Self Discipline – How much could you achieve?
Do you have strong self discipline or will power?
Answer the question honestly.
If you are like most people, you feel that you would like stronger will power.
Self discipline and will power are basically the same thing. They are the ability to stick to a commitment or a course of action that you set for your self despite the fact that it would be easier not to.
Of course, you can increase the chances of consistently doing something by increasing your motivation for it and there are various methods for doing that, but they are a topic for another article.
Today we are talking about will power.
But you are stuck with what you are born with right? You get a certain amount and that’s it. Don’t you?
NO! That is a convenient excuse and it might be easier to float along believing that that is how it is and never making any progress in your life.
But it’s not the truth.
The truth is that self discipline is a lot like a muscle. The more that you successfully exercise it, the bigger and stronger it gets until eventually, you have a will of iron that will bend for nothing!
The key word however is successfully.
When you are lifting weights, you can go in and pick up the biggest weights that you can find and try and lift them. Even if you don’t manage the lift, it probably won’t do you any harm (so long as you have a spotter to look out for you). In fact the act of trying to lift that heavy weight will probably make you stronger. It may not be the most efficient method of gaining strength but it probably won’t hurt!
When you are working your self discipline, it doesn’t work that way.
Every time that you successfully exercise your self discipline or will power, even on tiny things, it becomes stronger, but every time that you exercise it and fail, it becomes weaker!
Before you ask, no, you can’t just not exercise it at all. If you fail to exercise it at all, then it simple withers away and worse, you would have to live a life without trying or accomplishing anything.
So, what counts as exercise for your will power?
Every time that you decide to do something and commit to doing it, you have started an exercise for your self discipline.
It could be something small like committing to make your bed every morning or perhaps something larger like committing to a workout schedule and sticking to it. It doesn’t matter. Anything that you commit to do is an exercise for your will power. If you succeed in your goal, your self discipline grows stronger and if you give up, it becomes weaker.
If your commitment is small, it will only strengthen your will power a little but conversely, it will only weaken it a little if you give up.
But, if your commitment is large, you can strengthen your self discipline a great deal in one go. On the other hand, if you set yourself a large commitment and you give up on it, your self discipline can be weakened significantly. This can also have a negative effect on your self esteem.
Ok, So I think that we can all agree that it is better to have stronger will power and so it is better to be building it up than chipping away at it.
How can we accomplish this though?
Well, the solution should be obvious …. Only commit to things that you are sure are worth sticking to and you want to see through to completion.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying to only attempt things that you are sure that you can already do. If you stick to your plan and try your absolute best to accomplish a task that you have set, but you still fail to accomplish the task, then that was not a failure of your self discipline. In fact, that was not a failure at all. If you really gave it your best, then it was a success and you will grow stronger because of it.
It is only a problem when you give up.
So, the solution is two fold.
First, in large things. Think very carefully before you embark on any new task. Are you sure that it is important enough to you to commit to? If not or if there is any doubt, then don’t . Only commit when you are sure that something is of enough importance to you to see it through to completion because that is what you must do.
Be flexible and adaptable in your approach to your task as you learn more about it but be certain that once you start that you will see it through.
The Second part is to actively train your self discipline in small things. You could for example commit to doing 10 Press ups every morning as soon as you wake for 30 days. (assuming that 10 press ups would be easy for you)
The task should be relatively easy but also one that it would be easy for you to rationalise not doing.
Once you have accomplished that, you could set your self a slightly harder task.
The important thing is not the task or the difficulty but that you stick to it regardless. You should therefore make sure that it is a task that you can accomplish.
By doing these small but progressive commitments, you will build up your will power, your self discipline and perhaps most importantly, your confidence in yourself!
Don’t forget the most vital ingredient …. Enjoy the process!
Phil
Tags: Mental Training, Psychology, self discipline, training, will power