According to Elbert Hubbard, “Self-discipline is the ability to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” Brian Tracy adds, “Self-discipline is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors for you and makes everything else possible. With self-discipline, the average person can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background, education, and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.”
A lack of self-discipline is a major cause of failure, frustration, underachievement, and unhappiness in life. It leads us to make excuses and sell ourselves short.
Some people take the easy way out in almost every situation. They seek shortcuts to everything—quick money, fast results. They develop the habit of always looking for an easier and faster way to get what they want, rather than doing what is hard but necessary to achieve real success. Many pursue the fastest and easiest route to gratification, with little or no concern for long-term consequences. In other words, most people choose what is expedient—what is easy—rather than what is necessary for lasting success.
Self-discipline can also be defined as self-control: the ability to govern your words, actions, and habits so that your behaviour aligns with your long-term goals and objectives. This is the hallmark of a truly successful person.
Self-discipline has been described as self-denial. It requires saying no to easy pleasures and resisting temptations that derail others. Instead, it calls for choosing what is right in the long term and appropriate for the present moment. Self-discipline demands delayed gratification—the ability to postpone immediate comfort in order to enjoy greater rewards later.
Sometimes, people ask me how we have managed to publish Pharmanews every month without interruption for the past 46 years. My usual response is that it is the grace of God that has enabled us to overcome the various challenges we have encountered over the years. There were months when we were tempted to skip an edition, but with persistence and determination, we overcame those difficulties and succeeded. I have maintained my column every month because I want to protect my self-image. I do not want anyone to ask why I missed a month. Therefore, with the help of God, I make sure not to give excuses for failure. I want to succeed, not fail.
To become someone you have never been before, you must do something you have never done before. This means that to develop superior character, you must practise higher levels of self-discipline and self-mastery. You must be willing to do what average people are unwilling to do. To achieve something you have never achieved before, you must learn and develop qualities and skills you have never had before.
Self-control is the ability to govern oneself—especially one’s emotions and desires—in challenging situations. James Allen, in his book Mind Is The Master, writes: “Self-control is the Door of Heaven; it leads to light and peace. Without it, a man is already in hell; he is lost in darkness and unrest. Men inflict on themselves far-reaching sufferings and pass through indescribable torments, both of body and soul, through lack of self-control; and not until they resort to its practice can their sufferings and torments pass away. For it has no substitute, nothing can take its place, and there is no power in the universe that can do for a man that which he, sooner or later, must do for himself—by entering upon the practice of self-control.”
Through self-control, a man manifests divine power and ascends towards divine wisdom and perfection. Every man can practise it. Even the weakest can begin today—and unless he does, his weakness will persist, or even worsen.
Self-control is widely recognised as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, not merely a natural ability. It involves the ability to exercise restraint and moderation, particularly in our thoughts, words, and actions. Galatians 5:22–23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
