Any type of personal success can’t be achieved without self-discipline, whether the success we’re striving for has to do with our career, our health, fitness, even our finances. It is probably one of the most, if not the most important quality necessary to achieve excellence in anything we do. We might think that natural talent is what allows others to reach high levels of success, and although that may play a role, even natural talent counts for little unless it is supercharged by self-discipline. To some extent, self-discipline can overcome lack of natural talent. Exercising self-discipline could make the difference between an averagely talented individual doing something surprising with their lives and a natural talented individual realizing very little of their potential. Self-discipline, like a muscle, could be developed with practice. As the famous quote by Aristotle goes “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” So, self-discipline is the consistent practice of good habits that will allow us to achieve excellence.
In order to repeatedly practice good habits, we have to first realize that self-discipline is more specifically about being able to control our impulses, behavior and even our emotions. It’s the ability to resist the desire of instant gratification today for the satisfaction of fulfilling our more meaningful, long-term goals of tomorrow. Self-discipline provides us with that feeling of real accomplishment earned through sheer intensity of sustained focus. It’s that focus of our mind and efforts that will allow us to preserver until we accomplish our goals. It doesn’t mean we have to give up everything we enjoy, it just means we need to learn to focus on making conscious, deliberate choices as opposed to allowing our emotions, bad habits, other people’s opinions (or whatever) determine the choices we make or actions we take. If we truly want to succeed at anything, then self-discipline is essential. Anyone who has attained any type of great achievement has done so because they have been able to control and direct their own inner lives and activities to the degree which has enabled them to become super achievers in what they do.
Self-discipline is not something that’s gained overnight, but by setting clear, manageable, attainable goals and the desire to achieve them, just like developing any other muscle, we can also develop our self-discipline. It will take time so start by taking small steps to develop good habits of self-discipline. We need to get a clear picture and decide what we want. Get to know ourselves, what triggers certain emotions and remove or replace those triggers based on our goals. Establish and use daily routines to instill the good habits that will lead us toward our goals and visualize achieving those goals. By focusing on our long-term goals and not giving in to instant gratification we can develop our self-discipline muscle. No matter what our current financial situation is, wealth building and financial freedom will ultimately depend on self-discipline.
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