Every Jan. 1, many people wake up to face a self-imposed challenge: a New Year's resolution. Whether it's to shed the holiday pounds, earn a promotion, stop being tardy or learn a new language, achieving those goals will take a considerable amount of self-discipline.

So before tackling those challenges head-on, here's a basic guideline for improving self-discipline so that those resolutions are not forgotten by Jan. 2.

Self-discipline, like muscles, can be improved by "cycling through periods of stress and recovery," Lifehack.org explains. "If you are constantly breaking commitments or you can only work for a few hours a day without losing focus, a progressive training regimen can help."

Lifehack.org's training regimen for building discipline endurance is as follows:

The 20 percent rule — Improve your endurance by building your ability to hold out just a bit longer than you might otherwise. As soon as you feel the urge to quit, make a decision to hold out for another 20 percent to strengthen your resolve.

Goal setting — Don't be "too ambitious too fast and then use the fact that you set the bar too high as an excuse to bail out," suggests Lifehack. Actually achieving your goals is more important than setting challenging goals. "Goals will force you to work under pressure, but are easier to achieve than impossible objectives," says Lifehack. This will motivate you to work harder through the incentive that there is a quitting point.

Commitment grading — Prioritize your goals or commitments by establishing which commitments are: a) never to be broken; b) a top priority; c) important; and d) should be completed. "Without some form of prioritization, people tend to lump all commitments into the same basket," Lifehack notes. "This means your extremely important commitments have the same regard as mildly important ones."

Motivation — Rewarding your efforts is a way to build strong habits. If a goal seems particularly difficult to achieve, work out a way to sweeten the deal and ensure that the reward matches the effort.

Taking a lesson from telecommuters, part of staying disciplined is by becoming organized and building a framework for your goals, The Ledger says. The Florida publication also recommends keeping in mind that, although there is a set of tasks to accomplish, it is also important to have breaks.

This is because while the core of discipline is good, pushing it to the extreme could be detrimental, according to Psychology Today. "[J]ust one neighborhood over from discipline lies the sterile, gated community of workaholism, perfectionism and punishment. It's easy to get confused and wind up there."

To achieve the balance between healthy goal-setting and self-discipline, the goal needs to be an achievable stretch and fit in a larger vision of success, Psychology Today concludes. This tip is not only fitting for the individual, but works equally well for those wanting to inspire self-discipline in others, such as managers in the workplace.

At About.com: Human Resources, HR expert Susan Heathfield suggests the following tips for managers wanting to inspire self-discipline in employees:

• Treat people as adults — Have minimal rules and guidelines, only necessary to ensure an ordered, fair, consistent work environment. Also, most people want to feel as if they are contributing to something greater than themselves.
• Provide good training — Provide training in problem solving and in process improvement so people have the tools they need to continuously improve.
• Meet with staff members regularly — Walk through your work area regularly.
• Encourage open communication — Share the organization's overall goals. The more people know, the more they can act independently.

According to Psychology Today's advice, managers should basically keep the goals clear and the reins loose. People need to know what needs to be done and whether they are doing it well through just rewards — that goes for both the individual and for people wanting to encourage self-discipline in others.

Earlier/Related: Enthusing Employees without Pom-Poms

Resources

How-to: Self Discipline
Lifehack.org (last modified February 2008)

How to Become Your Own Boss
by Judith Sills
Psychology Today, last reviewed May 15, 2007

Truth of Telecommuting
by Sandra Dimsdale
The Ledger, Aug. 24, 2008

Promote Self-discipline
by Susan M. Heathfield
About.com: Human Resources