The holidays are here. And you know what this means: Food, treats, alcohol, and maybe even a bit of debauchery. With all of these things going against you this time of year, you may wonder how you can stay disciplined during the holidays.
Well, it’s not nearly as difficult as you may believe.
However, it does require some willpower and concentrated effort on your part. In this article, I’ll be covering 3 easy tips you can implement to stay disciplined and focused this holiday season. Keep reading to learn more.
1. Set Clear Boundaries
People typically break their discipline during the holidays for one reason: They haven’t set clear personal boundaries of what is and isn’t acceptable. Failure to do this gives you an “anything goes” mentality.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
The holidays are a time to loosen up (a little) and take your foot off the gas. However, that doesn’t mean you should use them as an excuse to forego all the good habits you’ve developed.
Setting clear boundaries allows you to enjoy the holidays while also keeping up with your healthy habits.
So decide in advance how many drinks you’ll have, how much junk food you’ll consume, etc. This process gives you a clear guideline to follow during the holidays. Moreover, this guideline will help develop your discipline and resolve even more!
Why? Because you’re reinforcing your commitment to yourself.
Christmas and New Years—for most people—represent a time to let their discipline fall by the wayside. For you, it can be a time to strengthen your self-control and fortify your will even more. You get to decide.
2. Lighten the Load
As previously mentioned: The holidays are a time to relax a little. It’s an opportunity to relieve a bit of the pressure. So to stay disciplined during the holidays, try to lighten the load of your usual workload. This practice helps you to:
- Stay committed to your disciplines
- Better enjoy the holidays
- Relieve some of the pressure
- Stay “on track” toward your goals
You may wonder how you can go about implementing this idea in your life. There are numerous ways. For example, you could workout 3 days a week instead of your usual 5. Or you could reduce the number of exercises in each training session.
The idea here is not to become lazy and skimp on your exercises. Instead, it’s to offer a little break, and as a result, alleviate some pressure to better enjoy the holidays.
3. Plan and Prepare
“Those who fail to plan are planning to fail” ~ Confuscious.
If you’re going into the holidays without a plan, don’t be surprised when you fail to stick with your healthy habits. When you prepare a plan, the expectations are set. Yes, temptation is strong at this time of year. However, temptation alone is not why people fail to stay disciplined during the holidays.
One of the biggest reasons—if not, the biggest reason—is a lack of preparation.
They don’t lay out a plan of what they will do, how much they will eat or drink, what they plan on eating or drinking, etc. Now, I understand this may be cumbersome to plan out, but here’s the deal…
A plan provides you with a baseline standard to operate from.
As a result, you become far more likely to stick to your disciplines, because the expectation is set. So try it for yourself. Write down how much you will indulge during the holidays, and what habits are non-negotiable, and then follow that plan once you’ve committed to it.
Next Step: Stay Disciplined During the Holidays
Learning to stay disciplined during the holidays is tough. But so is life. So if you can do this, you can do damn near anything. If you’d like some additional help building your self-discipline muscle, check out my ebook for more helpful tips and advice.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
