Why are some people able to accomplish so many great things in life while others don’t
even have the energy to get up from their couch?
The answer lies in self discipline.
The good news is that usually if you lack self discipline, it is not about a character
defect, but rather about not knowing enough about how to manage yourself.
There were many great thinkers who wrote about having self discipline and one of the greatest
was the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Aristotle lived between 384–322 BC and is still considered one of the greatest philosophers
in the entire history of the world.
Aristotle was a student of another great philosopher, Plato.
Following the path opened by Plato, Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic
school of philosophy.
Aristotle’s work in philosophy is of particular value, having heavily influenced Western civilization.
Some of his greatest books were: Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics,
On the Soul, and Poetics.
Although he is mostly known as a philosopher, he was a true polymath and his knowledge and
skills covered many domains, including; physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics,
aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics,
meteorology, geology, and government.
His list of accomplishments is simply enormous!
To achieve so many great things in life, Aristotle had to have a high degree of self discipline
himself, but he was also able to teach it.
Self discipline can be described as endurance in the face of tempting pleasures or endurance
in the face of challenging situations which makes you feel like you want to give in to
your basic impulses or give up on your goals.
To help you learn ways to improve and manage your self discipline, today we’re bringing
you 5 relevant teachings from the philosophy of Aristotle:
Believe you have free will
To quote Aristotle: “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”
For Aristotle, a human being is defined by his capacity to decide what actions to take,
in other words, a human being has free will by definition.
When we decide on doing something or not, we base the decision on our personal experiences
and beliefs; for example, you catch your close colleague doing something shady.
You now have to choose between reporting him or not, and you will do so depending on how
much you value integrity versus your friendship.
This will of course be different in each situation and there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer
to this problem.
However, with consideration and practice, the quality of our decisions can be improved
in time and indeed, the better decisions we take, the better our life will be.
Our capacity to make the right decisions can be increased if we gather more knowledge about
the subject at hand, and our free will can be enhanced by adopting the right habits,
in line with our goals and our moral values.
For Aristotle, moral responsibility is impossible if we don’t have free will or if we are
lacking sufficient knowledge.
As long as we have free will and are able to choose between action A or action B, we
are morally responsible for that decision.
We can all try to become more aware of that power to decide between the possible actions
to take in life and start making better decisions.
According to a 2017 paper published in Frontiers in Psychology, a lack of belief in free will
tends to make us more immoral.
Aristotle believed that the purpose of human beings is to achieve eudaimonia, a life lived
virtuously.
Thus, if we want to be moral human beings, it is imperative to believe that we have the
capacity to determine our own actions.
Once we have the conviction that we truly have the power to determine our own actions,
we can try working on making better decisions.
The best way to improve the quality of our decisions is to work on our character, to
become more moral.
Before making any decision, we need to check if the thing we intend to do is moral or not,
if it is the right thing to do.
We should not rush in with our first impulse, which is why having solid self discipline
is very important.
Thus, self discipline starts with the belief that we truly have free will, and with our
willingness to work on making better and more moralistic decisions, and the ability to resist
temptations that can derail us from our plans.
After we have chosen a certain course of action which we believe is the right thing to do,
we should be capable of resisting any temptations which can get in the way.
If we are not able to resist the temptations, we show that we don’t have enough self discipline
to go through with our plans.
Aristotle invited his readers to become conscious of the fact that if they can decide to do
something, they can also have the power not to do that thing.
When we understand that it is in our power to say yes or no to something, when somebody
interrupts us in our plans, it is easier to avoid those interruptions or distractions.
As long as we believe we have this free will, there is no excuse for the failure to discipline
ourselves or direct our actions.
One way to increase our awareness of our own free will is to avoid activities that make
you feel less in control of your life, for example to limit the time you spend on social
media, which is a real distraction and constantly makes you feel like you need to measure-up
to an impossible standard.
Another thing can be to limit the number of people who can disturb you with unimportant
requests like the colleague at work who comes to chat with you all the time, even when you
both have more important things to do.
You need to start saying no more often, to protect your time.
Taking control of your attention and of your time by saying no to people or events who
disturb you would help you to become more aware of the power that you have to control
your life, to decide how you spend your time and energy.
Strengthen your moral principles
Aristotle says: “Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.”
Self discipline is not only useful when you pursue a goal, but also when you try to adopt
certain moral behaviors and respect your life principles.
According to Aristotle, a moral behavior is the behavior which allows individuals to hold
themselves in a stable equilibrium of the soul, in order to choose the action knowingly.
Aristotle said that we are the sum of all of our actions.
It is not enough to think moral thoughts and have the right mentality, you need to also
act according to those moral thoughts, to embody in real life the right moral principles
that you intend to follow.
Aristotle believed that only when we have self discipline would we be able to behave
in the way we intend to behave, to follow our own rules of conduct.
If you give in to any temptation that may come into your life, you will fail to live
a virtuous life, which is a fulfilling life according to Aristotle.
You will thus become a slave to your emotions, your environment, and to the people around
you who come to you with all these requests.
The most vulnerable people who cannot resist temptations and cannot follow their own moral
principles in life are those who guide themselves in life only by seeking pleasure, those who
can’t say no to the requests of others or those who follow only their self interest
and grab any opportunity which comes their way, not considering the effects of their
actions on other people.
Those people would never be free, they will be slaves to pleasure, to other people or
to money and fame.
While most of us have good intentions and we know in general what constitutes good and
bad behavior, we often lack a solid set of moral rules and a method to help us to follow
them in real life.
To free yourself and develop your self control, you need to consider deeply what those moral
rules you want to adopt in life would be.
You may discover that you would prefer to advance in your career without stepping on
other people, that you don’t want to lie, that you want to be a reliable person.
Then, you need to remember these principles every day and, before any major decision,
make sure you follow your own moral guidelines.
Following your own rules is a prerequisite of having self discipline.
If you cannot follow your own moral code, it means you have no self discipline and you
will have no freedom.
Overcome your desires
Aristotle tells us “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than he who conquers
his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”
Many philosophers in the past emphasized the idea that the biggest victory is to conquer
yourself.
Even the most rational people among us sometimes give in to their irrational impulses, acting
on their initial impulses and desires.
It is impossible to always be completely unbiased, and this shapes our behavior over time.
Being one of the greatest philosophers in history, Aristotle gave us a lot of insight
into human nature.
At one point in his life, he was the tutor of Alexander The Great, the famous conqueror
who built one of the greatest empires in the world, stretching from Greece to northwestern
India.
He taught Alexander the Great how to be in control of his desires.
While many of men and kings at that time were attracted towards the typical extravagances
- food, sex, gaining wealth, etc., Alexander could control his low level impulses and focus
on his main goals: To extend the empire and make a name for himself in history.
Aristotle considered that we are moved to action only when we have a desire to get or
achieve something.
However, while the impulse for an action may come from desire, for human beings desire
is not the only motive we act on.
People are usually convinced that the action they want to take is good by nature.
So how can we reconcile this fact with Aristotle’s seemingly opposing view?
Let’s look at donating to charity.
At face-value, we do not appear to get anything from this transaction, hence the term donation,
however knowing we helped others in need, our brain rewards us for our altruism with
a cocktail of feel-good chemicals that are of immense benefit to our mental wellbeing.
Thus, even the most altruistic action still has desire and self interest at its core.
For Aristotle, desire and reason work together before we decide to engage in a particular
action.
The more reason and moral judgment are involved in the decision process, the more moral and
effective our decision would be.
When we do something against the “right rule”, or in other words, against ethical
principles, we commit “akrasia”, which is a term used by Aristotle to define such
situations, and Aristotle considered we should avoid akrasia, as it is something that affects
our goal to achieve eudaimonia, a fulfilling life.
Our biggest enemies are not outside, they are inside us.
When the enemy is outside, it is easier to defeat it, but our uncontrolled desires might
be impossible to face.
When we fulfill one desire, another desire comes up, in an infinite loop.
When we care only about our basic materialistic needs, about the basic physical pleasures
like comfort, food, money and sex, we will never be fulfilled, we will always want more
and we will ignore the ethical principles that should guide our life.
For example, when all you care about is money, you would fight heavily for a promotion at
work, betraying your colleagues and using lies to impress your boss.
Or, if you have a goal to become an expert in your field, but you value comfort and personal
time too much, you will fail to spend the time to gain more expertise in your field.
Instead of studying an online class, you will just start binge watching TV when you come
home after a hard day of work.
To have a fulfilling life, with integrity, peace of mind and the achievement of worthy
goals, you need to learn to control your desires.
You can do that by involving more reason and moral judgment in your daily life decisions,
making sure the actions you take are inspired by moral values.
If you succeed in doing that, you will be highly respected by your peers and you will
be viewed as a person with a high level of self discipline.
Be temperate in your reactions
In the words of Aristotle: “We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and
against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the
right length of time.”
To control our reactions takes a lot of self discipline.
According to Aristotle, the best way to keep our reactions in control is to try to become
more temperate.
Thus, regarding the way we respond to the external world, temperance is the key to having
more self discipline.
Aristotle proposed following the mean between the extremes.
For example, courage is the mean between fear and arrogance or extreme confidence.
In the same way, when we feel a lot of anger towards something which is unjust, we need
to be careful and measure our anger appropriately for that particular situation.
If someone stole your lunch from the office refrigerator, you probably would not respond
with violence, but rather would just scold that person a bit.
Aristotle divided the people into four temperament categories: the temperate - sôphrôn - who
act correctly, in a temperate manner, without any remorse or struggle, the restrained -enkratês
- who acts correctly, in a temperate manner, but struggle with taking the right decision
as the right actions come after an inner fight within itself, the unrestrained or akratês
- who judge the situation correctly, but fails to act correctly, letting their passions overcome
their judgments and the intemperate - akolastos - who fail to judge or act correctly, in a
temperate manner.
The ideal case is to be temperate and we should strive to reach this stage.
There are times when a restrained person would appear to be temperate, but there will be
situations when they will not react in the correct way.
They may be virtuous in some areas, but they will fail in others, because they didn’t
train enough to be able to apply moral judgment to all areas of their lives.
Meanwhile, the temperate person succeeds in aligning what their soul desires with what
is morally right.
However, if we are at the restrained level, then it is not that difficult to jump from
being restrained to being temperate.
It’s just a case of adopting the right habits.
By doing the right actions repeatedly, we would automate those actions, and therefore
would not need to struggle so much with our impulses to behave otherwise.
In time, we normalize those good actions.
A temperate person is the real virtuous person, as for them, their passions or desires no
longer conflict with their reasoning faculties.
In contrast to restrained and temperate people, the unrestrained and intemperate people are
not capable of acting in a correct and temperate manner, letting their desires overtake them.
As far as Aristotle was concerned, while the unrestrained feel regret after acting badly
and are able to change their character through self discipline, the intemperate person is
incurable.
They feel an immense amount of pain when they cannot fulfill their desires.
For example, an intemperate people might desire an entire chocolate cake and suffer if they
don’t get it, while temperate people might desire just a slice of cake and even then,
would not suffer if they could not have it.
Thus, temperate people are less prone to give in to desire, as they experience a lesser
degree of discomfort when they don’t have their desires fulfilled.
The key to self discipline regarding the way we react both to pleasure and pain is temperance,
which can be achieved if we train our minds to apply more reasoning to daily life, by
adopting the right habits and by adopting a more indifferent attitude towards pleasure
and pain.
Practice self discipline daily
Aristotle teaches us: “We become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled
by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage.”
As mentioned earlier, the path from a restrained to a temperate person is found by practicing
the right habits, in accordance with moral judgment.
A habit is by definition an action that we do regularly, in a near-automatic, subconscious
manner.
For Aristotle, a habit is an acquired disposition to perform a certain type of action.
He classified habits into three categories:
theoretical habits which are related to learning; behavioral habits which are about controlling
a certain action in spite of emotions ; and technical habits that are related to developing
new skills to perform certain actions
One important theory in the philosophy of Aristotle is that none of our moral virtues
come naturally, that we need to work on them by adopting certain habits.
For example, to become a moral person, we need theoretical habits to acquire the proper
knowledge, including what good and bad means, and what is and is not moral.
We need behavioral habits to control how we react - the more temperate, the better - and
we need technical habits to develop the right skills to give our contribution to society
and to provide to our families.
For Aristotle, a good life works by living a life of automatic routines, which means
practicing the right routines, thus minimizing the effort required to think about what to
do next at each stage, the net result of which is a happy, eudaimonic life.
If we want to achieve excellence in any field, we need to think what habits to develop, what
would be the theoretical, behavioral and technical habits.
For example, if you want to lose weight, you need to develop the habit of learning the
best way to lose weight, reading relevant materials regarding what food regime to adopt,
what exercises are the most efficient in reducing weight, etc.
Then, you need to develop the habit to control your behavior, to say no when your friends
or family urge you to take a piece of a delicious looking birthday cake.
Or developing the technical habit of exercise, you need to know what kind of specific movements
to perform at each workout session.
People who follow certain daily habits will eventually become more self disciplined as
they will be able to avoid distractions and they will have more control over their own
life and of the direction they are going.
Performing the right habits daily can transform you into a more self-disciplined person, helping
you become more fulfilled in life and able to achieve your most ambitious and worthy
goals.
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