Fundamentals of Self-discipline

By Prudence Williams

Self-discipline, an invaluable trait for the self-leader, is your ability to pursue a task despite your emotions telling you otherwise. For many, self-discipline is a foul word that deprives a person of his or her independence and freedom. Frankly, this is contrary to truth. The man without self-discipline has no freedom.

You know why? Self-discipline begins with autonomy. Autonomy, one’s ability to pursue or not pursue a course of action, through volition, is the distinction between ‘choosing to’ and ‘refusing to.’ Autonomy pivots on two basic human desires: independence and freedom. Independence is the need to do something free from control or influence of another person. Freedom is the right to participate in certain actions without control.

Self-discipline, the freedom to make decisions, empowers you to lead your life towards a fruitful end. The man who lacks self-discipline has lost the freedom to make decisions to direct his life in a meaningful way.

Locus of control, a concept developed by Julian Rotter, is an individual’s perception about the underlying main causes of events in his or her life. If you make decisions to direct your life towards a fruitful end, despite adversity in the external milieu, you have internal locus of control.

However, if external forces regulate your decisions you have external locus of control. In this instance you lack self-discipline.

Internal locus of control, the freedom to make effective decisions to direct your life in a meaningful way, is autonomy at its best because you decide how external forces affect you.

External locus of control deprives a person the freedom of choice. Thus, it is safe to infer that self-discipline facilitates freedom.

Fundamentals of self-discipline

Self-discipline, an invaluable success tool, begins in the internal milieu with self-improvement.

Self-improvement

Self-improvement is one’s decision to improve his or her condition, abilities or status through personal efforts. Self-improvement is accepting that you have potential to become a better person and doing what it takes to make it happen. Self-improvement is a continuous, effortful, voluntary and purposeful process that facilitates striving for progress in all areas of life. It accounts for self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-respect and personal responsibility.

Self-knowledge is one’s understanding of his or her abilities and limitations, psychological makeup, character, abilities and motives.

Self-awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, thoughts, belief and emotions.

Self-respect, the benchmark upon which one’s values and morals are shaped, is fundamental for a great life. Self-respect originates from positive self-image, high: self-esteem, self-worth, self-concept and self-confidence. Nil self-respect adversely affects self-improvement.

Personal responsibility is one’s freedom to create his or her life. It embraces three words: freedom, authority and power. Personal responsibility is the core of self-improvement.

Self-management

Self-management, one’s ability to engage in particular behaviours that control and reduce the impact of negative energies on the brain and body, includes thought control and necessary behavioural and emotional responses to sustain a good life.

Self-management includes all the tasks one undertakes to sustain good self-relationship, good relationships with others and the strategies one exploit to realise and maximise his or her potential. Self-management is possible as long as you understand and apply the principles of self-improvement.

Self-leadership

Self-leadership, one’s ability to make effective decisions to direct his or her life towards a fruitful end, includes self-direction, self-motivation and self-influence.

Self-direction, the skill that directs you towards an objective, brings to mind goal-setting.

Self-influence, the power to produce an effect on character, beliefs and action, persuades self to pursue an objective.

Self-motivation is one’s ability to be responsible and committed towards directing his or her life towards a fruitful end. It is recognizing that you have a goal or objective and taking full responsibility to realize it without being influenced by another person.

Let’s apply principles from set theory to understand the fundamentals of self-discipline. Set L is a subset of D if L is contained in the universal set D. Thus, the subsets of self-discipline (set D) are self-improvement (set I), self-management (set M) and self-leadership (set L). You can master any challenge in life on condition that you improve, manage and effectively lead self towards a fruitful end. This is self-discipline in the truest sense.