Who gave you permission to be an undisciplined wretch? You did. Withdraw that permission. You are propping up the worthless world and preventing the beautiful world from forming. Stop rotting.
What comprises the history of each day for you? Look at your habits which comprise it: are they the product of innumerable little acts of cowardice and laziness or of bravery and inventive reason?
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
Concentrate every minute like a Roman— like a man— on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can – if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.
Defeat Inner Resistance and Self-Sabotage
The professional cannot live like that. He is on a mission. He will not tolerate disorder. He eliminates chaos from his world in order to banish it from his mind. He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown. The professional conducts his business in the real world. Adversity, injustice, bad hops and rotten calls, even good breaks and lucky bounces all comprise the ground over which the campaign must be waged. The field is level, the professional understands, only in heaven.
The professional prepares mentally to absorb blows and to deliver them. His aim is to take what the day gives him. He is prepared to be prudent and prepared to be reckless, to take a beating when he has to, and to go for the throat when he can. He understands that the field alters every day. His goal is not victory (success will come by itself when it wants to) but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can.
Attach yourself to the essential—to the eternal. And never worry about happiness—neither your own nor that of other men; but accomplish your task, and help others achieve theirs, provided that it does not thwart your own.
Cultivating Healthy Coping Skills
You can improve your resilience by knowing that you always have options for how you can respond to a situation. Your response-ability is the mental muscle you must strengthen; remain fully conscious and maintain your allegiance to your highest values when adversity strikes.
Unhealthy coping behaviors and thought patterns may attempt to wrest control of your body and mind during difficult times. Instead of giving in, these enemies of body and mind should be fought with ruthless ferocity, as you would fight with every tool at your disposal any outside enemy who wanted to bring about your downfall. They will attempt to distract you, they will attempt to fool you, they will attempt to mislead you. If you remain loyal to your highest ideals, nothing can misdirect you from your course.
Like any skill or habit, the more you repeat successful behaviors and thoughts the more automatic they become. Every small victory lends power to the next and larger victory. Day by day, in large or small ways, you can reprogram your body and mind to run along a program of your own design, instead of playing out the program designed for you by those who hate you or wish to control you for their own purposes.
The old advice: if you do not have a goal of your own, you will end up working toward someone else’s.
Self-control makes strong men. Self-indulgence makes weak men. Strong men make good citizens. Weak men make good slaves. Strong men are capable of doing harm. Weak men are incapable of doing anything else.
The Quality of Self Discipline
“Fortunately, the quality of self-discipline is something you can learn, by continuous practice over and over until you master it. Once you’ve mastered the ability to delay gratification, the ability to discipline yourself to keep your attention focused on the most important task in front of you, there is virtually no goal you cannot accomplish and no task you cannot complete.” – Brian Tracy
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Nothing is for nothing, and suffering is the price.