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

Day 20: On Taking Small Step s

We should discipline ourselves in small things, and from there progress

to  things  of  greater  value.  If  you  have  a  headache,  practise  not  cursing.

Don’t curse every time you have an earache. And I’m not saying that you

can’t complain, only don’t complain with your whole being.

—Epictetus

 

19

Rome  wasn’t  built  in  a  day,  and    you  won’t  build  self-discipline

overnight.  If  you’ve  never  been  particularly  disciplined,  start  small  with

easy challenges and then build on top of them.

Epictetus suggests a simple exercise of not complaining when you feel

unwell. To make the first step even easier, he says that you don’t even have

to immediately stop complaining at all — just stop complaining “with your

whole being.”

Could  you  do  it  just  for  today?  Once  you  successfully  go  one  day

without  complaining  with  your  whole  being,  how  about  two  days?  Three

days?  A  week?  A  month?  Could  you  then  add  other  little  challenges  and

consistently strengthen your willpower?

Other simple practices you can implement to begin building more self-

discipline include:

-  Resisting  the  temptation  to  yell  in  anger  when  another  driver  does

something that irks you.

- Eating just slightly less than you’d like to eat, like one square of a

chocolate or one potato chip less.

- Working for just one minute longer when you’re ready to call it a day

.

Work on several such little challenges and soon you’ll gain more self-

control and be able to progress to bigger changes.

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