Mastering Self Discipline

Acceptance, willpower, hard work, diligence, and persistence all come together to make self discipline. Self discipline is one of the more important attributes a person can master. Although there are many different ways to solve problems, self discipline gets rid of them the best. Imagine that you wanted to loose those pesky 15 pounds that have been sticking around since Thanksgiving. If you do not have self discipline it is going to take longer and longer to get rid of them, but with adequate self discipline it is just a step away. Self discipline will give you the strength to loose any amount of weight, overcome an addiction, and much more. So what do those first five things have to do with self discipline? Let’s find out.

Acceptance simply means that you see life as it should be seen and knowingly acknowledge what you see. If you want to loose those thanksgiving love handles then you need to accept that you have them. If you don’t then you will not think that you need to work to get rid of them. You’re not going to work harder than you normally do if you don’t see a reason too. When I was going through counseling I was given some advice that I am going to share. “Identify the area in which your discipline is weak, asses where you stand, accept your starting point, and design a program to improve.” I was also told “Without acceptance you get either ignorance or denial.”

Along with acceptance you need willpower. Willpower is the ability to set a course of action and tell yourself to engage. A great quote to go with the need of willpower is by Vince Lombardi “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Willpower gives you an intense temporary boost to create the momentum needed to overcome something. If you gather up all of your energy and use it to make a giant movement forward you can attack your problems at their weak points and break them.

So you have acceptance and willpower, but what about hard work? Oprah Winfrey said “The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you are willing to work.” Everyday people take the easy road out. They don’t want to work harder than they have to. To me hard work is something that challenges you. Since everyone takes the easy way, why don’t you take the challenging way do a little extra work there will be less competition and more opportunity. When you get used to doing the harder work to get to where you want to be you are going to enter a world of results that are not available to everyone who took the easy way. You are going to be able to maintain what you worked for while everyone else is not. So far everything is working together. You have to accept that there are certain things that are just going to be completed by doing the hard work. You also have to have the willpower to start.

Diligence is the next task in sequence. In contrast to hard work, diligence is working hard. Putting in the time that is needed weather it be easy or hard work. You finally lost those 15 pounds after accepting that you were overweight, you had the willpower to overcome the first hill and you worked very hard to get rid of them. Now you are going to have to continue to stay on top. You have to put in the time and effort