Self-control, also referred to as self-mastery, is a term that is used so often to a point it is assumed everyone understands its meaning. Self-control is the ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior when faced with temptations.
Self-control is a critical skill that enables an individual to make the right decisions and therefore lead a happy and healthy life. The skill of self-mastery commonly lacks in society today as a result of various reasons such as peer pressure due to influence mainly from social media.
Learning self-control can be difficult for some individuals. However, there are various ways you can acquire this essential skill
Learning How to Control Yourself
Know yourself
The process of acquiring self-control begins by discovering yourself. Evaluate yourself to determine where you need to control yourself. Think about how you carry yourself in your daily activities and determine whether that is the right manner. Evaluate your behaviours to determine if they need any rectification.
Understand your weaknesses
As humans, we all know that it is normal to have flaws. However, most people find it hard to accept their imperfections. Having the ability to recognize your weaknesses, whatever they may be, is one of the secrets to gaining self-control. Accepting your weaknesses helps you to control your behaviours and actions.
Reconcile with yourself
You should recognize that failing is part of life. Therefore, don’t beat yourself up for failure as it leads to nothing positive. Learn to get back up and try again. When you reconcile with yourself after failure, you will be able to avoid getting yourself into destructive habits to escape from the reality of failure. Additionally, reconciling with yourself will enable you to remain focused and, therefore, slowly acquire the skill of controlling yourself.
Recognize intrusive thoughts
Establish strategies that will help you recognize intrusive thoughts or temptations and overcome them. The ability to resist temptations will help you build your self-control steadily. For you to be able to recognize tempting thoughts, you should ensure that you are aware of the behaviours that you want to control as well as the situations that bring about the behaviour. Being aware of these behaviours will make it easier for you to implement self-control.
Look for healthy distractions
It can be challenging to resist having intrusive thoughts if you do nothing about it. After being able to recognize the temptations, you should find a way to distract yourself actively with something else, something healthy and constructive. Distracting yourself with something better will help you learn how to control yourself.
However, if you find yourself in extreme situations, you may want to consider professional help, such as getting enrolled in a mens addiction treatment program to help you fight the addiction.
Final Thoughts
Self-control is not easy to acquire; however, it is not difficult to learn either. It all depends on your persistence and will power. If you have the strong will power to ultimately achieve self-control, you are going to try all ways possible. Try to meditate and be consistent in controlling your behavior and actions.
