Self-Discipline

 

“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Benjamin Franklin

When it comes to self-discipline I think kids have it easy. You  see no one really expects a child to have much self-discipline, so that responsibility falls upon the shoulders of the adults in their lives.

Kids get plenty of sleep because their parents give them a bedtime. 

Kids are continually learning because they are required to attend school. Their reading time may also be monitored through reading logs and homework. 

Kids food choices are controlled by their parents.  Their tv time, screen time, and outdoor activity are monitored by their parents as well. 

In other words, if a child is blessed to have good parents he won’t have to worry too much about whether what he is doing is contributing to a healthy, well-rounded life. 

On the other hand, as an adult, except for your employer, most every thing you do is up to you. No bedtime, chips galore, and Netflix binges, are pretty much your choice.

This is where self-discipline comes into play, and to be quite honest for me it’s really hard to do. Except, I know that if I’m visiting the gym, eating “healthy” snacks and reading on a regular basis my quality of life actually is better. 

However, each of these require something called self-discipline. 

According to The St. Thomas Source in their Virtue of the Week series “Self-discipline means self-control…take(ing) charge of yourself.”

By being in charge, and following through with your commitments and goals you can accomplish the things in your life that you really want to achieve.  Is self-discipline challenging? I’d say that for most people it is, but for those who learn to lasso it the rewards can be great.