What is true self-discipline? It is the ability to achieve the ultimate in these two things!

Guide:

There is a question on Zhihu: "What is your deepest misunderstanding?"

The answer with the most likes is: "I thought freedom meant doing whatever I wanted, but I later found out that only those who are self-disciplined will have freedom."

I used to think that life is too short to enjoy yourself in time, and if you are drunk today, you will be in vain if you are not romantic.

But with the increase of experience, you will gradually find that every behavior that is not self-disciplined will bring more pain to people.

The more useful something is, the more uncomfortable it is to do.

Human nature is immutable. To be the master of one's own heart, one can only rely on self-discipline.

What is self-discipline? It is the ability to achieve the ultimate in the following two things.

1 | Do things you don't like but should do

Man is a very contradictory animal, strong inertia and great potential coexist in the body.

In the absence of pressure, people will become very lazy, procrastinate in doing things, muddle through, and be a mediocre person.

And after exerting a certain amount of pressure and coercion, and constantly working towards a goal, people's potential will be stimulated, showing things that are different from ordinary people.

Therefore, to achieve self-discipline, the key is to do something that you don't want to do every day, but that is beneficial to yourself, so as to sharpen and regulate your xinxing.

In other words, it’s about forcing yourself into a state on a regular basis so that you don’t feel miserable about the obligations that really need you to fulfill.

Over time, this self-discipline behavior becomes a habit and dominates your behavior.

Xu Pu, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, was gifted and intelligent since he was a child, and studied hard.

When Xu Pu was studying in a private school when he was a boy, the teacher found that he often took out a small book from his pocket to read. He thought it was a child's plaything, but later found that it was a Confucian classic quotation that he had copied by himself. Appreciate.

Xu Pu also imitated the ancients, constantly reflecting on his words and deeds, and put two bottles on the desk, containing black beans and soybeans respectively.

Whenever a kind thought arises in the heart, a kind word is uttered, or a kind deed is done, a soybean is thrown into the bottle.

On the contrary, if you have any bad thoughts in your heart, or if you have any faults in your words and deeds, you will cast a black bean.

At the beginning, there were more black beans and less soybeans, so he kept introspecting and motivating himself.

Gradually, the number of soybeans and black beans remained the same, so he continued to work hard and demanded himself more strictly.

As time goes by, the soybeans in the bottle accumulate more and more, and the black beans become more and more insignificant.

Relying on this kind of lasting restraint and encouragement, he continued to cultivate himself and improve himself, and finally became a generation of famous ministers with high morals and high prestige.

How can there be so many willing and happy things in the world? Unless it is leisure and leisure, entertainment and enjoyment, the more useful things are, the more uncomfortable it is to do. This is the weakness of human nature.

In this regard, Wang Yangming and Zeng Guofan both advocated: grit your teeth and do it.

It can be said that many things in the world are forced out, and people must force themselves to fully display their potential talents and wisdom.

Only by putting in more effort and effort than others, and gradually clearing away one's bad habits through repeated forced tempering, can one restore the original light in one's heart.

Therefore, do more things that you don't like but should do, and you can get unexpected cultivation and success.

2 | Don't do things you like but shouldn't do

Wang Yangming said: "People must have a heart for themselves before they can restrain themselves; only when they restrain themselves can they become themselves."

People need to have a heart of self-examination in order to restrain their desires;

Only by being able to restrain and restrain one's desires can one achieve oneself.

The ultimate height of a person depends on the height of the self-requirement, which is certain.

Having high demands on oneself and doing it strictly is the best form of self-discipline.

When Wang Tingxiang was the censor of Zuodu in the Procuratorate, he told a story to his subordinate Zhang Han.

"Yesterday, when I was riding in a sedan chair, it started to rain. One of the bearers was wearing a pair of new shoes. At first, he carefully picked a dry place to walk, for fear of stepping in a puddle and getting his shoes dirty.

After a while, he still inevitably stepped on the muddy puddle, and from then on, he never cared about his new shoes, and stepped on any kind of dirty soup and muddy water nonchalantly.

The reason is that when the bearer's shoes are new, they just want to take good care of them.

Once stepping into the mud pit, the mentality of breaking the pot and falling will appear. Anyway, the shoes are already dirty, so there is no need to be careful. "

Wang Tingxiang said with emotion: "The way to live in the body is still like the ears. If you make a mistake, you will do everything!"

Why everyone knows the importance of self-discipline, but few people can do it in reality?

Because self-discipline means that you have to give up, give up your preferences, and give up your inertia.

If you want to maintain a perfect body shape and a healthy body, you must say goodbye to junk food;

If you want to become a top student and get a scholarship, you can’t play games in the middle of the night, fall in love and talk on the phone;

If you want to have your own business, you must study your field of interest in your spare time and refuse useless social gatherings.

Only when a person does the above two things can he truly achieve self-discipline and reach the lofty state of "doing what one wants without transgressing the rules".