Confess to yourself. How many times have you dreamt to start a new life next Monday, attend a gym, become a guru in cookery, have a dig at Spanish, set out to write a report in sociology or improve a few academic papers? Yet, when you get down to doing any of these things, it appears that you attempt to do at least something (buy a gym membership or attend a class in Spanish), but for some reasons you give up and justify yourself that it’s too hard or almost impossible to manage.
Sometimes you can’t even put a stake in the ground and feel like you really need help with college homework.
So, you failed to plan a few essential tasks on time, did not dedicate the proper amount of time to each of them, and now you are engaged to do all the things at once and hastily.
It is unlikely that a task for which a significant period of time was supposed to be spent will be done well in a couple days. Most likely, in the future, you will have to modify or correct it fundamentally or even do it from scratch.
And the reason is the absence of self-discipline. It may lie in the fear to start up absolutely new things, in the doubts towards one’s own possibilities, in the lack of will power and motivation.
Notion of Self-Discipline
What is the nature of self-discipline? Why is it so appreciated? Why does it allow to move mountains?
Self-discipline is defined as the ability to make decisions without taking into account feelings and mood. It is the key quality that makes it possible to succeed and learn to manage one’s time.
Self-discipline implies a set of concrete steps you undertake to achieve a goal. Self-discipline is the crucial instrument of self-development and personal advancement. It helps us to get rid of bad habits. It’s a magic that opens the door to a better life.
A huge number of people who want to achieve something in life set a goal to cultivate self-discipline. But not everyone succeeds, because self-discipline is not a theory, but regular actions supported by will. Self-discipline is a whole complex of important personal qualities.
To develop self-discipline, you need to realize your needs. After all, the rules to follow are set personally by you. You consider the established behavior to be correct and therefore, plan to follow it. Do some introspection. Understand what you are going to reach and prioritize.
Constituents of Self-Discipline
Psychologists accentuate on five constituents of self-discipline: inner recognition, willpower, true effort, eagerness and insistence. What is the meaning of each of above-mentioned notions and what are the ways to cultivate all of them?
Inner recognition or acceptance is when you perceive the reality adequately and consciously recognize everything you feel. Acceptance is the springboard for self-discipline. If you ignore the real evaluation of your state of mind and soul, you risk living in a fool's paradise. Too positive and too negative attitude towards anything leads to many hazards. Develop your personal strategy to overcome that.
Setting a goal is important. It helps you realize your willpower and respect yourself. Willpower is the talent to trace the line of actions and command “Go!” It provides us with a powerful yet, unfortunately, temporary impulse to act. So, using willpower, you should choose a concrete goal, make a detailed plan of actions and start bringing it into life.
Willpower is quite an unstable notion. That is why it’s more appropriate for a push to further actions. You may have enough strength to start the process but, in some time, it will inevitably wear thin. To avoid that, you need a clear and detailed plan.
The majority of people choose an easy way to achieve a goal. That is the most widespread reason why such people may face failure. Keep in mind: struggling with yourself, with your own bad habits which were accumulating for years, can’t be easy and trouble-free. The only way out is hard work and true effort. Self-discipline is conscious willingness to make efforts to achieve success.
Eagerness serves as willing hands. Opposite to hard work, eagerness doesn’t mean to pose a challenge. It implies spending a fixed period of time to achieve a goal along with performing easy functions as well as extremely complicated ones.
Insistence is the ability to act ignoring mood and attitude of others. Once you get started, you persistently continue moving to the goal though sometimes you may desire to let it all be. But don’t mix insistence and stubbornness. Insistence implies rational corrections of goals and creative search of new methods to succeed, leaving out those that appeared to be useless. Be insistent and consistent, make plans and develop your willpower. This will lead you to progress.
The Best Friend
Self-discipline is only one of the aspects of your self-development. The essential aspect though. It should not run against your global plans, ideals and the meaning of life. On the contrary, that must harmoniously cover them all.
But if if self-discipline makes you give up the pleasures of life and limits your opportunities, it will not last for long. It is worth using self-discipline your own physical and mental favor.
Do not underestimate your personal and professional qualities. Become your own true friend. Treat yourself with understanding. Be always ready to give yourself a second chance to find Plan B and solve a problem. If you don’t think about yourself, who will do that? Start a new day with thoughts about future success in all spheres of life and be sure you’ll definitely get what you plan to get from your life.
Probably, you take something up under the influence of a good mood, sudden passion, and desire. But the next day everything may change. It is necessary to realize that complicated things can require more effort and more time. Learn to endure all these complications so you can apply all your responsibility and strength. And you’ll see all problems vanish away!
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