self discipline

Sixth Form Assembly

21st September 2009

2 weeks in, where are we now?

• Studies• Challenges

– Academic– Personal– Social– Financial

What skills do you need to help everyone do their best?

Self-Discipline

What stops us?

• I’ll become a slave to routine

• I’ll lose my freedom

• I’ll lose my sense of fun

• I’ll drown in a sea of responsibilities

• I’ll put too much pressure on myself

• I wont be myself

• I’ll fail

• We all have a rebellious side, which wants to say ‘No’

• “Nobody can tell me what to do, not even me.”

• A part of us does not want self-discipline

• A part of us does not want self-discipline

• A part of us does not want self-discipline

Do little things matter?

• “But … it doesn’t do any harm”?– Texting during lessons?– Talking over people?– Distracting people with other conversations?– Hoods up?– Shouting across playground?– Running down corridors?– Not studying in Study Area?– Being negative about people, as a joke– Actions which damage our school environment

What is stopping usbeing self-disciplined?

• Cynicism

• Negativism

• Defeatism

• Escapism

• Delay-ism

“When I was a child, I spoke like a

child, I thought like a child.

When I became a man, I put childish

ways behind me.”

St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians

Self-Discipline is not …

• A personality trait that you either have or

do not have

• Forcing yourself to overcome your own

resistance to action by using will power

• Becoming less yourself

Self-Discipline is …

• A skill that can be learnt

• Becoming aware of our self-conscious

resistance to actions, then overcoming

those resistance

• Being yourself within limits which respect

yourself and other people

Our personality is a network of individual but

connected elements - desires, emotions, needs,

fears, thoughts, intellect, memories, imagination

and others.

In all human beings these elements operate in

various degrees of conflict.

Sometimes our emotions pull us in one direction

while our intellect pulls us in another.

Sometimes our desires try to lead us down a

certain path but our fears won't allow us to follow.

““Some people regard Some people regard self-discipline as a self-discipline as a

CHORECHORE

For me For me

I wish I could have said that first!I wish I could have said that first!

It’s a kind of order that sets me free to fly”It’s a kind of order that sets me free to fly”

Julie AndrwesJulie Andrwes

If you can’tIf you can’t

get yourself out of bed get yourself out of bed

when your alarm goes off…when your alarm goes off…

…….this is likely due to .this is likely due to

lack of self-discipline lack of self-discipline

If you have enough self-disciplineIf you have enough self-discipline

you will get out of bed ………you will get out of bed ………

…… …….no matter what!.no matter what!

MOTIVATIONMOTIVATION

can also help but …can also help but …

MOTIVATION MOTIVATION

is short lived and… is short lived and…

may ONLY last a few days may ONLY last a few days

DISCIPLINE DISCIPLINE

is like a muscleis like a muscle

The more you build itThe more you build it

the more you can rely on it.the more you can rely on it.

More often than not …More often than not …

… … we have the motivationwe have the motivation

but not the self-discipline …but not the self-discipline …

to use our motivationto use our motivation

Self-Discipline