Stay disciplined!

Can you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to do this and to keep your hands from that? It might have gone something like, “We are about to have dinner so don’t eat that brownie now!” or “Don’t touch that! It’s antique!” You probably heard a lot of these kinds of things, didn’t you? And can you remember whether you did what you were told? Well, you better start thinking about it because it might give you some serious information about your life!

If you were obedient, you are probably pretty successful right now. You did great in school, you never had problems with drugs or alcohol and you didn’t have an acting-out phase in your teenage years, right? At least according to psychologist Terrie Moffitt of Duke University in North Carolina, that’s what your life is supposed to be like. Based on a study by Walter Mischel from the late 1960’s, a research team around Moffitt wanted to find out whether there is a correlation between success in life and self-discipline or willpower. In order to find out, they tested 1000 children from New Zealand over a span of about 30 years and an additional 500 British children aged 4 to 12.

Their main findings are that kids with less self-control than disciplined ones are more likely to have problems not only in their childhood years but also in their adult years. In their childhood, it is more probable that less disciplined children perform badly in school, smoke or even drink alcohol. Later in life, there is a higher chance of them suffering from severe health problems such as lung disease, STDs or high blood pressure. Furthermore, the test persons with the lowest self-discipline and willpower earn 20 per cent less than others and are more often dependent on soft and hard drugs, among other things.

Parts of these results are not surprising. It is reasonable that people who have high self-discipline and willpower are more successful than others because they stick to their plan. When confronted with a challenge, they accept it and do everything in their power to surmount the difficulties. Not only in a working environment but also in leisure time, a high amount of willpower helps you live a better life. While others give in to alcohol, drugs and nicotine, self-disciplined people know when to stop and hence are often healthier.

However, a good thing about this study is that it also shows how we can still improve our lives, even when our childhood is past. Self-discipline obviously has tremendous effects no matter how old we are. Some of the people participating in this study increased their self-control, which shows that it is never too late to work on ourselves. Just set yourself some goals for things you have long wanted to accomplish. And when you’ve reached them, reward yourself with something. Not only will you feel incredibly good for reaching an aim you set for yourself but the higher self-discipline and willpower you’ve achieved by that time will also lower your chances of having severe health problems and improve your chances of becoming successful.