Understanding Why Discipline is a Mental Skill Not a Personality Trait
It’s common for people to misinterpret what it means to have discipline. Believing discipline is a personality trait is a mistake. To understand why, first you must understand the difference between a personality trait and a personality state.
Personality traits are those more permanent aspects of our personality that endure over time. On the other hand, a personality state is a reaction to a situation that causes a temporary behavior.
For example, if a person loses a competition and becomes temporarily sad in that moment, this doesn’t mean he or she is a sad person. They are just in a sad state. However, if this sadness last for days, then that emotional reaction may be more of a trait.
This same thing applies with discipline. You may apply discipline to brush your teeth everyday but not apply discipline to your diet. You have the ability to show discipline. However, you don’t always use that ability. Instead, your ability to use discipline is a reaction to your conditioning in a given situation.
The fact that you need conditioning to apply discipline is what makes it a skill. Skill building requires conditioning, and conditioning requires a progression. Moreover, skills are domain specific. For example, a skilled carpenter may be an expert at building single family homes but would require a learning curve to build a multi-family high-rise. Similarly, you can have discipline brushing your teeth but require a conditioning learning curve to show discipline in your diet.
Keep this in mind the next time you or someone important to you is struggling with discipline:
- Discipline is not a permanent problem.
- It’s not something you will solve overnight.
- A progressive conditioning process can teach anyone the mental skills they need to be more disciplined.