You don't need a new year, you need discipline

It's that time of year again when people promise themselves and others that they'll turn a new leaf and do this and that differently come the new year. But the sad part is: most of these people have said the same thing for a few years in a row and nothing has changed.

• They didn't write that book they said they would, 
• they're still obese(too lazy to stick to a diet or exercise regularly), 
• they haven't gotten that car and/or house they said they would get. 

The list is practically endless. They go on this endless loop of broken promises and a wasted 52 weeks. Then at the end of the current year, well, you guessed it, they make the same resolution and the cycle continues.

Well, the hard truth is: You need discipline, not a new year or a new month or a new week or even a Monday. Just get your lazy ass up and do it!

Some tips

1. Make a public commitment: When you make a promise to yourself, it's relatively easier to break it than one made to someone else; and it is even harder to break a promise made to more than one person. Making a public commitment is an awesome way to make yourself accountable to persons other than yourself.
2. Work towards the goal with other people: When trying to accomplish something alone, it's easy to get discouraged and lose motivation. But when in a group, the other members can serve as a source of motivation when you're down and vice versa. 
3. Set realistic goals: Don't go saying things like:
   I want to build a company from scratch, I want it to be bigger than Tesla and I want to accomplish this in 1 month. I mean, c'mon, who are we kidding here? 
4. If a goal seems too large, break it into smaller sub-goals: Aiming to loose 100 pounds might seem like a lot; but, aiming to loose 10 pounds a week sounds a lot easier, yh? 
5. State your goals explicitly.

Discipline isn't easy, but, if we want to become better versions of ourselves, we need it. 

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Balancing what you want with what is expected of you

I'm going to make the wild guess that you are an African child; the specificity of the country is not important. So, that being said, I assume you can relate with the "My son is studying *whatever prestigious course*, I'm so proud of him/her"; while the child is like: "mehn, I just want to write music" or something of the sort. This post is going to be the beginning of my personal chronicles regarding how I got to studying Industrial Mathematics while all I want to do is code.
I'm going to be a bit personal sometimes, so, just bear with me. Before we get started, lemme give you some background.

I'm your regular teenage guy who just wants to pursue his dreams and doing so is quite complicated. I'll explain later. Anyways, I have a love for coding (whether it be creating a web app, a website, a native app), but my parents are of the opinion that I should have something more "concrete" first; then I can do whatever I want with my life. So, this is my journey with them and how I have been managing to cope.

The Beginning

It all started when I decided to be a science student; bear in mind that parents were commercial and art students. They were somewhat elated, I could tell; I thought they were genuinely happy for me and maybe they were, but with time it turned out that they had other plans: they wanted me to be a medical doctor. Eish, me? Medical doctor? Nah, that shit wasn't for me. I already had a crush and it was everything computers. I couldn't just cheat on myself. So, the battle began.

Convincing them

Trust me, this wasn't easy. Finding a middle ground felt like an impossible task; but with time, we did come to an understanding. I was to read Chemical Engineering. I wasn't overly happy, but at least I wasn't reading medicine. While doing this, I was writing codes by the side, so it turned out I was cheating on Chemical Engineering... well, I mean, why not? It was basically forced on me.

Balancing both

This is where the pressure began mounting, a lot of times, I would be faced with the choice of either doing assignments or reading about some new framework. So, this is what I did:

• Compartmentalize: Separate your passion from whatever it is you are doing to just please your parents/guardians. When you are composing that song or designing that dress, hide every textbook and note related to academics (except if it is a source of inspiration). When you are doing that 10-page essay, try not to wander; keep your focus till you get it done, then you can go back to your one true love.
• Plan your time: You have to be an awesome time manager if you are going to balance both of these things. There are 24 hours in a day, share them in a way that you have ample time for both your passion and your academics(that is in a case where both are not one and the same thing). This might be the hardest thing to do, but it the most important. 

So, there it is guys, I know it's quite skeletal but, I just needed to vent and my thoughts are not really coherent when I'm venting; so, I hope I have been able to tell my story to an extent. I'll continue in future posts. 

Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments section below.

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