How To Be More Disciplined And Focused
“How does one stay disciplined and focused?”
Discipline, by definition, is a practice. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
Naturally, we aren't great at most things when we're a beginner. Yet, we often think we 'should' be, want to rush to get to a place of proficiency, and/or compare ourselves to others who are much further along.
Most people don't like doing things at which they're not good (yet). If you want to be more disciplined and focused, you may need to do things you don't enjoy to get to the payoff you seek.
There's always a chasm between where we are and want to be. If we're unwilling to do the small, unsexy, sometimes unpleasant in-the-moment things to move towards it, we stay where we are.
If you want to be more disciplined and focused, you may need to do some things you don't enjoy to get to the payoff you're seeking.
If these traits don't come naturally to you, as I presume is the case for this question-asker, given the nature of the inquiry, 'practice makes progress' (I'm intentionally not saying 'perfect' since that's not the goal). Meaning: it's time to create a practice that supports you in becoming more disciplined and focused.
The asker's coupling the question with 'focus' is wise because discipline and focus can be like the chicken and the egg: when we're disciplined and start an activity, we may feel unfocused at first, but the longer we get into the activity, the more our focus is likely to lock in. (admittedly, when I sat down to write this, I wasn't focused, but I used my discipline to do it. By that I mean I had set a calendar reminder and blocked time for the task which signaled to me to override any parts of my mind that would have influenced me not to do it) and as I wrote, my focus grew).
Therefore, conversely, the opposite can also work: you can leverage focus to home in on an activity you want or need to do. Do that enough times consistently and you'll begin to build your discipline muscle and, dare I say, even create a new habit so that the discipline eventually becomes less important.