Self-control is one of the most important skills that you can develop in life. People with self-control simply have better lives. They’re more professionally successful. They’re healthier. They even have better relationships. In fact, if you want to transform your life, self-control is the key. That’s how powerful self-control is.
If you don’t believe me, think about the folks you know who lack self-control. I’ve known plenty of people over the years who had poor self-control. What I can tell you is that people with poor self-control typically don’t achieve their full potential in their careers. Their relationships often are fraught with conflict. And they typically are unhealthy due to poor habits. Don’t be like them!
Instead, develop your self-control. Realize that self-control is the basis from which all good things in life come. Success, good relationships, health, and financial security all come from having self-control.
Below are the ways that you can use self-control to your benefit. Follow these approaches and use self-control to create the life that you desire!
Self-Control Is the Key to Achieving Your Goals
If you have any major goals that you wish to achieve, you won’t accomplish them without self-control. That’s because major goals take time. And effort! And the work involved to achieve them isn’t always fun.
When you have self-control, you commit to doing the work necessary to achieve your goals. And you aren’t distracted by things that won’t get you to your goal. For instance, my goal is to ensure that “Create A Great Life” is a terrific blog, chock full of helpful, inspiring articles. It’s hard to believe, but this is my 168th blog post. I couldn’t have written that many posts if I was constantly checking my emails or looking at YouTube. Over the years, I’ve had to exercise self-control to work at my writing and not get distracted.
Now, I’ll concede that looking at YouTube is entertaining. I certainly could spend my time looking at YouTube videos instead of writing. But the problem is that if I spend all my time looking at YouTube videos, at the end of my life, I won’t have accomplished anything.
So, if you have the desire to accomplish things with your life, develop your self-control. Self-control will enable to you focus and do the hard work that’s necessary to achieve your biggest goals.
Make Better Decisions
Impulsive decisions are rarely good decisions. Sending an angry email or text without taking a moment to pause. Quitting a job in haste without having another one lined up. Giving up on pursuing a dream just because of one negative comment. These are all regrettable decisions made on impulse.
Self-control keeps us from making poor, impulsive decisions. When you have self-control, you take time to think before you act. You don’t just react to situations. Rather, you respond to them thoughtfully.
The good news is that most decisions in life don’t require us to react. Now, of course, to avoid a car accident, we need to immediately react. Or, if we see someone getting hurt, we need to jump in and react swiftly. But those situations are few and far between. Most of the time, we have the luxury of being able to pause and consider how we are going to respond to a situation.
If we have self-control, we do just that. We’ll pause. For instance, recently I received a grouchy email from someone. And, of course, my first impulse was to fire off a grouchy response. But then I used a bit of self-control, and I paused. During my pause, I realized that responding to the email wouldn’t be productive, so I deleted the email and went on with my day.
When we have self-control, we are able to pause before acting. And that pause is what allows us to make wise decisions, instead of poor, emotionally-driven decisions.
Exercise Self-Control to Improve Your Health
For the most part, our health is something that is within our control. Yes, we may not be able to control getting certain genetic illnesses. But our basic health is something that we have control over.
The good news is that the keys to good health aren’t a mystery! We all know that eating healthy foods, regular exercise and abstaining from smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are the keys to good health. So, why aren’t more people healthy? Well, one reason is that they don’t exercise self-control.
For instance, it takes self-control to eat only healthy foods. If you go to the grocery store, there are no end of chips, cookies and sodas. And I’ll admit that they all taste pretty good! So, it takes some self-control to walk by all that junk food and instead purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, yogurt, cheese and bread. It also takes self-control to exercise instead of sitting on the couch and watching a show. And certainly, for folks with nicotine and alcohol habits, it takes self-control to abstain from those substances.
But the benefits of exercising self-control and taking good care of your body are numerous: You’ll be healthier, and you’ll feel better. There will be fewer trips to the doctor. And you’ll look better because your weight will be under control, and your skin will be clear and glowing. Self-control truly allows you to unlock your best self!
Enhance Your Relationships
Often, our relationships don’t work because we interact with others in a thoughtless way. So, we may say whatever flies into our heads, without considering the ramifications of our words. Or we may behave in an inconsiderate manner, and fail to think about how we are impacting others. Self-control stops us from making those kinds of mistakes.
Of course, we all know people who don’t have self-control. And invariably, those folks don’t have good relationships with others. That’s because if you tend to say and do whatever you feel like, without regard for your impact on others, folks just won’t like you. And they won’t want to deal with you.
If you want to have good relationships with other people, you simply can’t operate that way. Frankly, if you want to be a decent human being, you can’t operate that way. For example, I’m very careful with my words and my actions. I carefully consider how what I say and do will affect other people. And I truly want my effect on others to be positive. Now, I’ll admit that level of consideration for others takes self-control! It isn’t always easy.
But the benefit of exercising self-control when you interact with others is simply this: You’ll have better relationships with people. Moreover, you’ll generally make the world a better place!
Build Your Self-Confidence
It’s hard to be confident if you don’t have control over yourself. I’ve known people over the years who had limited self-control. As a result, they were highly emotional and reacted dramatically to stress. And they were insecure because, deep down, they knew that they couldn’t maturely manage the challenges that came their way in life.
If you respond to stress by flying off the handle or falling apart, you simply aren’t going to feel confident in yourself. But if you exercise self-control and handle life’s problems with graciousness and calm, you’ll start to feel confident in yourself and your abilities. And not surprisingly, other people will start to feel confident in you, as well!
So, if you normally get upset when life doesn’t go your way, practice taking a deep breath and try to handle your problems quietly and with self-control. The more you practice taking a quieter, gentler approach to life’s problems, the more confident you’ll become in yourself and your abilities. In fact, you’ll find that if you exercise some self-control, you’ll handle your problems with greater wisdom and sounder judgment. And the ability to handle problems well is the biggest confidence booster there is!
If you are seeking to live your best life, then develop your self-control. Self-control is the key to having all good things in life, from success to great relationships to emotional and physical well-being. So, develop your self-control and see how great your life can be! (To read about how to unlock your potential for success, click here.)
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Thanks so much for this thoughtful post. Great and useful advice!! 🌻🌻🌻
Thank you so much for your kind comment! I’m so glad that you found the post to be helpful.