The Art of Building Self-Discipline

By Manzi Prince Mugisha

Ever heard of the term self-confidence? In an article posted on the Counseling Center of the University of South Florida, self-confidence is defined as an attitude possessed towards your skills and abilities. You accept and trust yourself and have a sense of control in your life. You have a positive view of yourself. You are able to project your feelings to all those around you, and you are not affected by feedback, even though it may be criticism.

How can this great feeling be achieved, you may ask. Jim Rohn shares a simple way through which you may develop your self-confidence: do not neglect your small daily disciplines. Simple as that. You may ask yourself, what does he mean by small daily disciplines? Most of the time, we deceive ourselves into thinking that the formula to success has to be hard and laborious. On one hand, it doesn’t have to be the case. How does it feel when you have gone through the day and you accomplished a goal you had set out to achieve? Or you are going out for a run and set a goal to run 10 kilometers and you reach the 10 km, and even go beyond. You feel good about yourself, right?

Now these are the small daily disciplines Jim refers to. Our ability to set out and do something and achieve it, boosts our self-confidence, and makes us feel good about ourselves. When we feel good that we have achieved something, we will want to keep winning (taking more W’s). Now the more we do these, the higher our self-confidence. Furthermore, the real happiness is derived from what you become, not what other people expect you or want you to become. If you keep doing what you love, you will do it with all your heart, and only then will you be truly happy.

Another aspect that might come in handy while building your self-confidence is persistence. Sometimes not all good things have immediate results, and so it discourages us as human beings, we who want something done and results are immediate. As the saying goes, ‘Good things take time.’ Therefore, one value you have to build is persistence. Stay resilient and push, even in face of challenges. I believe this value works hand in hand with patience. I was talking to a friend a few days ago and they said that its been a while since they last applied for a job because the last job they applied for, they got rejected.

You can try and imagine if we lived our lives in that kind of way; giving up because we have been turned down once, or because we have faced a certain setback. That’s not how life works. It takes a while for us to really face it, but once you do, then you are set. The key takeaways today are; achieving the small daily disciplines will boost your self-confidence greatly. Lastly, persistence and patience are key values once you want to keep on that journey of building self-confidence by continuing the small daily disciplines.

References:

What is Self-Confidence? (2023). Usf.edu. https://www.usf.edu/student-affairs/counseling-center/top-concerns/what-is-self-confidence.aspx

‌