Discipline of the Self

“The intelligent desire self-control, children desire candy.” (Rumi)

Self discipline is a characteristic that many people aspire to have and often people fail to live up to their own expectations of what it means to be self disciplined.

This quote from Rumi captures the essence of the psychological mindset that people with self control have and the psychological mindset that people without self control have. Self control requires a certain maturity on the part of the individual to actually cultivate but there are some important concepts that I’d like to share:

The Distinction of Inner & Outer World: We really do live in two worlds simultaneously. On one hand, you have the outer world of circumstances — it’s external. On the other hand, you have the inner world of feelings, emotions, thoughts or more simply put, psychology which is internal.

Outer World (External) = Everything External (Cars, houses, money, people, etc.)

Inner World (Internal) = Everything Internal (Feelings, thoughts, emotions, and psychology.)

We only pursue outer needs to ultimately meet the inner needs. We are constantly concerned with the outer world that we’re mesmerized and paralyzed by outer circumstance which destroys our internal world; what we ultimately care about. Most people think that the solutions to their problems are external such as buying a new house or making more money when in reality they’re internal issues. They are a result of psychological problems such…