The Importance Of Self Discipline
- Self Discipline must be developed in order to succeed.
- Successful people dislike the same things as you.
- Every time you practice self discipline, you will strengthen it.
What Does It Take To Succeed?
With so many distractions around you, what does it take to stay focused on your goal and keep going until you succeed?
The answer is, Self Discipline. Self Discipline, absolutely must be developed in order to succeed.
What Is Self Discipline?
Self Discipline is the ability to force yourself to do something you know you should do, whether you feel like it or not. Read that sentence again and memorise it.
(if you didn’t read that sentence again, you just did something easy over something that was hard. 90% of people do this.)
Now have a look at this short list. See if you can notice what these people have in common?
Donald Trump
Jay Leno
Margaret Thatcher
Thomas Edison
Napoleon Bonaparte
Any ideas?
They are all famous four hour sleepers!
Whilst you may not have a global corporation or a country to run (and so can probably get away with a few extra hours in bed!) the point is, successful people dislike the same things you dislike but discipline themselves to do it anyway.
Why do they do things they dislike? Because they know that is the price they must pay for success. This is why self discipline is so important in achieving success.
How To Develop Self Discipline?
Self discipline means overcoming your natural urge to do what is fun, easy and quick. Self discipline takes time to develop, but just like any other skill the more you practice using self discipline the stronger it will become.
Every act of self discipline you practice, will strengthen your level of self discipline. Over time it will also strengthen your character, confidence and self esteem.
Remember, you are competing for success against a population who are mainly lazy, greedy and think only of short term gain.
If you can force yourself to do what you should do, whether you feel like it or not, your success is virtually guaranteed.
Most People Are Not Interested In Self Discipline
Don’t believe me? Have a look at these statistics.
In 1 month of this year, 2,800 people searched for the word ‘self discipline’. Guess how many searched for the word ‘fun’?
200,000!!!!
As you can see, most people are not interested in self discipline. They prefer to engage in actions that satisfy their short term needs, at the expense of long term failure in life. You must therefore be aware of what failures do and make sure you don’t do the same.
Self Discipline Is Important So Pay The Price
Now that you are aware of what it takes to be successful, is success what you truly want? Or are you happier living the life you currently live? Because if you want success, you can have it, anyone can.
Just like in a shop you must first decide what you want, pay the price and it will be yours.
“Discipline is the soul of an army, It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all”
George Washington
Wow! This is exactly what I needed to hear. I want to be successful. But what do you do when YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS YOU WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT? I don’t know what I want to do and I’m 45 years old! I’ve spent my life raising kids and now it’s my turn.
Hi Lori, I have just started write about that very subject!
Have a look at this article, I will be adding more to it later today!
http://www.eruptingmind.com/what-to-do-in-life/
Hey!!! You make me feel guilty about myself and how lazy and self indesciplined I have been.
After this? It’s time to change course!!!!
Thanks
Don’t feel too bad Mike! being lazy is actually a common personality characteristic. I wrote more about this in the following article
http://www.eruptingmind.com/characteristic-success/
Great article. I write about investing and finance at my blog and self discpline is so important when it comes to investing and saving money.
Love the definition….
this was great information about discipline and its importance in life. thanks!
An effective method for developing and improving self discipline, is to perform certain actions or activities, which you would rather avoid doing due to laziness, procrastination, weakeness, shyness, etc. By doing something that you do not like doing or are too lazy to do, you overcome your subconscious resistance, train your mind to obey you, strengthen your inner powers and gain inner strength
I am glad to have found your website. Perhaps there are many books talking about all you wrote here ( in the entire website), but no one will go directly to the point like you. Although my main main language is Spanish, I will be very pleased on making an effort for reading all your entire website. Thanks my friend.
Thanks Emilio, If you want more information on self discipline I have written about it in more detail in the “success skills” section.
http://www.eruptingmind.com/success-skills/
If you need a Spanish translation there is a box on the right called “translate this page” which will provide a Spanish translation. Although i’m not sure how accurate it is!
I like your simple, discriptive yet insightful style of writing. keep it up.
I’m well quite disciplined.But you know , like it’s easy to attain but difficult to maintain. So I guess thats where self discipline comes in, the one who practices best get’s to the top. Is it??
Good article, I like the it. Especially the pictures
doing a good job.carry on.we all need it. :>
i have a gay gboyfriend and your article gave me the stregth and common sense i need to dump his sorry arse.
This site is excellent!!! I have trouble with self-discipline though when I’m around other people. It is super hard to live in society and not get sucked in to “what everyone else does”. I go back and forth between being a hermit and then I can stay focused….but then I can’t not interact with people and when I do… I get swept up in the ways of the world again. How do you deal with people when most people are mainly lazy, greedy and only think of short term gain? If someone doesn’t share my self-discipline practices…..it’s hard to have a relationship with them.
Hi Paula,
You are completely right in what you say. It is very hard to live a self disciplined lifestyle when the people around you are lazy, greedy and only think of short term gain.
The first action you can take is to be selective who you hang around. This is very important because people eventually become like the people they hang around the most.
However this does not mean you should become a hermit. If you find your regular circle of friends are not the type of people that are helping you to achieve what you want in life, then you need to create a new circle of friends.
Think about the type of friends you would like to have, and then change your lifestyle so you that you start meeting them. This could mean going to places you don’t normally go, or joining some clubs. By changing what you do in your life, and where you choose to spend your free time, you will meet a different group of people with different mindsets than your current friends.
You may also want to examine why you feel you are being “sucked” into what everyone else does. Is it because you want to be liked by others by doing what they do? Are you really being your true self around the people you are hanging out with? Or are they causing you to live a lifestyle you don’t want to live? Ask yourself these questions, because if you are not being your true self you are being fake to others, and yourself.
So when dealing with lazy people etc… Know what your values and beliefs are (the things you believe in and are willing to do) and use them to create a personal boundary. Then when someone asks you to do something that you do not want to do (because it crosses your boundary), you can tell them that your not going to do it.
For example, if i decide (amoungst other things) that i will never smoke in my life, i have just create a personal boundary. If someone asks me, or tries to persuade me to smoke, i will not allow that inside my boundary (inside my life).
The clearer you become about what you will allow or won’t allow yourself to do, and the more times you successfully defend your boundary, will determine how much of a self disciplined lifestyle you lead.
If you constantly break your boundary (by doing things you said you wouldn’t do) your lifestyle will be largely undisciplined, and there will be an internal conflict within you (manifesting itself as frustration, disapointment, anxiety etc…) because the actions you take are inconsistent with your core beliefs and values.
To help you defend your boundary, use the techniques in these articles on self discipline. Such as using pleasure and pain to motivate your actions, and thinking about things from a longer term perspective. If you train yourself to do these things, eventually you will master them. Just don’t give up if you break your boundaries a few times to begin with, this is to be expected and will likely happen.
So give some serious thought to this, and start creating your personal boundary. If it helps, you can visualise this as an imaginary bubble or shield around you. When you feel someone is making you feel like being lazy, or undisciplined, think of this bubble protecting your core values and beliefs. The more you learn to say no, and defend your boundary, the more disciplined you will become, and the less you will find yourself becoming infulenced by others. You will also feel happier with the lifestyle you will be living, because you are being true to yourself, and true to others. Eventually, if you hang around with people long enough, they will learn what your boundaries are and will respect them (although they may still test your boundaries occasionaly).
Try and think of someone you know who just won’t do something, no matter how hard you try and persuade them to do it. That is an example of a well established boundary that others have learnt to respect.
“It like a love&hate” relationship consistency at battle with one another!, some look for that fairy dust to be sprinkle on us to make us disipline .That way we dont have to work at it… Butt as a child we are tought the way of being selfdisipline through disipline. Thankyou for the help that you give us to improve are selfdisipline…….
great article
i will try to develop self dicipline in myself from now
Thanks ever so much for these tips. In a year from this month I will be 30 and feel absolutely shocked to look back what I have done so far. I have not done enough for what I always wanted to become and feel very guilty about it.
Will try to change myself from this moment and take control of my life:)
Great article! Thank you so much! I am doing a paper on this and it helped me so much to grasp the concept more.
self is very important it is the one successed in life if neat discipilne is there success in your hand. success is the result of concectration.