365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

WEEK 3

Day 15: On Constant Improvement

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly,

or it vanishes.

—Peter Drucker

 

14

Just  like  knowledge,  you  can’t  take  self-discipline  for  granted.

Unfortunately, being a self-disciplined person isn’t a “one and done” kind

of thing. Once you have learned how to live that way, you can still lose it if

you don’t consistently strengthen it by setting new challenges and rejecting

instant gratification in favor of bigger future rewards.

Never assume that you’re “disciplined enough.” There’s always a new

area  in  which  you  can  improve  your  self-control  and  further  expand  your

comfort zone.

For  example,  regular  exercise  poses  no  challenge  for  my  self-

discipline. In order to strengthen it, I need to set bigger and bigger exercise-

related challenges for myself.

Instead of focusing on fitness, I can also find a new area in which my

discipline is lacking (such as developing more patience when dealing with

other  people)  and  focus  on  improving  it  until  it’s  no  longer  a  test  for  my

resolve.

Such consistent practice ensures that you’re at least maintaining your

level of self-control, and ideally always getting better at it. 

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