Improve Self Discipline

All over the world eminent philosophers have preached about the importance of self discipline, artists have extolled the virtues of self discipline while successful people have attributed most of their success to this practice. Like most other chapters in his book “The Success”, Vishwas Mahale quotes from philosophers like Nietzsche and Benjamin Franklin who have praised the virtues of self-discipline.

The basic premise of self-discipline is that in order to gain control over life, one must first gain control over oneself. A person must train his mind to obey his will; he should not be easily swayed from his path by the various temptations that he faces. If a person cannot control himself, he will be easily controlled by others and by circumstances, thus he will never succeed in life. Self discipline begins with self love, if one cannot love himself, one cannot realize the importance of training one’s mind to obey one’s will. In order to bring about self love, humans must learn from nature, without self love, one’s actions will have no meaning at all; life will seem to be uninspiring and lackluster. Once again like in the earlier chapters in this book, Vishwas relates the individual to the cosmos, saying that the whole universe is filled with self-discipline.

In order to succeed, one must learn to take pleasure from what one does, if one does something against one’s will, it ceases to give one pleasure and it adversely affects one’s performance. Setting goals for oneself is also an important activity; it makes one passionate enough to inculcate self discipline within oneself. One’s goals also reflect one’s attitude; a person with a more positive outlook towards life would set higher goals for himself. Once when the goal is set, the individual must be motivated enough to walk that extra mile that is required from him in order to accomplish the desired goal. In this book, Vishwas has listed down ten ways in which a person can keep up his levels of motivation so as not to be disheartened by failure or be wearied down by time.

Vishwas also makes a list of a few factors in which people can keep up their self-belief so as not to lose self-confidence as a result of failures. There must be enough dedication and commitment towards the path of success one has set for oneself. Among other things, one must learn to sacrifice and honestly deal with one’s shortcomings in order to succeed.