5 Ways To Improve Self-Control

"One's greatest challenge is to control oneself" -Kazi Shams

We've all experienced moments when our self-discipline was challenged. Whether it was not eating that extra cookie or finishing that work project before the deadline. We all know it can get difficult to deny ourselves immediate satisfaction and to stick to doing what will benefit us in the future. And as Shams points out, if you have learned to control yourself, you have conquered the greatest challenge of all.

Nonetheless, discipline is the key to success in almost all worthy goals, and we should all aim to have more of it. So what can we do to improve our self-control? Here are some tips and tricks:

1. Eat Well and Exercise Regularly

Your brain uses up a significant amount of glucose to control your impulses. This means that when your blood sugar is low, it becomes much more difficult for you to force yourself to ignore your natural desires, and to choose to do the right thing even if you don't want to. So it will be much more difficult for you to exercise self-control when you're hungry and depleted of energy, than after a healthy and satisfying meal.

To add to the many benefits of exercise, a couple of minutes on the treadmill or on a hiking trail causes hormones and neurotransmitters to be released into your bloodstream. One of these neurotransmitters is GABA which acts as an inhibitor and blocks nerve impulses. So you tend to feel calm and soothed after a period of physical activity and when you feel calm, you are better able to control your impulses.

So a healthy diet and regular physical exercise might actually help you achieve a myriad of other goals in your life.

2. Get Enough Shut-Eye Everyday

As mentioned, it takes a lot of energy for us to exercise self-control. Tiredness reduces your body's ability to absorb glucose, which means the energy supply to the area of your brain that controls impulses will be diminished.
That's why you may find it's more difficult to resist the piece of dessert after an all-nighter than after a good night's sleep. The recommended 7-8 hours will help you stay disciplined enough to meet your goals.

3. Don't Fail To Plan

The saying, "failing to plan is planning to fail" may be cliched, but it's by no means untrue. Your self-control begins when you plan. Planning is way of preparing your brain to stick to doing a certain thing in a certain way at a certain time.

If you say, "I will run on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 8 o'clock every morning", you will be more likely to discipline yourself into being more active, than if you simply say, "I will exercise more this year". Gradually, 8:00 am will begin to mean "exercise" for you and you will hardly have to use much control to jump on the treadmill.

4. Make Goals That Are Consistent With Your Values

Sometimes we feel pressured by the outside world to chase certain goals and achievements, even though the goals are not close to our hearts. We chase goals that are not aligned with what we think is important and worthy because society forces us to do so. While it's not impossible for us bend ourselves towards such goals, it's certainly much more difficult.

Self-control will come in automatically, when you're working on something that you believe in your heart is important. It will be much easier for you stay up late into the night to work on that project, if you believe your work is valuable and meaningful. And what's even better, is that you will always feel greater satisfaction from achieving goals that you deem valuable than goals you were pressured to work on.

Make sure the motive you have for working on something, is linked to your deep-set values.

5. Focus On The Positives

If you want a ticket to failure, try guilting yourself to achieving something. When we feel good about ourselves and when we have overall positive feelings, we become much better at resisting temptation. It's not effective to try and induce feelings of guilt and shame in hope that that will make it easier for you to discipline yourself. Shame and guilt make you feel bad about yourself, and they focus your attention on your lack of control and your weaknesses.

On the other hand, if you anticipate the pride you will feel for having self-control, you will be setting your brain to focus on success instead of failure and on your competence and control. You will be cuing the positive feelings that will help you resist temptation.

With all that said, we must all remember that self-control is like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you use it. So perhaps you will not achieve overnight mastery after following these tips. But hopefully, they can help you start the journey to self-control.