it has said good ideas are a dime a dozen but they are not worth a broken
nickel until you implement them we may have the knowledge of all the libraries
of the world in our hand but if we don't utilize it that knowledge is really no
help to us so the gap between knowledge and its implementation is bridged by one
word called disciplined today on day 17 of this happiness challenge let us
ponder over the importance of discipline and self-control in our lives in the
1950s a researcher in Stanford called wanted mission did an experiment to
study the self control of four-year-old toddlers his experiment was ingenious he
would leave the child in a room by itself with a suite in front having told
the child if you like you can enjoy this suite
but if you hold on for 20 minutes I will come back take this away and give you
two sweets instead for some of them it was a no-brainer there is a suite it is
the source of pleasure there is nothing to think about
eat it some children held on for two minutes
but then succumbed and ate it some children held on for seven to eight
minutes and some children continued holding on for the full 20 minutes
and were rewarded with do sweets many years later the study was continued to
find out how the children had been performing in life some very interesting
facts came out it was discovered that the children with maximum self-control
they were excelling in studies as well they had better physique they were not
plump they were better at interpersonal relationships because they could control
their emotions and their moods they were having less disrupted marriages or lost
jobs and practically no criminal conviction on the other hand the
children who were at the lowest end of the spectrum without self-control had
been getting into all kinds of problems they were dropping out of their college
they were losing jobs they were having broken marriages and many of them had
repeatedly visited the prison as well this led to the interesting observation
that one important factor that correlates to success in every field of
human endeavor is self-control discipline based on the virtue of
willpower social researchers further analyzed this and they discovered that
proficiency in any field of human activity is directly correlated to two
words use of the personality one is the intellect
and the second is the willpower now intellect is somewhat in it there is not
so much one can do to expand it but willpower is something that is very much
in our hands and this is also the attribute that is maximum tested in
modern times because our ancestors a few centuries
ago did not have as many willpower tests as we do today you may be working in
your office on the dreary task of preparing the memo for your boss
but at the mere click of a mouse you can take your mind away to surf the Internet
so in the days of social media internet video games and television channels the
challenges to willpower have multiplied greatly now as grown-ups what can we do
to enhance our willpower fortunately for us willpower to grows with exercise like
the muscles - for example if you engage in typing the portions of the brain
required for typing keep on adding the gray matter similarly this will power
comes from the prefrontal cortex of the brain and the more you exercise it the
more it develops thus willpower - can be enhanced with
exercise and the best exercise for enhancement of our self-control is
meditation meditation entails avoiding distracted
thoughts though they may be pleasurable keeping our focus on the object of
meditation though it may be painful studies have revealed that in a three
hour meditation session the functioning of the brain changes and in 11 hours of
meditation the brain activity transforms completely so utilize the stool and grow
in your self-control and willpower to increase your proficiency in all fields
of human activity if you are not already meditating let today be the day when you
launch yourself on this wonderful journey and even after that if you find
that your willpower is still insufficient I'll give you another tool
tomorrow which is the power of habits thank you
you