Building Unbreakable Willpower: My 8 Hacks for Self-Discipline

Ever wonder how some people just show up for themselves every single day—whether it’s hitting the gym, eating clean, or sticking to a plan? It’s not magic. It’s willpower. And guess what? It’s a muscle, and I’m sharing exactly how I’ve trained mine over the years. No fluff, no “just stay motivated” nonsense—just real, practical hacks that help me stay consistent (even when I don’t feel like it). If you struggle with discipline or keeping promises to yourself, this one’s for you.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the new episode. I hope you cannot hear my background noise because  it is loud. I swear, I'll clean it up if there's anything coming up. I'm just at the gym now because I don't want to be at home, but it's raining outside. So I just figured I'll go to the gym as usual. And now I'm here with my laptop, getting some work done,  preparing my newsletter for tomorrow, so yeah, I just didn't want to be at home today. 

It's a, it's one of those nice Saturdays where I don't have plans, so I have the whole day to myself.  So I went and did Lagree in the morning and now later I have my mobility session which I'm so excited about. Honestly this training is kicking my ass because I'm mostly training twice a week sorry, twice a day  because I have to train so many aspects for High Rocks.

So I've been burnt out quite a bit not gonna lie so but I'm only five weeks away Little over four and Yeah, I know I can't do it and I'm looking forward to having a quiet  just chill life after that and having fun with my summer the good weather and We are coming back to life people Look at this weather.

We had a wonderful day yesterday, and I feel like I have the will to live again. I'm Smiling. I'm not disgusted when I go outside. I can actually look around  Today when I was walking home from my Pilates class I realized that I was just like looking around and enjoying everything and  yeah without being like in a rush to get home without being disgusted by the weather without being extremely cold and it's honestly crazy how the weather just affects our mood but we are seeing the end of the light at the end of the tunnel so it makes me so happy and today's actually quite warm  Unfortunately, it's raining.

So I'm just here hanging out at the gym. Otherwise, I would be at home all day. So yeah, that's what it is. And today I want to talk about willpower.  This is something that I actually pride myself on a lot.  Having amazing willpower that I've trained over the years and I'm not even trying to be humble because  I'm very proud of the willpower and discipline that I've cultivated throughout the years.

And I just wanted to share some hacks that I'm using to keep it up. Because even though I've had a lot of training and  I know that my discipline is on point, it's not always easy. And it's a muscle that you have to keep training  because if you relax, it just goes back to whatever baseline you have. I just wanted to, and people have been asking me, even my friends, like, how do you stay consistent with your workouts?

How do you not go off the rails with your diet? And stuff like that. And yeah, I just wanted to share a few hacks that I think you'll find useful that I don't only use in my  working out and diet. You can use it in any aspect of your life that you find useful.  So the first thing that I do is I do not negotiate with myself after I've made the decision.

For example,  if I decided to go to the gym in the morning, I wake up and I go. Unless I'm not feeling well, that's a different story. So I think what I do is I do a quick check in with my body and  sometimes I  think okay, I'm actually over trained right now and I need this day but if it's not that, if it's not a health related issue there is no negotiation going on.

It's just I get up and I go Do I like it? Not always and mostly not I would say, but I made a commitment. I know I will feel better I know it will feel amazing having the night to myself if I go in the morning  But also you can apply this if you go after work as well. You just get up and go you don't think oh Let me just go home and chill for a second and then I'll go Let me just go out for a quick drink with a friend.

No, if I'm going to the gym, I'm going to the gym There have been times when I've deviated from that, but I still learned. For example, last week,  I think, oh, the week before that,  I wanted to go out with my co workers after work and we did go. We did a happy hour. I did not drink and I went to the gym at 8 p.

m. because that's the commitment that I made to myself. And I still went with no negotiation and I still knew there was not an option to skip So the moment you start stop doing oh, should I not? Oh, maybe this maybe that Your life will become easier because it's a law. It's the law It's literally the law and you have to keep your promises to yourself and that ties in really well with the episode that I did Last week.

Oh, listen, if you haven't yet about how to build trust and confidence with yourself it's by doing this by keeping promises to yourself that you keep and You'll end up trusting yourself and just respecting your own time and your own work more. So yeah Rule number one do not negotiate with yourself.

Number two is  Reduce the decision making possibilities in your life  for example  Again, it comes down to  Not negotiating with yourself like in the morning. There is no room for decision making. But also I Know that every step that I take  every additional step that I take to think about what else I need to do That morning,  it's going to take away from my willpower and it's going to just not put me in a great mental state.

So for example, if I wake up, I don't want to think about, oh, what am I going to wear? What am I going to eat?  That is pre decided and ideally prepared from the previous day. Diet is a good example here. I eat pretty much the same thing every day. And now that I'm doing a cut  I am eating very clean. I'm literally eating ground beef with sweet potatoes every single day.

Every single day. I even started meal prepping it because That's how little time I want to think about it, and that's how little time I want to waste on  deciding what to eat. I know it's a good balanced meal. For breakfast I also eat the same thing. So I just reduce the amount of times that I'm allowed to make decisions in a day.

And that gives me a lot of energy to just follow the instructions that I want.  Number three is making the stuff that is tempting you really hard to get. For example, let's say I want sweets after my workout,  or I'm feeling like I'm about to binge on something bad.  And whether or not it's a bad thing to binge and allow yourself to eat something that is outside of your, Calorie norm.

That's a different story, right? Let's say you don't want to do that right now I don't want to do that because I want to cut a little bit before my high rocks race I don't want to do that. I know that after that I'll come back or maybe you had something Yesterday and you know that two days in a row.

You're just like being a little  Too indulgent with yourself, right? So you don't necessarily want to do that. So we are operating on a paradigm that Today you don't need that. Make it really hard to get. I always say, okay, I'll get home I'll take a shower and if I feel like it, I'll go to the store later and I'll get whatever  and you know what?

I usually don't go to the store. Also, I don't keep anything that is tempting in my house so it is extremely hard to get and Most of the times I get over it  Same with any other kind of temptation, if you know you are prone to making these impulsive decisions  make it really hard to execute. If you know you like chocolate, don't keep freaking chocolate in your house. 

If you know you are spending, if you keep your phone by your bed and you will spend two hours before bed.  Scrolling on TikTok. Don't keep your phone close to your bed. Get an alarm clock like an actual clock and stop doing this  sometimes we  complicate our lives too much by making everything too accessible to us.

Make your life a little more complicated. Just get over it. You'll survive. Sometimes you need a little tough love. Another willpower hack that I use is to pair something that I want to do that is not necessarily great for me with something that  I love doing. For example, if I want to go and watch reality TV, I better do it on a treadmill. 

Like right now I'm watching Love, Death and Robots, which is not the worst show admittedly, but also why don't I pair it with walking?  Instead of just sitting around and watching it, I might as well just go to my cardio, like yesterday I watched and the episodes are so short. It's actually such a good show if you haven't watched it.

Just a side note, go watch it. The episodes are so short and I have been watching them  For maybe a week and I can watch a couple they're like 10 to 20 minutes So I can watch a couple and I'm done with my cardio and that's amazing so pair the annoying stuff with something that you love doing  and you'll be golden  Another habit that I have to increase my willpower is to create an identity around it.

So This comes from psychology because we what we often do It can work  both ways. It can be a very negative thing that we do. For example, if we say, Oh, I'm not a winner or I'm not a fighter or yeah, I'm not somebody who is supposed to make a lot of money. Those are like limiting beliefs that we create an identity around that affect us negatively in the long term.

Because if you say I'm not someone who does that, the chances. are very slim, that you'll turn into somebody who actually goes ahead and does these things. But, it can work in reverse, and it can work really well. If you, whenever there is an opportunity to bring it up in a conversation, if you say, yeah, I'm usually, I don't eat a lot of  sweets.

And then,  it can work in a way that you create this accountability in front of other people, because the next time you're eating sweets, they'll be like, oh. Are you like going back on your word? I thought you said you didn't and I'll have to explain yourself. And that's usually a little awkward and you wouldn't want to do that.

And you'll think twice before going and getting that cookie that you want. And the other way that it works is that It literally changes your identity, literally changes your beliefs about yourself. Because if you say it over and you back it up with action, it's going to manifest, it's going to change your subconscious and you're going to turn into this person.

If you say, yeah, I'm, I work, I'm a person who works out in the morning and then you go and corroborate this with the actual fact of working out more and more you do it, the more it becomes part of your identity and then it will become automatic.  That's another hack that is, that I think is great.  Another one that I use is start small.

For example, if I don't want to do something, like again, I'm just going to use the gym example with everything because it's such a universal and relatable thing.  Do you think I wake up every morning and I want to go? No. And some days harder than others.  And some days are not.  Obligatory for me to go right sometimes I just feel bored or sometimes I my plans get canceled and I go So if I'm thinking that oh, it would be great, but I'm not like super feeling it I start with small steps.

For example, if I wake up in the morning and I think oh, should I go today? Should I not?  and these are the days when I'm I don't have it set in stone, right? Again, because I don't want you to think that I'm contradicting my first rule, which is don't negotiate with myself. It's like a spontaneous decision, right? 

So if you do that and you  don't  want to do it, you can just say, okay, I'll put on  workout clothes and then I'll see how I feel  And then you're walking around in your workout clothes and you're like, okay, it wasn't that bad. I could keep going. Let me just go for a walk and see how I feel.

And then most of the times you end up doing the thing because you took the first step. Sometimes the first step is the hardest. And if you don't end up doing it, then there is always the next time, right? But usually I would say 90 percent of the time this micro step helps a lot.  And the last thing that I want to say in regards to this is  the key to becoming a very strong willed person is self awareness.

You have to observe your patterns. You have to know what triggers your Breakdowns, what triggers your binges, whatever this is you are trying to fix in your life You have to know yourself well enough to understand how it works Because then you'll be able to put yourself in the triggering situation less and you'll be able to exercise more control for example, let's say I've always had problems with  binge eating and I've had eating disorders and all of that and for example, I know that  Let's say I go to the store hungry  I'm gonna buy stuff.

Now I have a rule. I'm not allowed to buy anything that I don't need at the store So I don't even go and I don't think because I know if I buy one chocolate I'm gonna go and get another one and all of that's gonna happen I don't do that and it's such a part of my habit cycle and my identity that I don't even think about that anymore or Again, if I get home and I'm like and I'm feeling like I want something sweet.

I will let myself But, I have to come home,  take a shower, unwind eat a nice dinner, or like whatever meal I'm having, and then if I still want it, I'll go to the store and get it, and it's no problem. But usually, a lot of our cravings and a lot of our needs are emotional, and they're coming, they're not coming from a place where you actually need this thing, it's because you want to satisfy a certain need. 

if you know yourself enough you'll learn what triggers it and you'll know how to satisfy it in a different way or you just get it, you really needed this in this moment. I hope that was helpful to you and  go listen to the previous episode. I think it ties in well with what I'm talking about today and I'll see you in the next episode.