Self-Control – Easier Than Alternative Consequences

We all have self-control to some degree.  There are all kinds of ways you show you have self-control every day.  Make the list yourself.  For all kinds of reasons–personal, legal, employment, family, social, religious–you restrain your speech and behaviors.

You have self-control already in some ways.

Nevertheless, we often show we do not have self-control in many areas of our lives.   We have seen people cross many boundaries they otherwise never would cross.  We have seen good people bring incalculable harm on themselves, their organizations, their families, because of single instances of lost self-control.  We know of others whose lives are utter wastelands due to no self-control.

Self-control is not a particularly American value or skill.  We are a nation of consumers.  We are highly trained to respond on impulse to purchase.  Product placement, color, shape, images, and text, all are in concert to break down consumer control.  It is not too much to say that virtually all our national financial problems are linkable, in some way, to lost self-control.  This does not include outright criminal behaviors or harms.

For thousands of years, self-control was taught in the moral curriculum.  The Greek and Roman philosophers taught temperantia was one of the principal virtues.  That word meant essentially self-control.  Our English word, temperance, usually now is connected with drinking little or no alcohol (from the early “temperance societies”).

You are advised to weigh carefully the role of self-control in your life.   If you grow and discipline self-control, NOW, your life will be more successful.  When your family or organization are out of control, your capacities are needed more than ever.  Have a fine new year!