Anyone can achieve a measure of discipline. Benjamin Franklin, the most well-known American symbol of self-discipline, achieved his measure of success through habits such as waking early to begin work without distraction and measuring daily success with his famous virtues checklist. However, self-discipline is something you achieve, not something your persistently practice.

When people talk about wanting discipline in their lives, they usually mean they want to be more consistent at something. Maybe that’s exercise, or writing, or some other creative activity, or finances, or eating, or productivity at work.

These are all achievable without the concept of discipline. Persistently disciplining, or punishing, yourself is unlikely to motivate you to achieve the desired end result. What you want is to build good habits instead. 

Discipline is the result of having motivation and habits. Motivation is simply actionable steps you can take to accomplish a task. Accomplishing these steps in itself is not discipline. Discipline is achieved when you form motivation into habits which maintain the result you have already achieved.

Attempting to practice discipline is futile. When you fail to meet your concept of self-discipline you end up feeling guilty. By releasing yourself from the guilt of not being disciplined you’ll be empowered to create the habits you want by focusing on motivation without the need for persistent practice.