Ruthless self discipline

[hawkal]

So I feel have gained a better sense of self awareness and I can more often then not catch the subtle decisions that I make that affect my life. They are usually just do something instantly gratifying or do some that will show it's benefits on the long term.

Now my questions are, does ruthless self discipline work?

Could I just keep pushing for the things that will be better on the long term?

[hawkal]

[Marco Polo]

Depends which area you're applying self discipline to. Is it something you can realistically keep up forever without losing gusto?

And if you do get demotivated, whats you're plan for getting back on track?

I would recommend writing down, physically on a piece of paper, at least 5 reasons for what your doing and how it's going to benefit you in the long term. Then stick it on your wall.

A long term perspective is very good, but we have to be careful how we go about it. Having elaborate intellectual reasons for doing stuff is quite important for me, since my emotional motivation is bound to go in waves.

[Kaspian]

It's possible that the phrase self discipline means something slightly different to you and I, but by my definition, applying ruthless self discipline while in college led to a big-time burnout that took me about two years to recover from. (As in, it was about two years before I *wanted* to do stuff again.)

For me it works much, MUCH better to do things because I want to do them, not because I once thought it was a good idea, I used to want to do them, because I should, or whatever.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by Kaspian

It's possible that the phrase self discipline means something slightly different to you and I, but by my definition, applying ruthless self discipline while in college led to a big-time burnout that took me about two years to recover from. (As in, it was about two years before I *wanted* to do stuff again.)

For me it works much, MUCH better to do things because I want to do them, not because I once thought it was a good idea, I used to want to do them, because I should, or whatever.

Yes, you said it. And when you want something you don't need "ruthless self-discipline" anymore.

[darthangel]

In theory, if you disciplined yourself to do what you had to and to make the correct decisions despite what you felt emotionally, it would propel you to your goals very quickly.

However, nobody's perfect and sometimes the discpline will wane and then come back a litte. Disciplining for the important tasks/projects is important, and relaxation is also important. Don't set your expectation to be "ruthlessly disciplined" because you are certain to fail since you want perfection. Just promise yourself you will get the important tasks finished and that if you wane, you'll pick yourself back up.

An unpopular communist named Mao Tze-Dong once stated that in order to accomplish great strides you must learn how to play/relax as much as you work and that a person who never learns to relax will not achieve anything substantial.

[The Cloud]

My advice is to try it. The worst you could happen is that you learn from your failure. You lose nothing from the effort, so it's a guaranteed net profit. You won't get a guarantee like that anywhere else.

[Zenduba]

Originally Posted by Marco Polo

Depends which area you're applying self discipline to. Is it something you can realistically keep up forever without losing gusto?

And if you do get demotivated, whats you're plan for getting back on track?

I would recommend writing down, physically on a piece of paper, at least 5 reasons for what your doing and how it's going to benefit you in the long term. Then stick it on your wall.

A long term perspective is very good, but we have to be careful how we go about it. Having elaborate intellectual reasons for doing stuff is quite important for me, since my emotional motivation is bound to go in waves.

I agree with Marco Polo, it's partially dependent on the area of your life in question. What works for me is I first set a clear goal as to what I want to accomplish but then I don't set any fixed plans per se. I prefer to give myself a minimum (but realistic and doable) daily target and make sure that come what may, I hit/exceed that target. If I have a bad day, the target is still achievable and on days I feel really good I can go a bit further. The minimum target is such that it doesn't take a lot of effort but if you do nothing but stick to it in time you'll reap the benefits.

[jbsmith]

You mention improved self awareness and then talk about it more in terms of understanding your decisions, behaviors and actions at a very detailed, tactical level.

Self awareness should be both "strategic" and "tactical" where the "strategic" element is awareness of what you want to help others achieve, what your value will be within society that will 1) Make you feel fulfilled, and 2) Will be seen as valuable enough that people will pay you for your value - how much you want to be paid is another aspect of self awareness and something you need to come to terms with.

Once you have the self-awareness of what you passionately, desparately want to achieve - then self-discipline will come easier (not automatically - there will still be distractions and aspects of achieving your goals where you will experience resistance).

Then, you can apply your tactical self awareness to make sure you are staying on track - and yes, then ruthless self discipline can certainly be effective.

In my case I operate at two levels...for any objective I know there are times when I need to be "ruthless" - say for a few weeks to finish a book. After that, I don't need to be as ruthless, but still focused and on-track.

After all, I want to enjoy the journey of achieving my goals, not just the achievement itself.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[MattFYF]

Self-discipline, when put to the extreme, can work exceedingly well, but it's like Kaspian experienced - you might burn yourself out.

If you triaged everything that wasn't solely goal related and every waking minute was utilized for goal completion, then you would *have* to get somewhere. It would be impossible to stand in the same spot. The downside is you would begin to neglect other areas in your life that need attention - perhaps your health and fitness, spirituality, or social.

How much self-discipline you choose to apply is akin to how fast you want to ride a bike. How hard to you want to peddle and push yourself forward? You could go a slow, leisurely speed - you wouldn't move very far, but you would totally be in tune with the world around you. You could go a quick paced, moderate speed, where you could get somewhere in a timely fashion but still enjoy the world around you. Or, you could peddle as hard as you could for as long as you could, getting somewhere as fast as possible. You would lose out on the scenery, but you would be intensely focused on your personal experience - the feeling of being propelled forward on your bike at a breakneck speed.

[moriez]

Originally Posted by darthangel

However, nobody's perfect and sometimes the discpline will wane and then come back a litte. Disciplining for the important tasks/projects is important, and relaxation is also important. Don't set your expectation to be "ruthlessly disciplined" because you are certain to fail since you want perfection. Just promise yourself you will get the important tasks finished and that if you wane, you'll pick yourself back up.

Well said. This would be my approach too.