Self-Discipline

by Doug Berube

“You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself.”, Jim Whittaker American Mountaineer and CEO.

Self-discipline is seen by many has such a harsh word of grinding out personal imperfections and dealing with life’s failures. Self-discipline can also be used as a positive tool to achieve a self-determined personal goal. I use a website called Mind Tool’s, www.mindtools.com, which is an on-line personal and professional management and leadership training organization. For me, it is a good resource of support and it has the toolkits I need to pursue my professional and personal endeavors.

Self-discipline is a positive conscious ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, on task, and not loss your way, regardless of how you feel, physically and emotionally. You are showing personal development when you intentionally choose to pursue something better for yourself and you do it in spite of factors like, distractions, hard work, or unfavorable odds. Self-discipline means you can stay focused until an outcome is achieved, success or failure. Going after a personal or professional goal can be more about fear, than the task itself. You have to overcome the fear of failure.

Self-discipline is different from self-motivation or willpower. Motivation and willpower contribute towards it, as does persistence, the ability to follow-through on your intentions and hard work. Intentions are an act of determining mentally upon an action with an anticipated result. Self-discipline is the ability of carrying out the intention and sees it to its fruition. Negatives can be used, like using fear and doubt to fuel creativity.

Creating a plan is very important because it will be used as a map to navigate as you go through the deserts and mountains of your journey to reach your goal. Here are some key points to implement.

1.    Choose a goal

2.    Find your motivation

3.    Identify obstacles

4.    Replace old habits

5.    Monitor your progress

6.    Seek out assistance when needed

This is about pursuing something that is important to you, they are opportunities. I know the statement of everything is an opportunity can seem annoying and it is received more often with a cynical scoff, than a positive resolve. This generates a question of it being better to be negative or positive when you approach your life.

We as humans have to pay attention when we take on highly motivated tasks. Our self-discipline can become obsessive and single-focused, which means we see all our actions only thought this one focus. Self-discipline is an individual physical and emotional  application of one’s ability to pursue one’s goals. This is a personal path taken to achieve a goal and that plan could be very different for someone else. We are all at different places in our lives and our needs are not always the same. The warning is that we don’t forget empathy because your journey may not be the same for others. The journey still has to be made within you, with using some outside help.

Some advice; it’s never too late to invoke your curiosity to explore and seek out your adventures. Self-discipline is a tool to be used to accomplish your goals. Success takes hard work and you have to be “SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound” www.mindtools.com.

Recommended reading:

“What if the Secret to Success is Failure?”, The New York Times Magazine, Editor: Vera Titunik, 09/18/2011, On-Line Post, www.nytimes.com