SELF DISCIPLINE AND WILL POWER: A pathway to Success

Self discipline is critical to success, whether you want to be a movie artiste, professional footballer or top banker; a big time entrepreneur or a CEO. Whatever you want to be in life, you’ve got to be disciplined.

Napoleon Hill, after interviewing 500 of the richest people in Amer­ica, concluded that “Self-discipline is the master key to riches.”

Jim Rollins said, “Discipline weighs ounces, but regret weights tons.”

Brian Tracy calls self Discipline, “a miracle and key to your personal greatness.”

Kop Kopmeyer, a success authority, defines self discipline as“the ability to make yourself do, what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

What is Self Discipline?

* It’s the ability to drive your body, emotions, thoughts and actions in the directions of your dreams and goals.

* It’s the ability to deny yourself of immediate pleasures for future gratification.

* It’s the ability to drive yourself in spite of a negative emotional state.

* It’s the ability to keep going even when you don’t feel like it.

Self-discipline is self mastery; it’s self- control; it’s self-restraint.

The best way I can illustrate this is by looking at the lives of professional footballers. I’m a football fan, particularly of the English Premier League and I never cease to wonder how these players play week in, week out, under the rain and sunshine without getting tired. As a human being, I realize there are times they may not feel like playing but they still do because they’re committed to their contracts and fans. They discipline themselves to achieve their goals.

What Self Discipline Is Not?

* Self discipline is not a punishment

* Self discipline is not hard

* Self discipline is not for a select few, it’s for all who want to succeed

How to Learn Self Discipline

You can learn self discipline by doing simple exercises such as the following:

* If you used to leave your dishes overnight, get up and wash them immediately after dinner. Do it for days in a row and it’ll strengthen your will power and personal resolve.

* If you used to have a driver drive you around town, ask the driver to take a day off and drive yourself. You can’t imagine what this does to your self esteem as it boosts your confidence level, knowing that you don’t have to rely on another person to drive you around.

* If you used to watch Television for 5 straight hours every night, deliberately leave the living room for your personal bedroom and start reading any beneficial material you can lay hands on. Do this for a few days and you’ll realize that you’ve broken the television habit in your life.

* If you used to mix sugar with your coffee, deliberately drink it without sugar. It makes you feel good and boosts your self esteem.

Deliberately stop doing things you’re used to. These simple exercises will go a long way in strengthening your personal resolve and will power.

9 Ways to Develop Self - Discipline

For you to be disciplined, you must master your thinking, set daily goals, develop courage, manage your time daily, develop excellent health habits, save and invest regularly, work hard, learn continuously, and last but not the least, be persistent.

Benefits and Importance of Self Discipline

Self discipline is hugely beneficial to all aspects of human life. Without it, I can safely say you’re going nowhere. Even as a teacher, I realize I have to be disciplined to be a good example to people who look up to me and the public. Below are some of the benefits of self discipline:

* It helps to overcome laziness and procrastination.

* It guarantees your success in life, both with others and with your­self.

* You will get more done, in a faster and qualitative manner.

* You will be paid more and promoted faster as a career person.

* It brings a tremendous sense of self-control, self-reliance and personal power.

* It is the key to self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

* The more self disciplined you are, the more self-confidence you will gain and the fear of failure and rejection will virtually disappear from your life. You’ll simply become unstoppable.

* Self-discipline will help you develop the strength of character to persist till you succeed with any project you embark on.

As you can see, self- discipline is a habit you cannot do without in your success journey. It’ll help to begin practicing it in every area of your life from today. Just like any new habit, it’ll take some time to sink in (experts say it takes 21 days to get used to a new habit) but persist in your practice until self-discipline becomes second nature to you. Only then will your future and success be 100% guaran­teed.

Always remember that life is a choice, decide today and be assured we will meet at the top. I will love to hear from you, write to husfoenhancer@gmail.com or call 08096932184, 08068007816.