, I have found be one of the best ways to study.

🌸 Track and analyse your grades. Now, you may find this a little bit weird, but if you track your grades on a sheet, there is no room for surprises, at the end of the semester you will have kind of an idea of how you’ve done over the past months and you could anticipate most of your grades. However, analysing your grades is what is key here. This means you should take a little bit of time to think about what you could’ve done better and how you can improve and what you have done that have given you good results. What are the methods that are working well for you now? Do this with each subject and be honest with yourself! There is no point in lying to ourselves.

My plan was to buy some socks that I needed and a pair of yoga pants. I was surprised that when I tried them on (yoga pants) I didn't just start listing all the things that I hated about the way I looked in them. After a few minutes with them on in the fitting rooms, I began not to focus on the things that I didn't love about my body and focus on the ones that I did like, such as my almost flat stomach I have been working on or my bum.

After that, I tried on some dresses (and believe me it was a huge step in the first place to even pick them up). So I tried them on and even though I didn't like how they fitted me, I didn't blame it on myself or my body. It was just that the dresses weren't made for me. I took them off and walked out of the shop without any anger or tears ready to spill out of my eyes like I usually did.