Self-control is strength. Calmness is mastery. You have to get to a point where your mood doesn’t shift based on the insignificant actions of someone else. Don’t allow others to control the direction of your life. Don’t allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence.
Self-control is undeniably a key human trait that you need to develop to be successful in your life. I am willing to bet that the life you are living now is as a result of self-control or your lack thereof.
So you know what you need to be successful in life. You know you need to take your goals seriously, don’t procrastinate, be productive, take action, and the list goes on.
What you don’t seem to know is how to control yourself and not act on impulse and resist the urge to succumb to undesirable actions that take you away from your goals.
Are you giving in to every negative impulse your mind or body conjures up?
How quickly do you fall off the wagon after starting a diet or exercise regimen?
When you go through the drive through, do you order a Big mac or a salad?
Self-control (What does it mean)
Self-control is your ability to regulate your emotions, thoughts, and behavior when temptations arise.
It allows you to exhibit behaviors that are more aligned with your goals. Simply put, using self-control, you can stop yourself from doing the things you don’t want to do.
Why is Self-control Important
An increasing number of scientists are of the belief that self-control is a powerful force that you can use to have the life you dream of. Roy F. Baumeister, PhD, a social psychologist at Florida State University thinks of self-control like a muscle.
The more you use it, the more it strengthens and improves. If you don’t use it, it atrophies or wastes away.
Why Does Self-Control Matter?
The significance of self-control is immeasurable and unfathomable. Here are some of the advantages as well as how it might assist you:
- Self-control alleviates feeling powerless and over-dependent on others.
- Your life is more manageable when you have control over it.
- It builds inner strength, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-mastery, and willpower.
- Self-destructive, addictive, obsessive, and compulsive behavior is regulated.
- By maintaining self-control, you can handle and control over-emotional behaviour.
- It can help you manage your moods and reject unpleasant feelings and thoughts.
How to Develop Self-control
Get enough sleep
Clemson psychologists concluded from a study titled “Interactions between Sleep Habits and Self-Control, “that if you are sleep-deprived you will be at a higher risk of yielding to impulsive desires, inattentiveness and questionable decision-making.
Know yourself
You have to be aware of yourself before you can begin to manage or control yourself.
What are your vices?
Do you go from zero to one hundred within seconds? How do you react in situations of high stress?
Do you become annoyed easily or do you remain calm and exercise patience?
Identify obstacles
What goals did you previously try to achieve? Were you successful? If not, what caused you to fail?
Be aware of your impulsive thoughts and the situations that trigger them.
What negative impulse did you succumb to?
Remove temptations
You have identified your obstacles in the step above. What can you do to remove them?
You can stop buying junk food if you are trying to lose weight or block certain websites if you have trouble focusing while working on your computer.
Basically, you need to get rid of whatever is triggering you to act in ways you consider undesirable.
In order to avoid temptation, it is crucial to anticipate circumstances when unhealthy desires may appear and take proactive measures to avoid giving in to these desires.
Make Plans In Advance
You might lose your resolve under certain circumstances.
How would you avoid succumbing to temptation if you faced it? For example, if you find you have a hard time resisting late-afternoon snack attacks, try eating a balanced lunch that’s high in fibre, protein, and whole grains.
Try to plan in advance regarding your objectives.
Put Some Healthy Habits in Place
Self-control and healthy decisions become habit patterns when you indulge in them over time. In that case, resisting the urge to engage in undesirable behavior won’t require as much willpower.
When you live your life according to good habit patterns, you will face fewer decisions that will require you to exercise self-control.
Dedicated Willpower
When working toward a goal, you will use willpower to avoid temptations.
Unlike strength or energy, self-control is a finite resource. By exercising self-control, you will be depleting this resource.
As a result, you will be more likely to exercise self-control satisfactorily if you do not have competing goals or objectives. So focus your concentration and willpower on a specific thing.
Keep Track of Your Progress
Monitoring will allow you to become experts in your own behaviors, making it easier to regulate and change them.
You can obtain a better understanding of your own conduct by self-monitoring. If you do this, it will be much easier to change your habits.
Final Thoughts
Self-control is one of the essential factors in achieving goals and leading a happy, healthy lifestyle.
Motivation and a tool for tracking our actions and development are also crucial to success.
It is vital to develop self-control so that you do not taste the continuous drizzle of disappointment that comes with watching your dreams go unrealized repeatedly or feel the sting of guilt or disappointment when you succumb to a temptation and resort to an undesirable action.
Self-control is all about making decisions and acting in accordance with those decisions and if you encounter failure, forgive yourself and keep going!
Have you succumbed to any negative triggers lately? What triggered it and what have you done to prevent a future occurrence? Start the conversation and tell me in the comments!
