When you start doing what you love and enjoy doing – a hobby for instance - you don’t need to apply too much self-discipline in order to do it because you want to do it as often as possible and as well as you possibly can! The challenge however, lies in doing other, less exciting things just as successfully – and this is where we need self-discipline to do what is required.

The good news is that self-discipline can be developed - if you have the following four key ingredients present in your life.

How then can you strengthen and re-inforce each of the four key-ingredients needed for self-discipline. You can eliminate your self-sabotaging behaviours by understanding and practicing the following simple techniques:

Self-Control

The ability to control our emotions, actions, words, and thoughts is not easy, but it can be learnt – by choice! You can decide to control and eliminate your destructive feelings, uncontrolled cravings, selfish desires and need for instant gratification.

You weaken your self-control if you continuously satisfy all your urges. Having everything all the time can dominate and control all your actions, thoughts and emotions - and all aspects of your life. You first need to identify your actual needs versus mere desires or urges and you will develop a powerful sense of personal management and self-control. Once you have identified your actual needs you can start denying the urges.
Once we start applying self-control through the management of urges, we must reinforce it by creating the habit of denying ourselves that which we crave. Self-control acts as a filter against the powerful influence of advertising, accessibility, and our own self-sabotaging habits. We live in a society where it is hard NOT to be overweight, unproductive, unhealthy, addicted, bankrupt, depressed, or emotionally unstable. Advertising and mass media, like television, movies etc have created so many conveniences, desires and trends and erratic behaviours that we are brainwashed to crave things.

The first step to gaining self-control is one of identifying the areas in our lives that are out of control. We have to take a close look at the food we eat, the bad habits we have, the character traits we possess, and the overall direction of our lives. Do we follow like sheep? Once we identify those things that we need more control over, we can start small by gaining little victories each day. You must begin denying yourself one cigarette a day, the extra snack, that extra beer after work, or the satisfaction of indulging your emotional outbursts. If you try to overcome all your cravings, bad habits and behaviours “cold-turkey” you may fail.

A technique for gaining self-control over our cravings and habits involves an assessment of our daily lives. By taking stock of our bad behaviours and habits, we can focus our efforts on controlling them.

Here is a step by step description of this self-control technique:

Taking stock

	Find a quiet and private place to sit down with a paper and pen. Start by making a list of your bad habits and destructive cravings.
	Reduce each habit or craving a little each day. Keep a journal of your progress and talk to yourself about the benefits of eliminating destructive behaviours.
	Self-Denial. Start by denying yourself a certain pleasure each day. Target a daily activity like excessive eating or watching television.
	Keep a record. Make a to-do list and stick to it for a change. Make a commitment to write a daily schedule or ‘to-do-list’ and make certain that you accomplish every task.
	Review. At the end of each day, sit down and assess your performance. Mentally re-live how you exercised self-control over your cravings and habits.

Motivation

Motivation is a cluster of reasons that develop a desire to accomplish, have, act, and perform in a manner that will satisfy a certain desire or accomplish a certain goal. Strong motivation is the underlying power behind some of the world’s greatest achievements. Motivation is responsible for creating actions, thoughts, and situations that are directed toward a specific accomplishment. There is no use in trying to master self-discipline if you lack the motivation – or a good reason - to have it. We have all been motivated by something at some point in our lives – even by fear!

False motivation is the main reason for most people’s poor performance. For example, the person who wakes up each and every day to go to work because he has to and not because he wants to, is falsely motivated. If you go on a diet because your partner wants you to you are falsely motivated.

True motivation is the result of a strong personal belief or desire that focuses a person’s thoughts, words, and actions in such a way that it evokes 100 percent effort.

Persistence

Persistence is the need to repeat your efforts and actions in an effort to achieve a goal or an objective, even in the face of repeated failures. It is when you keep doing something again and again until you finally succeed. It is very self-empowering to finally achieve your intended goal through sheer determination and persistence?

Winston Churchill, once said, “Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” This is the most common reason for people’s lack of self-discipline. It is because they failed once or twice at controlling their life that they become so afraid to try again.

Of the four ingredients required for self-discipline, persistence is probably the most powerful of the four, because without persistence you will never experience success. Vow to never give up - no matter how long it takes.

Goals

Highly successful people all have one thing in common - they use self-discipline on a daily basis to achieve their goals. Clear and concise goals are the essential foundation of not only self-discipline, but also a lifetime of health, wealth, and longevity. Without clearly defined short-term and long-term goals, you have no use for self-discipline. Life mastery and personal discipline will only come about when you set precise goals that you wish to achieve.

Simply wanting something is not enough - you must define, refine, focus, and schedule specific actions that you have to take to have what you desire.

By Elsabé Manning

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