Have you ever looked at someone else’s life and wondered how they fit so much into their day? How they had the time to accomplish everything they have, or how they were so consistent? Have you ever looked at someone’s habits and thought “I wish I had those qualities” or “I wish I had their motivation” or “I wish I could be like THAT”? If the answer is yes, I’m happy to deliver the good news early in this read.

The good news? The ability to:

• Hit daily goals
• stay consistent
• Push through low energy/motivation moments

Is not something some people are inherently skilled at, and others aren’t. One of the most overlooked key ingredients and non-negotiable traits to develop on the path of success is discipline.

We hear the term, we know it’s important. But what if I told you discipline is the entire foundation of who you are?

Discipline helps you to create your own rule book for your life, which leads to the formation of habits, which leads to the development of routine — which ultimately — becomes your entire being. Here are 4 things you can start doing today, to build discipline in your life daily.

1. Take a Walk

And then, another. And another. Day after day. The Better Health Channel, Harvard Health & countless other resources suggest a 30 minute walk per day is the single best thing you can do to improve your physical and mental health. It’s important for us to have physical disciplines. It doesn’t have to be rigorous exercise or an organized sport be effective, and to have lasting impacts. You don’t need to train yourself to like going to the gym, or hire a trainer, or enter a competition to improve your physical well-being; and ultimately — build new habits for yourself. Personally, I love strength training and the structure of a daily gym routine — but the gym is not the #1 habit I have created for myself that I feel contributes to my discipline. Walking is.

2. Eliminate Distractions

Let’s face it, we live in one big cluster distraction. The big culprit? Internet. When was the last time you consciously took time away from digital distractions? When was the last time you took structured, regular breaks from digital distractions? We are not wired to consume the amount of information we do through digital means on a daily basis. In a lot of ways, distraction itself and the way we’ve given a whole new meaning to the world in this digital era — has caused us to bury who we really are. Schedule time away from your phone. Download apps like Freedom or Forest that will quite literally lock you out of apps you choose for a duration of time you set.

3. Read and Write Every Day

Polish your communication, speech, articulation and ability to construct your vision by gathering inspiration daily. Start with 1 hour, and work your way up to 2 hours per day of non-negotiable practice in reading and writing daily. You don’t need to write structured articles you plan to publish, and you don’t need to read half a book in one sitting. You will be surprised when you make these actions part of your daily routine — how fast ideas flow to you and how much clarity you experience getting the words in your head on paper.

Google writing prompts and pick something that speaks to you. Write bulleted lists and don’t be afraid of unfinished thoughts. Read 10 pages per day of a book written on a topic of interest to you. If you want to practice being mindful, opt for the physical copy of a book over an audiobook. Both methods of reading and listening have value — but it’s easy for listening to an audiobook to become a passive task you do while trying to do other tasks. Having to sit down with a book and reread a sentence as many times as necessary to understand can help pull you away from all the digital distractions of today’s world. Taking time to write and read about yourself, or your interests, can help give you insight into your strengths and weaknesses — which is also a missing piece for us as we try to navigate breaking through all the noise.

4. Have a Plan for When it Doesn’t go as Planned

It’s that time of the year when we are all thinking about goals for the New Year. Most of us are familiar with the cycle of setting big goals, starting to execute them, falling off slightly in one way or another — and losing our focus and track. It can be a vicious cycle for many of us.

It’s to be expected for parts of your plan to be side tracked. If you tell yourself you are going to the the gym, to read 10 pages every day, and listen to 1 podcast every morning — and then one day goes by that you don’t — it can be easy to talk yourself into stopping entirely by associating that one “failure” with collapse of the whole goal. Many people throw in the towel at that point — but if you make it a focus to change the way you approach your goals and speak to yourself about them — you will stop letting 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month off track foil your plan. Expect life to happen, recognize you are a flawed human being (and always will be), and let moments in time when what you have set out to accomplish doesn’t go as planned be that. One moment in time. No negative attachment or self talk. The better you get at quickly getting back on track when you fall off course, the more you will build on your ability to be disciplined. Allowing roadblocks to knock us down for weeks, months, or even years at a time keeps us in vicious cycles that need to be broken if we want to see the true benefits of living a disciplined lifestyle.