Without discipline, you will fail. If you want to join the special forces, you must take ownership of your actions and hold yourself responsible for your performance. In the field, your teammates depend on you to execute your responsibilities and uphold your duties to a standard of excellence – neglecting your obligation gets your people killed.

With the standard of discipline in the teams being so high, how can you ensure that you have what it takes to succeed? In this OA mentality guide, we’ll give you three ways to improve your discipline and ensure that it meets the special forces standard.



Eliminate Instant Gratification

Success isn’t about finding quick fixes and shortcuts – it’s about executing your mission and performing despite difficulty. The simplest way to improve your discipline is to eliminate the extra comforts and temptations that plague your daily life.

Determine what is crucial to your survival, and eliminate everything else. Learn to live without the elaborate comforts that have made modern people weak and undisciplined. For example, you don’t need a steamy shower or bubble bath to get cleaned up – cold water and plain-old soap are just as effective at washing away dirt. The same goes for staying up late and watching movies or scrolling through social media. If what you’re doing isn’t directly helping you reach your goals, you must stop immediately. Comforts come when the work is done.

Keep Your Promises

If you say that you will do something, you must stand by your word and honor that commitment. Discipline isn’t just about regulating your behavior out of self-interest. It’s also about being a dependable individual that others can count on.

Take responsibility for your commitments and make an effort to execute them. If you have somewhere to be, get there on time; if you have a project to accomplish, do it to the best of your ability; if you have a team depending on you, never let them down. 

Discipline isn’t an action; it’s a way of life. Being disciplined comes from consistently holding yourself to a high standard and upholding your principles to the best of your abilities. If you give your word, give your greatest effort to honor it. It’s okay to fail after giving 100%; it’s not okay to fail because you neglected your responsibilities.

Do the Things You Don’t Want to Do

Motivation is the enemy of discipline. It’s a quick-fix replacement for mental toughness and resilience. Depending on motivation to accomplish your goals is the equivalent of drinking three cups of coffee to go to the gym – it might give you short-term energy, but it’s an unsustainable way to go through life. There’s a reason why motivational speakers and life coaches make so much money: they’re not helping anyone but themselves! They simply give people a temporary motivational boost of productivity. Then, when the motivation inevitably runs out, these same people keep coming back time and again to get their fix. 

If you want to accomplish your goals, you must stop relying on external motivation and start cultivating your discipline. That means doing things you know you must do, even if you don’t feel like doing them. The best way to accomplish this is to establish your principles and base your actions around them. Take a minute to think about the traits you value in your daily life and write them down on a sheet of paper. They can include things like dependability, accountability, honor, and perseverance. Then, take your paper and tape it somewhere you’ll see it every day when you wake up (above your bed, on your mirror, etc.). Memorize these tenants and make them punctual in your daily decisions – if an action is in line with your principles, execute it even if you don’t want to. 

No matter what you do in life, discipline makes you a more effective, adaptable, and resilient individual. Apply the direction in this guide, and you will find that you are more willing to act in difficult situations and better able to relax under stress. If you want to be an operator, your improved discipline will put you far ahead of the other candidates during selection.

Learn more ways to improve, stay accountable, and build discipline. Become an OA Aspiring Operator today and join our community of future, current, and retired SOF operators! You'll get instant access to exclusive podcasts, a weekly accountability group, and many more perks that will help you stay on the special forces pathway. Click here to enlist in the OA now!