Currently, a well known singer is being criticized for not showing up at her concerts. She has demonstrated her lack of self-discipline to a wide public who will think twice about buying tickets to her future shows in case she isn't there!
Nor can any of us feel smug. She is not the only one to fail to follow through on her plans. Self-discipline and willpower are needed in her life and in ours. Self-discipline and will power mean much the same according to at least one dictionary.
The Cambridge Online Dictionary says:
"Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do things that you do not want to do."
The same dictionary says similar things about willpower:
"Willpower is the ability to make yourself do difficult things or to stop yourself from doing enjoyable things that are bad for you."
I won't try to distinguish between self-discipline and willpower. According to the above dictionary, at least, they are more less the same thing.
A similar but slightly fuller description is that:
"Self-discipline is the power to do what you decide to do whether you feel like doing it or not."
Self-discipline also empowers you to follow through on your promises to other people by attending your own concerts or doing anything else you say you will do.
Many people can follow through on their promises to other people but few can be sure that they will do what they have promised themselves.
The wish to avoid embarrassment is a powerful motivator which comes into play when you make promises to other people. You do not want to be shamed in public.
But when you promise yourself something and fail to follow through no one knows about it at first except you. Later the results of your failures may become obvious for all to see.
If your self-discipline is weak, you will find it hard to fulfill your plans by achieving the goals you set yourself.
One way to achieve your goals through self-discipline is to build your self-discipline in the same way that you build muscle. Start small and work your way up to greater things. Willpower is not a fixed quantity. It can be enlarged or diminished.
Have you done the ten push ups you promised yourself that you would do this morning or have you only done one or none?
If you have done all ten push ups - great! Do eleven tomorrow!
If you haven't done any push ups, don't feel too guilty. You haven't developed your will power enough to do ten of them. Instead build your will power gradually by using what will power you already have by doing one or two pushups a day.
This will build your will power and your self-discipline. Persevere in doing one or two push ups every morning for a week. Then work up to more gradually.
If getting on the floor to do one or two push ups is too much for you, make the push ups easier to do. Lean against a wall or side board; push away from it and then repeat.
Soon, you could be doing twenty push ups or half push ups daily. You will start to feel good about yourself and start believing that you can achieve bigger goals.
A soldier who realized he had got out of shape while he was away from his new bride did push ups all through the day for three months. By the time he saw his bride again he was back in the same good shape as on his wedding day!
This process of gradual progress can be applied to almost anything. If for example you plan to lose weight, don't try to give up all the junk food you love all at once.
Start by giving up biscuits and gradually build up your ability to 'stop yourself from doing the enjoyable things that are bad for you.' If you love to have two teaspoons of sugar in your tea, try to have only one or none.
You can also build your ability to 'do what you don't want to do' by doing the easy but boring tasks that we all like to neglect.
Jonny Wilkinson, the rugby union world cup hero, welcomes the task of collecting the balls he has kicked as part of his kicking practice. He believes that the chore of collecting the balls makes him mentally tougher.
Most household or gardening chores can be ammunition for your will power training. They are not difficult to do but they can be boring. It is easy not to do them.
However, doing them can make a big difference to your immediate environment and your self-discipline. Some tasks will demand an extra effort.
This morning I used my will power to assemble a garden bench. The bench was delivered in a box. I asked the delivery man if it was easy to put together. "I think so," he replied.
It was far from easy and I had to use plenty of willpower to finish the task. However, the will power helped me achieve a goal and build even more willpower to help me deal with any further challenges that might come my way.
Examine your life to see where your self-discipline is weak. Is your room tidy or a disorganized mess? What about your appearance? Do you make a daily list of your goals? Do you deal with them one by one?
Do you eat what will make you healthy or only what you like the taste of? Do you have the self-discipline to buy the necessary ingredients for a nutritious meal? Do you avoid buying the wrong food which will stay in the house tempting you all week long?
Tackle even just one problem area and your life will become more pleasant and more organized and your self-discipline will become stronger. You will become an increasingly self-confident and effective person.
Some people advise doing tasks or movements that have no obvious purpose to increase your will power. You could, for example, stand on one leg for five minutes. However, doing useful tasks is probably the most rewarding way to go.
Recently, I saved money and improved my will power at the same time by mowing the lawns at my house and scraping the weeds off the drive instead of paying my window cleaner to do this monotonous work.
There are various tools which can assist our self-discipline and thus achieve more of our goals. One of the most powerful is the word 'anyway'.
Once you have decided to do something, little doubts may come into your mind as to whether the task is worth doing. The word 'anyway' can deal with these doubts long enough for you to reach your goal.
Decide to do something and decide to do it 'anyway'. You may start to read a book and then start questioning whether it will be worthwhile. Read it anyway. Even one great idea in it could be enough to help you reach one of your goals.
You may even be wondering - perish the thought - whether this article is worth reading! Read it anyway! The advice in this article worked on me, for one. I did at least two tasks this morning which I had been putting off.
Recently, I wondered whether it was worth attending an Andrew Reynolds (learn more here) seminar in Bournemouth, UK. I went anyway and it was definitely worth it. As a bonus, I saw the sea again after many years of forgetting how awesome it is.
Another tool for assisting your self-discipline is to accept the fact that achieving worthwhile goals usually involves a lot of hard work. This might seem obvious but today hard work is not a fashionable concept.
Many internet gurus teach that making money on the net should be easy and that only the stupid or ill advised are doing any hard work. They could be right but many of them do put in some hard work on the quiet at some point on their way to success!
A popular tool which can help your willpower to achieve goals such as making more money is visualization and the law of attraction. Visualize daily what you want to achieve and feel the emotion of achieving it. Try to use at least three of your senses in your visualization.
For example, fondle the piles of dollars or twenty pound notes filling your pockets. Gaze at them as you pile them on your table. Hear them rustle as you move your hands through the pile. Smell the delicious meal you have bought with some of them. Feel the happiness that overwhelms you when you give them out as gifts to others.
Think constantly about what you want rather than what you don't want. The law of attraction says that you attract or get what you think about most whether it is good or bad.
Many people give up on the law of attraction when the beautiful house they wanted and think about does not materialize. Maybe they should think about something smaller like finding a parking space for their car. As they get more confident they can think about getting a new car and eventually the house of their dreams!
Use affirmations, another useful tool, like the famous: "Everyday in every way I am becoming healthy, wealthy and wise."
It takes self-discipline to keep repeating such affirmations daily but the affirmations themselves could help you build your willpower: "My willpower is getting stronger every day!"
I've only scraped the surface of the subject of the goal achieving power of self - discipline but I hope the following points will be useful to you:
Be clear about the meaning of self-discipline and willpower and realize when you are failing to use them so that you can start building them up immediately.
Follow through on your promises to yourself and the promises to other people will take care of themselves.
Build your self-discipline gradually so that it becomes stronger and stronger.
Build your willpower by doing easy but useful tasks and then move on to more difficult tasks.
Examine your life to see where your discipline is letting you down. Go to work on these areas one at a time or whenever the opportunity arises.
Use the word 'anyway' to help you complete tasks which you are having doubts about. Decide after completion whether the task was worth doing. Accept that most worthwhile goals will demand a great deal of hard work. There are few shortcuts. Booker T. Washington once said: "Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having except as a result of hard work." Use the power of visualization and the law of attraction to tap into the subconscious powers of your mind and the universe.
Build up your belief in the law of attraction gradually. Be thankful for what you already have but start thinking about something small that you would like and then work up from there. A friend started with a laptop and then a car and both came into his life within weeks. He used the law of attraction but also took action.
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