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2009

Abstract

nder another’s discipline, a dictatorial parent, an oppressive government, or an employer, you are not free.</p><p id="cd6c">Freedom is being under one’s discipline. It means you can use your desires to fill your needs. The less appealing alternative is to be a slave to your wishes.</p><p id="9db7">Anyone in the grip of an addiction, such as tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, knows how hopeless this can feel. It is not a happy place.</p><p id="b1c6">Michael Palmer, MD, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Michael+Palmer%2C+trauma&i=stripbooks&crid=2GYACJQLTUNWN&sprefix=michael+palmer%2C+trauma%2Cstripbooks%2C195&ref=nb_sb_noss_2">Trauma,</a> says it well:</p><p id="230a" type="7">“It is demoralizing to feel powerless to prevent the repetition of a pattern of behavior that you recognize as productive only of suffering.”</p><p id="ff35">If you surrender to whim, passion, or desire, this is submitting to control of the irrational.</p><p id="49a0">Here are the steps for strengthening self-discipline.</p><h2 id="7125">Step One</h2><p id="c748">The first step is to find a master idea or ideal that provides an ultimate rationale for your action. After years of study, I have chosen self-respect as my guiding idea.</p><p id="184d">If you have pride and confidence in yourself, you have self-respect. It translates to a feeling that one is behaving with honor and dignity. This idea has been a guiding light for me and led to a significant number of personal changes.</p><h2 id="c382">Step Two</h2><p id="b8fd">Self-discipline is like a muscle; you need to<a href="http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/12/16/the_no_muscle/"> practice</a> to become stronger. Part of practicing is talking with yourself about who you are. It helps to identify yourself as a person of solid self-control.</p><p id="7d98">Self-discipline comes from accomplishment, skill building, and doing what you don’t want to do.</p><p id="2f62"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Neurosis-

Options

Overcoming-Illness-Excuse/dp/0060154888/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1HHV40A16M083&keywords=garth+wood&qid=1664548342&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjAzIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=gart%2Cstripbooks%2C508&sr=1-2">Garth Wood</a> argues in his book on moral therapy:</p><p id="a893" type="7">“Deep in our hearts we invariably know the right way forward, but we recoil from its difficulty, hardship from failure we fear will happen.”</p><p id="bae9">But more robust and trained self-discipline can help overcome these obstacles.</p><h2 id="95fb">Step Three</h2><p id="e842">Don’t wait until you ‘feel like it.’ Choosing to do something or not based on whether it feels comfortable or pleasurable is not a moral choice. And it does not build self-discipline.</p><h2 id="6973">Step Four</h2><p id="fcc6">Complete what you start. You may think you are serious about achieving a goal, but only your actions convey how genuine you are. Better you keep silent and get on with it than delude yourself and others.</p><p id="10e8">Don’t let a day go by until you have done what you said you would do. Making that declaration to others will help.</p><h2 id="5e74">Step Five</h2><p id="8e72">Drop the excuses. I have often used fear of disapproval, failure, and rejection as excuses that stop action. I have found that rarely in real life do these adverse outcomes turn out to be accurate.</p><p id="ebd7">It is more likely that no one will even notice your initiatives. Excuses usually mask your laziness or fear. It’s better to move ahead and let experience prove that what you fear are delusions.</p><p id="afeb">But if you are going to make excuses, don’t fall for them yourself. Don’t believe your PR.</p><p id="44e2">In sum, these five steps will reinforce your self-discipline. They make it more likely that desired outcomes will happen. When you come to the point of decision about indulgence vs. holding back, follow your most significant ideals and justifications.</p></article></body>

How to Strengthen Self-Discipline

Five steps to foster a formidable will to achieve

Everyone struggles with self-discipline in personal development work at one time or another. It often comes down to the moment of decision: Do I indulge or hold back? Now there are some answers for how to better deal with this moment.

This essay will show five ways to forge the development of self-discipline. Hopefully, after a careful read, you will be better prepared to make the decisions you want.

Self-Discipline and Self Control

Human beings have only one faculty for tackling this decision: their rational consciousness.

Self-discipline means rational self-control; it means making choices based on one’s best possible reason.

Surrendering choice to whim, passion, or desire is surrendering reason to the control of the irrational. And that, most agree, is less desirable. But, as we all know, you win and lose some in this perpetual battle.

Life isn’t someplace in which to amuse yourself with repetitive distractions. It is, for most, an open opportunity to achieve what you want if you have the discipline.

Self-Discipline and Freedom

I’ve come to see self-discipline as a kind of magic act. It can transfer fat into slim, uninformed into an expert, poor into wealthy.

Those with self-discipline have the freedom to choose for themselves how to live.

You are disciplined by whatever or whoever is in control of your behavior. If you are under another’s discipline, a dictatorial parent, an oppressive government, or an employer, you are not free.

Freedom is being under one’s discipline. It means you can use your desires to fill your needs. The less appealing alternative is to be a slave to your wishes.

Anyone in the grip of an addiction, such as tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, knows how hopeless this can feel. It is not a happy place.

Michael Palmer, MD, author of Trauma, says it well:

“It is demoralizing to feel powerless to prevent the repetition of a pattern of behavior that you recognize as productive only of suffering.”

If you surrender to whim, passion, or desire, this is submitting to control of the irrational.

Here are the steps for strengthening self-discipline.

Step One

The first step is to find a master idea or ideal that provides an ultimate rationale for your action. After years of study, I have chosen self-respect as my guiding idea.

If you have pride and confidence in yourself, you have self-respect. It translates to a feeling that one is behaving with honor and dignity. This idea has been a guiding light for me and led to a significant number of personal changes.

Step Two

Self-discipline is like a muscle; you need to practice to become stronger. Part of practicing is talking with yourself about who you are. It helps to identify yourself as a person of solid self-control.

Self-discipline comes from accomplishment, skill building, and doing what you don’t want to do.

Garth Wood argues in his book on moral therapy:

“Deep in our hearts we invariably know the right way forward, but we recoil from its difficulty, hardship from failure we fear will happen.”

But more robust and trained self-discipline can help overcome these obstacles.

Step Three

Don’t wait until you ‘feel like it.’ Choosing to do something or not based on whether it feels comfortable or pleasurable is not a moral choice. And it does not build self-discipline.

Step Four

Complete what you start. You may think you are serious about achieving a goal, but only your actions convey how genuine you are. Better you keep silent and get on with it than delude yourself and others.

Don’t let a day go by until you have done what you said you would do. Making that declaration to others will help.

Step Five

Drop the excuses. I have often used fear of disapproval, failure, and rejection as excuses that stop action. I have found that rarely in real life do these adverse outcomes turn out to be accurate.

It is more likely that no one will even notice your initiatives. Excuses usually mask your laziness or fear. It’s better to move ahead and let experience prove that what you fear are delusions.

But if you are going to make excuses, don’t fall for them yourself. Don’t believe your PR.

In sum, these five steps will reinforce your self-discipline. They make it more likely that desired outcomes will happen. When you come to the point of decision about indulgence vs. holding back, follow your most significant ideals and justifications.