Building Self-Motivation through Discipline Starts with a Belief System
Discipline is the 3rd core value that leads young athletes to develop self-motivation. Discipline doesn’t come easy. Unquestionably, the only conclusion I could come to after a lifetime aspiring for more discipline is that you can’t teach discipline.
On the contrary, discipline is the summation of hundreds of small decisions. Decisions made as a result of a belief system.
It’s a fact that when pursuing any difficult goal, you need an immense amount of discipline. Therefore, the only way to maintain this discipline is to believe that your daily habits and routines are the only path to success. Without this belief system, learning about discipline is pointless.
A Belief in Discipline Starts with Results
In order to get young athletes to believe in discipline, the daily habits and routines established must provide results. Furthermore, results imply measurements. So the best way to start is to build a routine around improving something that can be easily measured. For example, push-ups, pull-ups, speed, vertical jump, or even something like memory.
A few weeks ago I wrote about a home training strategy every sport parent should try with their kids. This is a good starting point to establish discipline. The only thing I would add to it is the measurement aspect to show before and after results to build belief.