This is what I think looking at many modern people: the lack of self-discipline can be the source of many problems. The modern man likes to moan and groan about this and that, but tends not to take action. When having psychological or any motivational problems, many like to take “help” of a councillor, a consultant, a trainer or coach. The simple solution of activating the will power – in other words disciplining oneself does not come into their minds!
Why do I think it is a modern problem? Never ever in the history of humanity people had such a comfortable life as we are having now. Our ancestors had to struggle with nature and poverty, we mostly don’t. We became lazy and demotivated.
Yesterday I had a meeting with one client who made a headhunting order with me – he was looking for a Family office Director for one famous affluent person. One of the criteria in the job profile was, besides Russian and English the knowledge of any other European language. I wondered why this. Why “any other”? I was told that learing a language certifies a person as a hard-working and self-disciplined. This is pretty true! I never looked at it from that angel but in fact I can confirm it to 100%. I remember how much strain and self-discipline it took me while I was learning Italian which I actually never needed much.
In the light of Sahaj knowledge we learn that self-discipline comes from the strong Guru-princip. It means that a self-disciplined person is a Guru/teacher for himself, knows what he really wants and needs and at the same time can do without any comfort if necessary.
It is probably not only the problem of comfort but the consumer-scociety as well. It is damn hard to be one’s own Guru while being bombarded with billions of brainwashing messages daily. While making our choices for products or politicians – are that really OUR chioces?
Along with love and compassion self-discipline is something I belive to be essential in a person. All these principles combined can create a truly wonderful person (Mahatma Gandhi is a great known example). The next questions if however HOW to become the own Guru? But this can be a topic for another post…
LOVE
axinia
axinia
1000 petals by axinia 
Wow, well said!! There is nothing to add.
Yes very true.
This may be true for household matters.. But don’t forget who run this world and make this world so comfortable for us. Of course they are Men. All the inventions, scientific discoveries and theories, medical science, pshychology, Astronomy, mathematics, technology sciences and other branches of science are the product of Men’s intelligent brain, not the women’s. Even they are the Men who created make-up and beauty products for women to make them beautiful and charming. Women could not even think of a comfortable and modern life If Men did not use their intelligent brains. Therfore, Saying that men lack self-discipline is totally an absurd statement.
dear eleggance, I guees this might be the problem with your English – normally one can use “man” as a general term fore both sexes. Be sure I did not mean males! :))) Everyone, just everyone.,
I don ‘t know in which country we use the word “man” to refer to both men and women…May be in Armenia or Amazon ? lolz. Better you use the word “modern person” or “modern human” or some other word to refer to both sexes to avoid confusion among future readers. 🙂 . At least your reply suggests that you acknowledged what i mentioned about MEN
Hope it helps….
Sorry, You made another mistake which shows your poor english. The Title of your article is “The lack of self-discipline is one the greatest problems of a modern man”. You missed the word ”of”. Please rectify the title of your article like this “The lack of self-discipline is one of the greatest problems of a modern man”. Next time, review an article many times before posting it. Obviously people can make mistakes which is quite normal..
Hi Axinia!!
It is good post
self discipline is very much essential for better progress…and most importantly your legs remain on ground!!! head may be high in sky…. obiviously ” self Guru” is best Guru as you yourself remain responsible for your own actions which probably people don’t like to face. If success is there it’s OK but they fails to accepts failures … Self disciplined person fairly remain stable … and try to find new ways obviously he can get rid of any problem.
In another important presentation on stress management i heard modern man only knows about “fight n flight” response. so more of adrenaline … cortisol and lack of insulin etc…even he dont have much other alternatives and that’s why he is facing all non communicable problems like DM,HTN, AMI, and all stress related problems . really he dont know how to react with these cut throat competitions, and where to stop and really what I want ? probably self disciplined life can be a best answer for that and surely reduce prevalence of those diseases . understanding this one may called as ” self realization”…..
when I was preparing one another lecture on How to manage patient Living With HIV ? i read usually they lack of will power and self discipline but when they able to develop disciplined life with good will power their CD4 count improves dramatically …..they are having better chances of survival till newer or effective and affordable drugs found . I think it is true with all other such diseases which can be only managed /or controlled effectively like DM,HTN…or even renal /liver diseases.
i think this is my fave-rate quality that every one should posses….
thanks
this is really interesting my friend.
“when I was preparing one another lecture on How to manage patient Living With HIV ? i read usually they lack of will power and self discipline but when they able to develop disciplined life with good will power their CD4 count improves dramatically …..they are having better chances of survival till newer or effective and affordable drugs found . I think it is true with all other such diseases which can be only managed /or controlled effectively like DM,HTN…or even renal /liver diseases.”
Ya this is true …u can discuss any Indian Councillor working on HIV !!! NARI,AVERT,etc but problem is with will power and hope and of course disciplined life… usually they lack and even face lot of discrimination which again collapse them. I think there was one television program me broadcast by GOVT on Delhi Durdarshan in night time itself in which this was main message that …. preserve yourself till newer best regime comes… and how to preserve ? there is no alternative than rebuilding ” Self”
Thanks All ( Ervin too!!)
Wish U all Happy Datta Jayanti . Let Master help each one of us to built as a ” Self Guru” Let Guru principle built within each of us which will not only help to establish our own life but others too..
Specially For SY group I feel it’s an urgent need or can be a problem of hour . I know it will resolve spontaneously but still best luck … as to become a real Guru is not easy task… hope everybody understands me ..
thanks again
One of those nice coincidences that you posted this article on self-discipline. For quite a while now I have been concerned about my lack of self discipline during the weekend- during the week the definite obligation of work gives me some sort of discipline. So I finally got around to buying some sports clothes and, after a lapse of more or less 27 years, finally got up early on a Sunday and went jogging ( well, at least made an attempt : ) Had muscle pains in my legs for most of this week : ) ! ) But I feel a strong desire to recover some of my old self discipline and health. This I believe will help me become a more positive, dynamic and cheerful person.
When I was a child my mother would always get up at 7a.m., even at weekends. So I grew up thinking that getting up early was just normal. At weekends we use to have breakfast later, at 9 o’clock , and I used to think that was very late compared to during the week! Please just don’t ask me what time me and my family now have breakfast on most weekends. I feel ashamed !
well Erwin, i think it is not a problem to relax on a weekend 🙂 If you are working hard, then you deserve to enjoy a bit of laziness on a weekend, why not?
I think self-dicsipline is something like brushing the teeth, you just do certain things because they have to be done, but this has nothing to do with the day of week…
Dear Axinia, that’s so sweet of you. Yes, it’s a kind of struggle between part of me that feels that after working hard during the week we need a rest ( and who enjoys the bliss of just being lazy) , a sort of recharging the batteries, and part of me that would like to be more dynamic and be able to look back at the weekend and say we didn’t just waste it, we did something beautiful or creative. You see here in Spain during the week all you really have time for is work and commuting. By the time you get home the day is finished. I think that’s why I feel this way about the weekend. Also very often if I get up late I don’t actually feel well physically, I often wake up with a headache and feel generally dulled and lethargic, sometimes even depressed. However, nevertheless the body and brain seem to need to recover hours of sleep and recharge… a bit of a dilema really : ) (perhaps I’m just growing old : )) I will let you know when I find the solution.
very correct!! :))
I absolutely agree with you, Aksinya. This is a very relevant topic.
🙂 http://rutube.ru/tracks/1388986.html
It may be co incidence as usual as today is ” Datta jayanti” we are celebrating on eve of pornima… Adi Guru Dattatraya ..Master of Bhavsagar ( Guru Principle)… No need to write anything more…
Thanks
I agree with you Mahesh. I ‘m sure that’s why we are discussing this topic.
amazing, this is already the 3 coincidence when I post something on the day whe this is celeberated – and I had no clue about it! :)))) thanks mahesh.
Thanks for what ? reminder !!!! I know Axinia You are very humble and down to earth !!! innocent like ” Ganesha” u dont need such formalities specially with me ..
thanks again
great post axinia..greatings from israel!!! 🙂 I strugle now days and getting better at self-displine..displining your-self in a collective is also a usful tool in self displine i think..just not to over ingage yourself in it…whe point you made about who the person (jentaleman) spicifaid that another lenguege is a criteria is also intresting…im 28 and was very undisplined but it gets better thenks…the older papulation (pakalenia) of russia are pretty displined. right? over displined i’ll say…hhhh…comunisem did it part hhhhhh
Yes, the laziness and lack of self-discipline is one of the visible attributes of the modern society. But not only of the modern society…..and not for everyone evenly. And this is quite interesting. So what are the prerequisits, to become lazy and unselfdisciplined?
Lets see some interesting corelations. Have you seen anyone, who is bursting with joy, to be lazy? Have you seen anyone loving lets say some art, like painting or music, to be not selfdisciplined? Or a person, who is touching the depths of his own being, through his to be such? I dont….. So there is a negative correlation, where having this attributes (joy, love for art…), doesnt allow you to have another atributes (laziness, lack of self discipline). Both cant exist simultaneously. Once you start to burst with joy, you anihilate laziness. Once you start (for example) love the art, make the painting, make photos of nature, people and you love it….you anihilate the lack of self discipline.
If we just take this part into account, we can go further into the understanding, why people have certain atributes and can easily come to a conclusion that all that “dark” tendencies are arising from the lack of “overlap” and higher meaning in life.
Looks like, the atributes of laziness and lack of self discipline show that the persons consciousness, his life… lost its overlap, its higher meaning….so he/she starts to run in circles, getting the boring, aimless existence, and ends up like a lazy guy without a discipline. Lack of knowledge and consciousness…
So if we would like to change this tendencies, we need to bring the knowledge and consciousness of themselves to the lifes of people, the overlap, the higher meaning, and the problem is solved.
I am not sure I can agree with you here my freind…I have seen quite a few people who know what the meaning of life is, but still being rather lazy 🙂 quite a few…
I am not sure laziness is somewhat correlated to Spirituality. Probably not.
It can be Axinia, it is just my view, and it was more aimed towards the single qualities, like joy and doing with love some art (as examples), than towards the spirituality, that itself is quite wide point, and from this point it is mere an attitude than a state itself.
I really dont know anyone, who is really joyous inside, to be lazy, nor do I know anyone who is a dedicated artist, to be not selfdisciplined. I think that having some qualities, realizing them in the daily life, spontaneously anihilates certain tendencies that were hanging in the being before, like by realizing of innocence, greed is anihilated, and is dissolved. They somehow cant exist simultaneously.
More than spirituality, I can see in the “whirling circles” people, who dont see the meaning, or better to say the higher meaning of life, and are asking – “why the hell am I here, what is the meaning of doing all this nosense here, why should I not to end this up just now, why should I live another useless 40 years and die, why not die now, whats the diference?”, and they get into the kind of depression, and honestly, I understand them because if the overlap of life, of existence, is missing, there is no further motivation to continue with the mundane activities, because the basic question “why?”, is not solved. It is a point seen from the people in the factory production lines, to the areas of highest managers……. Not seen on the first look, but it is present in a very significant volume of people. If someone say – “sometimes I am thinking, the asteroid should hit the earth, and end up this nonsense, I am ready….”, one knows exactly what is the point where they are, sometimes shocking, but they really are there….and are ready to go up 😉
Also, I could see that to know mentally or emotionally, what the meaning of life is, doesnt mean to really Know it, like it is not enough to hear about honey to know it – one must taste it, and only its sweet taste in the mouth, with all the soft nuances and fragrances, gives the real realisation of honey, dissolving any previous taste present:)
well, my dear Friend..I think i know what you mean but unfortunately ymy experience odes not confirm that.
I know several talented and hard working artists, and they all tell and show the same tendency: while practicing their art they can be very self-discipliend but in the daily routine mostly not at all!
Just recently I talked to one wonderful dance about it, she confessed that this is something she does not understand…when she has to traing she can easily do without food and sleep and be very hard to herself. But as far as daily matters are concerned she find it difficult to discipline herself.
All these artist I mention here are wonderufl spiritual people, rather deep and setteld…nethertheless the disipline problem is there.
Do you know what I mean?
Yes Axinia, I think I have got the point and it is indeed exactly the problem – the overlap, from an art (for example) to the mundane life is not present. I think this people dont see the meaning of the “mundane” part and simply, they dont implement this quality (nicely used in the art for example) into the “mundane” part of life, because they dont see the meaning of doing so…. If they would, they just do it.
The quality but doesnt care what is in its light, sweet art or runing through the state offices, it shines like a sun, just shines and it really doesnt matter on what object, activity, or in which situation…. If this is understood, the quality will not be artificially stopped from its natural shining in the moment of doing of something “I dont like”. 😉
that’ an exellent explanation, my friend! hope this helps some people to understand 🙂
Many people find no time for self discipline now-a-days, they want quick results and don’t want to contribute from their end. Only if one starts observing really who they are, they will find Discipline without any conflict. Becoming Self Guru takes time, first one must have faith in themselves then have patience to observe things.
Thanks for the lovely post.
wow…..great sister……
i love you………………..