Self-control is the most important quality to achieve your goals. You can develop it with the help of special exercises. One of the most popular works in this area belongs to the trainer of personal growth from the USA Brian Tracy.
Definition of a concept
Self-discipline is a discipline aimed at one’s own behavior, gaining complete control over oneself. Self-control may be present when a person clearly sees his goal. For example, he is keen to achieve a certain goal and, in accordance with this intention, plans the proposed actions, which should lead to the final result. To achieve the goal, he must fulfill his plan, even if at the moment he wants the opposite.
Personal growth coach from the USA Steve Pavlina points out: self-discipline is the ability to take planned actions regardless of the internal emotional state. He believes that a person can pump this quality, like a muscle, and in this process the same principles can be applied as in sports training. For example, you should start with small loads, gradually increasing them.
Key messages on self-discipline: adoption
Self-discipline rests on the five main pillars. This is acceptance, willpower, diligence and perseverance. Let's consider each of them in more detail.
Acceptance is a sober look at our current opportunities. This principle is well illustrated by the analogy with sports training, where an untrained person should be engaged with light weights for some time and only after a while pass to heavier loads. Self-control should also be developed gradually.
Strength of will
Willpower allows a person to set the direction in which he will move to achieve his goal. Basically, it is needed in order to proceed directly to action. After a person forced himself to begin to carry out his plan, the brain gradually gets used to the necessary occupation. Applying strong-willed efforts every day, over time, subjugating the will becomes easier.
Hard labour
This concept is that for the development of self-discipline you can not look for easy ways. For example, a person has difficulty drinking alcohol and at some point decides to permanently quit his addiction. He can use two strategies: either stubbornly fight with his obsessive desire to drink, or just be encoded. In the latter case, the effect may be short-lived, and most likely, after the coding is in effect, the addict will start drinking alcohol again. If he follows the path of overcoming his fears, then the result will be sustainable, and self-discipline - developed at a very high level.
Zeal
Effort is attentiveness to everyday work, even in small things. Unlike hard work, such things need not be difficult. By diligence is meant the performance of any business in good faith, the effective organization of one’s time and space around oneself. Diligence helps to significantly increase productivity in everyday life.
If you had to deviate from the goal
Without self-control, it is impossible to achieve your goals. Indeed, unforeseen conditions can always arise. Today, a person feels great, as he is doing well at home and at work, everything is in order with his health. But tomorrow the circumstances may change - for example, difficulties arise with management or a cat gets sick. Due to stress and a depressed mood, the desire to achieve your goals can simply disappear. But self-control is necessary for that, in order to force oneself to move forward under any conditions.
Man is an emotional being, and often any detail can unsettle us. If this happens, do not indulge in self-incrimination. After all, people are not robots, and we are all subject to doubt and anxiety. But if there is a desire to continue to move further towards your goal, then the only thing that can help in unfavorable circumstances to continue to work is self-discipline. In our opportunities to develop in ourselves this quality, which will help, even in difficult situations, continue to move forward.
To some extent, self-discipline resembles weightlifting. Self-control capabilities depend on how often the “muscle of self-discipline” has been used. Each person has an initial level of ability to control himself - just like a weak person can lift the lowest possible weight, and even restless and capricious children can follow simple rules.
Marathon of self-discipline
How to develop self-discipline? This can be done with one simple tool - a marathon of self-control that lasts exactly one month. The meaning of this exercise is that within 31 days a person either adds the necessary action to his life (for example, takes two hours studying a foreign language, or spends forty minutes in the gym), or removes it (does not watch TV, does not chat in vain on the phone).
One of the most important aspects of this technique is that only one action can be added or removed. The method allows you to develop self-control without empty promises of “starting a new life”. Sometimes it’s not easy to realize it from a habit. But this method allows you to significantly approximate your goal and perform the desired action today.
The Power of Self-Discipline: Brian Tracy
B. Tracy is one of the most famous personal growth trainers, many of whose works are devoted to the issue of self-discipline. In his books, he writes that each person can develop these skills in himself. And when this happens, and habits become automatic, then a person will be able to use self-control without additional efforts.
In the book “No excuses! The power of self-discipline ”, he writes that it is first necessary to develop a habit of self-discipline. To do this, you need to firmly decide how to behave in a certain field of activity. Then, the business coach writes, you should not allow yourself to give indulgences and make exceptions to this rule until the necessary behavior pattern is strengthened and becomes second nature. Tracy also writes that failure is inevitable along the way. If something went wrong, the person must again make a firm decision to discipline himself until a good habit takes root.
What is the reward for developing this skill?
The book “No excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline ”Brian Tracy will be useful to anyone who would like to develop this quality in themselves. In it, a world-class coach writes about what awards await the one who has learned to control himself in important life spheres. Such a person begins to greatly respect and value himself. Indeed, now he has good reasons for this.
His self-esteem is significantly increased, and self-perception becomes positive. In his work, The Power of Self-Discipline, Brian writes that the development of self-control is a life-long task, and this struggle never ends. After all, temptations will constantly arise to take the path of least resistance, to live a comfortable life.
Record goals
Tracy writes about one of the most effective tools for developing self-control - recording goals. In itself, it does not guarantee success, is indicated in his book on self-discipline. “No excuses!” - It is this slogan that should motivate the person who wants to achieve a certain goal at the moment when he sees it written on paper. According to Tracy, periodic re-reading of their goals increases the likelihood of their achievement by 10 times.
In the process of fixing a goal on paper, a person puts his mental strength into it, and rereading them, he receives an additional charge of motivation. The power of self-discipline helps him achieve almost any goal. But for this, they must first be transferred to the physical world, fixed on paper.
Some more recommendations
Consider a few simple exercises that will help develop the quality of self-control:
- Get used to adverse environmental conditions. For example, you can take a cold shower.
- Do not wait for the desire to get down to business. Most often, a person does not begin to act until he has sufficient motivation. But self-discipline is a quality that just develops in those conditions when you don’t really want to do a certain job. The thought "something laziness me" can be treated with a smile.
- Encourage yourself to complete a business or project. This will allow you to create an association: "Did the job - received the award." Getting started will be much easier.
- To complete the begun business. Every morning you should wake up with the thought: "I will not go to bed until this matter is completed." Even if you get bored with work, you should force yourself. Then after some time, interest will appear, the “second wind” will open.
- Do not communicate with people who steal inspiration and desire to follow the goal. A person is capable of almost anything if he exerts a sufficient amount of effort.
- Do not do empty things. If you need to achieve a serious goal, all distractions should be excluded from life.
Self-discipline is a quality that can be developed with due desire and perseverance. Having gained self-control once, this skill can be used in various life spheres.