Self Control Is Strength

“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power. ”

― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

The ability to control oneself is critical to achieving success. Without self-control, no amount of good fortune will last for very long. Self control is the key that unlocks the door to long term sustained success. It is not just doing the right things that leads to winning, it is avoiding the wrong things. Avoiding temptation, vices and addictions, requires a strong amount of self-control. Self-control requires Discipline. Motivation comes and goes, but discipline is forever.

Want Success? The Answer is Self Control

Have you been scouring every self-help book you can get your hands on trying to figure out how to become successful. No need to keep wasting your time reading the same ideas rehashed 100 times. I’ll give you the answer right here. It’s SELF CONTROL. It doesn’t matter if you have a run of good luck. It doesn’t matter if you get a promotion or go on a lucky streak in Vegas. Denial leads to greatness. You have to deny yourself things that will make you weak, things that will rob you of your time and health.

You’ve got to JUST SAY NOT to that chocolate cake. You’ve got to just say no to the shot of Jack Daniels. You’ve got to just say no to bumping a line with your bro’s.

You are Your Best Friend Or Your Own Worst Enemy

The amount of self-control and discipline you exercise will determine whether you are your biggest friend or foe. The irony is that in the present moment things seem the opposite. When you take the easy route and indulge in harmful vices, you gain short term pleasure at the cost of long term PAIN. 

When you take the road less traveled, the path of self-denial, you know it will hurt in the present moment. You want to take the easy way out so badly. But you know that a little hurt now will equal a lot of reward in the future. That’s why you deny yourself.

Mastering the Inner Leads to Conquering the Outer

Once you master your inner Judas, that little voice that tempts you to be lazy, fat and mediocre, its easy to conquer the world. Mastering the inner self is not optional if you want to conquer the outer. It’s mandatory. Trust me friends, the world gets a lot easier to take on when you take yourself on. Eliminate all your bad habits. Get rid of all the unproductive vices and addictions that keep you dragged down.

We All Have The Same 24 Hours

Have you ever wondered how rags to riches stories happen? Even though we all have the same twenty four hours, somebody somewhere managed to go from a nobody to somebody. What can we learn from them? That we all have the same amount of time. The large differences in people who started at the same position after ten or twenty years is because of how they used their time.

The Only Person We Have True Control Over

The only person we have 100% control over is ourselves. At the end of the day, the only person you can fully count on is yourself. Wouldn’t it be easier to count on yourself if you were disciplined and practiced self-control? Self-control and discipline are hard in the moment but easy in the long wrong. Laziness and addiction are easy to choose in the present moment, but hard to live with in the long run. Why waste time trying to control other human beings, only to end up frustrated? It’s better to just focus on controlling yourself.

Take Responsibility, Then Impose Self-Control

Learn to be your own drill sergeant. Stop blaming outside conditions and people for your present day circumstances and accept responsibility for your present day circumstances. Next, impose self-control on yourself. Look at the things you are doing with your time and money. Make the decision to use your time productively. Force yourself to stop doing the things that don’t contribute to your overall success.

A Time To Play and a Time To Kill

Part of self-control is knowing what to do depending on the time and situation you are in. Worked your ass off all week and need to de-stress? It’s time to recharge those batteries and have a fun night on the town. Been slacking all week? Time to break the cycle of laziness and get to work. This is an art form in an of itself. Too much play and you end up broke, homeless and on the street. Too much work and you end up with Stage 8 burnout, depression and chronic fatigue.

Sometimes it’s time to fight and sometime its time to train. Sometimes you want to be around the crowd and sometimes you want to be alone. Like many things in life, walking the middle path is often the best option. If you want to develop true strength, you must develop self-control. Learning to trust your instincts and intuition will help. Your conscious usually knows what the right path of action is at any given moment.

Conclusion:

When you’re a kid you dream of self-indulgence. Of all the things you will buy and do when you become an adult. When you become a man, you realize that to truly become exceptional you must exert constant control over your thoughts, words and actions. Only through self-control can you build true strength. Forging that type of strength will help you make your way through life.