Appetite for self-discipline

Life, seems like a a necessary obligation or a duty. However, one can perceive it as a present awarded to the one possessing calibre to perform it gracefully. We all survive in life, but do we actually live it? I guess, not really. To live is an art, and not everyone is an artist. I believe, to live one needs to design the architecture of one’s life very compassionately. It demands the highest amount of emotional intelligence to actually live a healthy life.

Healthy not only being physically fit, rather spiritually, emotionally, socially as well as financially bouncy. Self-discipline is heroic willpower to develop a better structured life that has more of a self-control and less deviations towards tempting situations. Discipline and self-discipline are two different notions where the former is implemented by a second party and the later is implemented and executed by a person him/herself. In more precise words, discipline is the set of rules planted by a higher authority and self-discipline is one’s ability to control his/ her own behaviour.

For my part, I have a firm belief in modelling one’s life by developing positive attitude and executing self-discipline theory. The term ‘self-discipline’ includes numerous techniques such as knowledge, self-awareness, management, development of consistency, show-up and many more in between. By knowledge I mean, to know what benefits life, what actions make one a better human, what attributes do make a humungous impact, so basically knowledge demands reading and acknowledging right and wrong.

Next being ‘self-awareness’, which signifies to scrutinize one’s own self in terms of one’s weaknesses and strengths. One must list out the two and work on the weaknesses. As soon as one puts efforts to challenge his/her weaknesses, the brain starts to work in the same direction and thus reflects back with more productive thoughts. Apparently, the thought process starts to become more appealing and escalating. Next is to manage the positive behaviour rather I would say to exercise the positive attitude quite often.

This step involves the suppression of negative energy that influences behaviour and ultimately results in weaknesses. One needs to actively participate in positive change-making until it turns into a routine. The key is to recognize what benefits the life without making a harmful impact on surroundings. Next very step is the development of consistency. To break the routine is truly a challenging job but for sure an attainable one. When one starts to work on his/her weaknesses, he/she needs to beat procrastination in the first place.

This process is the hardest among all, as it demands more energy, more mindfulness and more willpower. Thus the term ‘consistency’ meaning ‘to keep going’. Consistency also includes beating old habits and developing productive ones. It is done when one has a strong determination in attaining something big. I would better say that success often comes with consistency. One needs to practice new habits (productive ones) more often in order to govern the brain until it develops a routine which becomes automatic with time.

The more automatic a behaviour becomes, the less likely one has to consciously think about it. When an activity is practised many number of times it becomes a habit and thus plays the role of consistency. Then comes the show-up stage, where one’s body-language makes it evident if a particular person is self-disciplined or not. At this stage, one’s actions are spontaneous and it automatically aligns a person’s behaviour in a pretty authentic way.

Changing a behaviour without understanding the pattern (mentioned in the above paragraph) of how to implement a particular habit is just like compelling a person to jump through the hoops. Following this pattern to make a positive change not only offers one an idea to put things into action but this pattern works magic. It actually aligns one’s thoughts and makes it easier for the brain to actively analyse a situation and implement an authentic or a disciplined role. Once good habits are inculcated in life, bad ones wither away automatically. It’s a two in one go process.

As far as my expertise conveys, success demands discipline rather self-discipline. Self-discipline is not something that can be infused in a person like vigorously, the key is to generate will power. One needs to be determined and hungry for it, one needs to have appetite for being a better version of a human being or to be truly a human being.

This appetite for discipline can be generated by setting a role model which is none other than our prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The teachings of our Prophet (PBUH) hold the architecture for a disciplined life. No better strategy for life than His teachings on earth. Not only does this help us structure our lives in a better way but indeed makes us live in every moment, makes us LIVE life to the fullest with grace and better standards.

If I narrate a process on how a self-disciplined person attracts success, I would set it as; Take a self-disciplined guy, he will never spend time in tempting situations, he will truly value time thus will make most out of it. His thoughts will be aligned and so will be positive, follows that he will be putting positive impact on everyone he meets and greets. He will have a set of goals, so most often he will be making efforts to attain them.

He would hardly indulge in addictions and thus will be healthy all ways. He will have a full day routine for all his tasks and thus will be able to make most productive outputs. Ultimately we see he’s more likely to be successful than the one who is unorganized, and involved in many different unproductive activities.

In order to address change in one’s behaviour, one must start with self-awareness that will result in the urge to work on one’s weaknesses. The other way to find the right trigger towards a self-disciplined life is by brainstorming a list of one’s unorganized habits. This of course is challenging than it sounds because when a habit is firmly rooted in one’s life, it is mostly non-conscious and automatic.

I remember a quote of a psychologist named Carl Jung, he said. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”. I will conclude by saying that the earlier you start, the earliest you’ll succeed. One must live a disciplined an organized life to leave better imprints on earth after death.

By: Dr. Mir Aaliya, Mathematics faculty at Govt. Higher Secondary School, Zaloora, Sopore.