Self-Discipline

Talents come in different aspects, the ones I value the most are Understanding, Creativity and Communication. While these are important facets of success, and often times they are born with and cannot be learned. However, I believe everyone has one other important aspect of success that can be learned: Self-Discipline.

Today, I read Steve Pavlina's five pillars of Self-Discipline, and felt very touched by this subject, this is what I am desperately lacking in life. I like how he explains self-discipline:

"Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state."

Key words are "take action" and "regardless of ... state".
The five pillars are "A-WHIP"

1. Acceptance - Assessment of current situation, and establish an outlook

2. Willpower - Power to take immediate action and engage

a quote:"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."

3. Hard Work - Find work that's challenging

4. Industry - Work hard, even on simple things

5. Persistence

One thing I couldn't agree more was that willpower is a short burst of conscious decision and engagement, it cannot last long. One must use this burst to set a favorable environment and start habit building. Only habit can be maintained without much efforts.

What I discovered was it's the hardest to snap into a certain mode of thinking, once I am snapped into certain mode, it's easy to following down the same path of thinking. But when thinking requires focus, it's really easy to snap out of focus.

So two things I need to train myself, the speed of snapping into a focused mode, and the length I can maintain in a focused mode!!