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What is "self-discipline"? It is to do these two things to the extreme
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May 9th·Quality cultural creators
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Text | Jingbo Chinese Studies
Source: Jingbo Guoxue
The more useful something is, the more uncomfortable it is to do it.
There is a question on Zhihu: "What is your most profound misconception?"
The most-voted answer was: "I thought freedom meant doing whatever I wanted, but later I realized that freedom only comes to those who are self-disciplined."
I used to think that life is short and we should enjoy it while we can. It's a waste of youth if you don't enjoy life.
But as your experience grows, you will gradually discover that every undisciplined behavior will bring greater pain to people.
Human nature is difficult to change. To be the master of your own heart, you can only rely on self-discipline.
What is self-discipline?
It is the ability to do these two things to the extreme.
Do things you don't like but should do
Human beings are very contradictory animals, with strong inertia and huge potential coexisting in their bodies.
In the absence of pressure, people will become very lazy, procrastinate, and muddle through, becoming completely mediocre.
Only after applying a certain amount of pressure and force, and constantly working towards a goal, can a person's potential be stimulated and show differences from ordinary people.
Therefore, the key to self-discipline is to do something every day that you are not willing to do but is beneficial to yourself, so as to temper and regulate your own character.
In other words, you need to force yourself to get into the state frequently.
That way, you won't feel tormented by the obligations that truly need to be fulfilled.
Over time, this self-discipline becomes a habit that dominates your behavior.
Xu Pu, a grand councilor of the Ming Dynasty, was gifted and studied hard since childhood.
When Xu Pu was a teenager studying in a private school, his teacher once noticed that he often took out a small notebook from his pocket to read. The teacher thought it was a child's toy, but later found out that it was a collection of Confucian classics that he had copied by hand. The teacher was very impressed.
Xu Pu also followed the example of the ancients, constantly reflecting on his own words and deeds, and placed two bottles on his desk, one containing black beans and the other containing yellow beans.
Whenever you have a good thought, speak a good word, or do a good deed, throw a soybean into the bottle.
On the contrary, if you have any bad thoughts in your heart or any mistakes in your words or actions, throw a black bean.
At the beginning, there were more black beans than yellow beans, so he kept reflecting and motivating himself.
Gradually, the number of yellow soybeans and black beans became equal, so he continued to work hard and became more strict with himself.
Over time, the yellow beans in the bottle accumulated more and more, and the black beans seemed increasingly insignificant.
With this kind of lasting restraint and motivation, he continued to cultivate and perfect himself, and eventually became a famous official with high moral character and high prestige.
How many things in the world are there that people do willingly and happily?
Unless you are lazy and just want to enjoy entertainment.
The more useful something is, 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.
People must push themselves to fully develop their potential talents and wisdom.
Only by putting in more effort and hard work than others, and slowly eliminating your bad habits through repeated forced tempering, can you restore the original brightness of your heart.
Therefore, doing more things that you don’t like but should do can bring you unexpected improvement and success.
Don't do things you like but shouldn't do
Wang Yangming said: "One must have a heart for oneself before he can control himself; and if he can control himself, he can achieve self-realization."
People need to have a self-reflective heart in order to restrain their desires; only by being able to restrain their desires can they achieve themselves.
A person's ultimate height depends on the height of his or her self-requirements, this is certain.
Having high demands on yourself and strictly doing it is the best self-discipline.
When Wang Tingxiang was serving as the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Inspectorate, 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 sedan chair bearers was wearing a pair of new shoes. At first, he was very careful to choose a dry and quiet place to walk on, for fear of stepping into a puddle and getting his shoes dirty.
After a while, he inevitably stepped into a mud puddle. From then on, he no longer cared about his new shoes and stepped on any dirty soup and mud without a care.
The reason is that when the sedan bearers' shoes are new, they only think about taking good care of them.
Once you step into a mud puddle, the mentality of "broken jar" (broken jar) sets in. Since your shoes are already dirty, there's no need to be careful anymore."
Wang Tingxiang sighed, "The way to conduct oneself is the same. If you make a mistake, you will suffer a lot!"
Why do we all know the importance of self-discipline, but in reality, few people can do it?
Because self-discipline means you have to give up something, give up your preferences, and give up your laziness.
If you want to maintain a perfect figure and a healthy body, you must say goodbye to junk food;
If you want to be a top student and get a scholarship, you can’t play games late at night or chat on the phone with your girlfriend.
If you want to have your own business, you must study the areas you are interested in in your spare time and refuse useless social gatherings.
Only when people do the above two things can they be truly self-disciplined and reach the lofty state of "doing what they want without going beyond the rules."
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