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.
Wow this was definitely something I needed to read! I completely agree with this, it’s so important to know yourself and understand your weaknesses. Thanks for this!
Such an informative article. Thank you for sharing!
This is all so helpful! I definitely struggle with self-control when I’m overwhelmed, like when my kids are throwing tantrums or I’m having a terrible day. Thanks for sharing this info!!
I believe that the outcome of every situation depends on how we handle them and this boils down to our ability to take control of our body and mind. Thank you for this beautiful article.
I think finding healthy distractions really spoke to me! I am working on some self control things now and I can see how a distraction could be a really benefit!
Great post. Self control is everything.
Self-control is something important but hard to mastery as the temptation is so easy. Great tips on how to overcome them!
It is a critical life skill. I think too that it’s important to recognize that sometimes in life there are abusive people that purposely try to push our buttons with the intent of causing us look like a “crazy” fool, and to know it’s okay to stay away from people like that as much as possible! I know that once I started doing this life became peaceful all of a sudden.
Understanding your weakness is important in every part of your life. Love this
Fantastic post and I completely agree, self control is a very useful tool for many things.
This was a great post and much needed. I’ve learned that controlling your response to anything is key to less stress, less anger, less resentment… Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this. I think another way of viewing self-control is mindfulness and intention. When you approach life with mindfulness and intention self-control becomes part of the package. I love yoga and meditation to help keep me centered and grounded and allowing me to carry that feeling through my daily activities.
I agree with everything in the post. Once you control yourself, you can get through anything.
This post is so helpful. I have a huge problem of self control especially when I am emotionally driven.
it’s definitely hard to control yourself especially emotions in a professional setting.
Amazing. Your article is a very worthwhile read. I learned something from it. Thanks for sharing.
THIS IS SO TRUE. thank you for sharing.
I agree with this article. This is very helpful for us who want personal growth and self care 🙂
Self control is so important in all aspects of your life but especially in motherhood. I’ll admit, I’ve had to learn how to control my temper throughout the year but it’s so important that I show my kids that they can walk away and think before they react.
I am working really hard on my self-control. Since I am trying to create new habits, self-control is important. Thank you for sharing!
Like anything when you really understand who you are, it helps to manage life a little better! Great post, valuable lessons
Such a great read! Self control is so important.
self-control is one of the many things that is hard to conquer at any point in life. I think being in the military has helped me excel and maintaining self-control
Life is about free will but self-control is in the mix of that. Every decision is a test of your self control.