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Poker is a game and unless you are a professional, it should be played for fun.  Like most games, however, there is an element of competition and it is almost always funner to win.  In the long run, poker is scored by the amount you win or lose, and nothing will determine this long term score more that your poker discipline. 

Poker discipline can be broken down into four major categories: bankroll management, table selection, hand review and tilt control.

You need to determine this amount before you start playing, not during a game when you are losing your shirt, or in a game where you are cleaning up.  Your thinking will be clouded then.  Your bankroll should be determined prior to playing.  Once you have determined the total value of your bankroll you can use it to discipline yourself to playing within your bankroll limits.  The limit is determined by the type of poker you prefer playing.  All the information you need to determine the right limits for you is available in the article on poker bankroll management.

Table Selection.  Many players take the first seat available to them when they log onto a site.  Anxious to play, they don't spend any time observing the battlefield before charging right into the fray.  This is a mistake.  You need to discipline yourself to explore the available tables and choose the ones that are likely to be the most profitable for you - not the ones that will be available soonest.  In order to know which tables will be the most profitable you will need to conduct freaquent and thorough hand reviews.

Hand Review.  All online poker sites provide their players with hand histories.  Why would they do that?  Because serious players insist on them.  They use them to review their play (and that of their opponents) to improve their poker skills.  If you are going to be a serious player you'll need to use those hand histories also. 

Hand histories are typically text files that can be a bit tedious to navigate.  There are several software packages available that allow you to import hand histories and then convert them into appealing visual recreations of the game play.  These tend to make hand history reviews faster, more accurate and more effective.  Invest in one if you are serious about improving your poker game.

During your hand reviews you should be looking for mistakes you have made.  Perhaps you limped in when you should have raised.  Perhaps you called when you should have folded.  Identifying these mistakes is the key to rectifying and limiting them.  (You'll never play 100% mistake free.)

Once you have a significant number of hands in your database (50,000 or more) you can start to look for trends.  One particular trend to note is the type of tables where you are most profitable.  Are you making most of your money against loose aggressive players, or against weak tight ones?  Identifying this is essential to the exercise of table selection discipline.

Tilt Control.  I saved this for last because I wanted to make sure you read the other three disciplines first.  If you're exercising bankroll management, table selection and hand review discipline, you are far less likely to need tilt control discipline.  Conversely, if you are tilting, you're more likely to lose your discipline in the other areas.

Tilting happens to all of us.  Players who tell you that no amount of bad beats will cause them to tilt are lying to you and themselves.  When you are steaming too hard to make the best poker decisions you should stop playing until you've regained control of your tilt.  Too often I see players fling chips into the pot because the deck owes them a winning hand.  Well, wake-up, the deck owes you nothing!  The cards don't know or care that you were a 19-1 favorite when you got your chips in.  If you're considering a call because 'that idiot can't have made another hand!' then you need to leave the table.  That idiot could, indeed, have made another hand.  The cards don't care.

Tilting is actually a great time to do some hand reviews.  Look at your beats.  really look at them.  Was your every action on the hand correct?  Was your opponent really making a mistake chasing his draw?  If so, then you can be reassured that you've taken a bad beat.  They happen.  Being a 19-1 favorite means you'll lose 5% of the time.  Calm down and play smart poker.

Poker is a combination of skill and chance.  You will need discipline to build your poker skills to the level that chance is not a factor in your long term success.  Become a Zen master of the four disciplines described here and you will be a formidable force at your poker tables.