Self-discipline is a complex concept that encompasses many aspects. You need self-analysis, decision-making, goal-setting, planning, action and patience to achieve self-discipline. You may have mastered some of these aspects, but some may not. As a result, your self-discipline does not work as you would like. Procrastination is one of the biggest problems. This article discusses how all these aspects work in your brain and what you can do about them. The article can contribute to giving you insight into how your self-discipline works and where and how to improve it.
What is self-discipline?
Self-discipline is making well-considered decisions to direct your behavior towards success and to maintain this behavior.
Self-discipline can focus on multiple areas or on a limited number of areas. For example, someone may show great self-discipline in playing the piano but not in cleaning up. That highly depends on the interest (motivation). Motivation to develop self-discipline is a prerequisite for any chance of success. Self-discipline is characterized by certain stages that you go through.
What are the stages of self-discipline?
You receive signals from those around you that you are consuming many snacks per day and are also gaining weight. You are asked whether you live a healthy life. Actually, you feel this too. Now is the time to consciously examine what you are doing now and what you would actually like to do. You apply self-analysis (stage 1). If you love snacks, now ask yourself whether you want this.
If you conclude that this is not healthy for you and you do not want to continue, you can come to the well- considered decision that you want to eat fewer snacks and actually not eat them at all (stage 2).
The danger now is that you too quickly and actually want to stop snacking at once. Some can, but most cannot. It is important to exercise patience now and reduce the dosage. Patience is an important part of self-discipline. Patience helps you divide the long-term goal (the end goal) into short-term goals (intermediate goals). You resolve to slowly reduce the number of snacks you normally eat. You make a plan : next week I will no longer eat 5 snacks a day, but four, and the following week three and a week later two, etc. (stage 3)
Then you still have to take action and keep this up, you will then have to deal with with what is an extension of self-discipline lies your perseverance : you should not give up but persevere to reduce the number of snacks, despite the temptation to consume more snacks than you have decided and planned (stage 4).
A good way to constantly remind you of your intended decision is to regularly apply self-talk : what do I want again, do I want too quickly, is my planning correct, etc. In fact, you go through the stages again.
How does self-discipline work in your brain?
The signals you receive from the environment come through the senses to the amygdala, the emotional center. For example, the environment can give you the feeling that it is better to consume fewer snacks. You want to try that too and expect that, if you put your mind to it, you will succeed. A positive expectation ensures that your amygdala sends a signal to another brain area (vegmental area) to produce the brain chemical dopamine . (1)
Dopamine is known as a substance that gives you pleasurable feelings. This substance activates other areas of the brain. The substance also goes to the front of the brain, the area of the prefrontal cortex , also called the thinking area. In this area, analyzes are made, decisions are made, plans are made and you are encouraged to take action. This area also ensures that unwanted behavior is slowed down.
Once the decision has been made to reduce the number of snacks, the lower part of the prefrontal cortex takes care of the planning and execution. With successes, for example if short-term goals are achieved, this gives pleasant feelings. For example, you manage to go from five to three snacks a day. These feelings become even stronger when dopamine also reaches the reward area, the nucleus accumbens.
The pleasant feelings motivate you to persevere to achieve more and more intermediate goals (short-term goals) and finally the final goal (long-term goal). You go from three to two snacks and finally you don’t have any snacks but replace them with fruit (your end goal). Your self-discipline has become increasingly stronger, which in itself also gives you a good feeling: you succeeded after all! In the event of a relapse without success, less dopamine will be produced and the brain areas will become less active. You may then have problems with your self-discipline: you may relapse by eating more snacks.
To what extent does age play a role in self-discipline?
The brain develops from back to front. The prefrontal cortex, a very important brain area for self-discipline as we saw, is one of the last brain areas to fully develop (at about age 22) (2). This means that little self-discipline can be expected from young children. Educators still perform the tasks of the prefrontal cortex and in their education they will mainly focus on learning habit formation, which is often based on reward and punishment.
Older children can already demonstrate some self-discipline, but often fall into impulsive behavior and have little patience. Here too, educators will often have to take corrective action. The older the child, the more the educational tool conversation can be used to teach self-discipline. Teenagers and adolescents also have strong characteristics of little patience and impulsive behavior, but because the prefrontal cortex is already starting to develop considerably, they become increasingly self-disciplined. Self-discipline can be expected from adults, unless there is problematic behavior.
What can make working on self-discipline so difficult?
Problems may arise with the production of dopamine and/or the functioning of brain areas. If the dopamine balance is disturbed because too much or too little dopamine is produced, there are problems with the dopamine supply in various brain areas. These then function differently than desired. Especially if the prefrontal cortex does not work properly, problems arise with self-analysis, decision-making, planning and patience. (3.4,)
A lot of dopamine goes hand in hand with impulse buying: you see something nice and buy it without thinking about whether you really need it or whether your budget allows it. Impulsive people suffer from this. Too little dopamine can be the reason that you cannot make a choice: you constantly doubt and actually come to nothing. Long-term stress and depression can cause too little dopamine to be produced. (5)
Procrastination is one of the biggest problems: you make a decision, you plan, but you do not immediately take action. You procrastinate: I won’t start now, but tomorrow or next week, etc. This has to do with your amygdala: your feeling of not doing it has the upper hand, your expectation of success is not strong enough. You convert this feeling into rational arguments: it is better not to start now, but tomorrow because. It may also have to do with low dopamine production: you then have no desire to take action. People who are depressed suffer from this.
How can self-discipline be trained?
Based on the stages involved in self-discipline, the training should focus on: self-analysis, well-considered decisions, patience, goal planning and perseverance. It makes sense to apply self-talk for each part: you talk to yourself in your mind or out loud. You ask yourself questions but also provide answers. (6)
Training self-analysis
By starting with self-talk such as asking reflective questions, the prefrontal cortex and the brain areas behind it are activated:
What do I find important?
Why do I think that? What would I like and what not? And why?
Training decision making
Positive expectations lead to dopamine production. (7) It is obtained by, among other things, thinking about what success you can achieve if you carry out the decision. Dopamine increases are also obtained by thinking about pleasant things, exercising, listening to or making music and being around cheerful people. Food can also contribute (including chicken, beans, fish, chocolate). When you feel happier, you see the future more optimistically and making a decision becomes easier.
It can also help to empathize with idols or important people in your environment and imagine what they would do in your situation. Self-talk can also play a role here: you supposedly interview these people and ask what they would do in this situation and why.
Long-term stress that lowers dopamine levels should be avoided as much as possible. You can read how to tackle this in the book Stress Away, ed. Brevier, Kampen.(5)
Setting realistic goals and plans
This is mainly about making realistic goals and planning the pursuit of these goals. The goals and plans must be as concrete as possible.
So not: I want to make a career and earn as much as possible, but I am going to take a short course of 4 meetings on such and such dates. If you set goals that are difficult to achieve or not realistic, the planning for them will be long and unclear. You will be disappointed, especially if the schedule is not met. There is a good chance that you will stop in time. Short realistic goals that you can divide into intermediate goals and that can be planned well are more likely to be successful. If you have difficulty setting final and intermediate goals yourself, it makes sense to ask for help. Setting and following goals gives your life meaning.
“My goal is to take a job application course to profile myself well (end goal). This course consists of four meetings. I conclude every meeting with a short test” (intermediate goals)
“I make two-minute goals. I have a task within those two minutes. Make the bed, then I’ll do something else. Then another two minutes: vacuuming and I can keep this up for a long time. I’ve been doing this for weeks now”
Training patience
The stronger your prefrontal cortex, the stronger the inhibition you need to avoid acting impulsively. Techniques can be used here. An old technique is: count to 10 before you do anything. But if you count quickly, it won’t be of much use. For people who are highly flammable, it is advisable to take deep breaths and exhale slowly to calm themselves down. That does require practice. Another technique is to ask the other person why before you get angry without immediately starting the attack: Why did you say that? What do you mean? etc.
To achieve a big end goal, it is not advisable to immediately pursue such a goal, which is often far away. It makes more sense to realize that an end goal that you want to achieve also has intermediate goals. To achieve the end goal, a few realistic intermediate goals must be set. You can also apply self-talk here. The goals are best written down and plotted over time. This prevents you from trying to achieve the end goal all at once, which is often unrealistic.
Training perseverance
(see article: Perseverance, how it works and how to train, infonu) (8)
You must be aware that not everything happens automatically. Resistance, setbacks, suffering pain is often an unavoidable intermediate step to finally get the pleasant feeling. If you are aware of the end goal you are going to achieve, you can tolerate resistance and setbacks better and even see them as necessary. Dealing with resistance can also lead to dopamine production. Here you can find out how famous people dealt with resistance and still continued to pursue their end goal. Examples include Mandela, Mother Teresa and Churchill (9).
What to do about procrastination?
“I keep getting up too late. I actually want to get up at 8 am, but I stay in bed until 10 am. I lose a large part of the day. I have planned to get up at 8 am, I have planned what I am going to do then, but when the alarm goes off I turn it off and turn around. It will never happen.,
“I’m working on an exam, I should actually start on time, I know, but I always put it off until the last minute and then I’m very stressed.”
Numerous articles on the internet provide solutions for procrastination. These are mainly about planning and sticking to it. The problem, however, is that it is known but people don’t do it.
Rather, the solution lies in ensuring that your expectation of success is so high that it triggers dopamine production. If you have problems getting up, the expected success is too low. If you want to get up at 8 o’clock, there must be something that will benefit you a lot. This could be, for example, that you have made an appointment to go for a walk with a buddy at 9 am. The appointment is then an intermediate goal, just like the walk. The end goal could be to participate in a major walking tour, such as the Nijmegen Four Days Marches.
“I placed the alarm clock four meters from my bed. If he goes I have to get out of bed to turn him off. Once I have done that, I make three genuflections. That feels nice. I’m immediately wide awake and don’t go back to bed.”
When working for an exam, it would make sense to start earlier. But you probably know that. You may make a plan but not implement it. You can give many reasons for this: not interesting material, but I can’t make it. These are often not fact-based arguments, but escape arguments.
Even with uninteresting or difficult material, you can first analyze it yourself and ask the question: what is interesting and how can I tackle difficult parts. You will then change your own attitude and approach the material differently.
Promise yourself a reward: after an hour of working on the exam, I will go for a walk or answer Facebook, tweet, etc. Making an appointment with a fellow student and occasionally going through the exam material together can also be motivating. If this is not the solution, it is recommended that you seek help. A solution can be found with the help of medication (dopamine increase or decrease). The effect is greater if this is combined with therapeutic help.
summarizing
Self-discipline consists of various components such as self-analysis, making well-considered decisions, setting goals, planning, patience and perseverance. By knowing how this works in your brain, you can find opportunities to develop self-discipline. Self talk is a good tool for this.
Recommended literature:
- Stress away, how do you get stress and how do you get rid of it, ed. Brevier, Kampen
- More optimistic in my head, Free Musketeers, Zoetermeer