Self-Control is More Important than Discipline When Maintaining Success
Self-control and discipline are not synonyms and they’re not two sides of the same coin. Instead, self-control and discipline impact your life in completely different ways. In fact, self-control is more important than discipline when it comes time to maintaining success.
I caveat this with the statement “maintaining success” because maintaining success requires a different mindset than pursuing success. To understand why, you first must understand the difference between self-control and discipline. Discipline is pushing yourself to do what it takes to pursue a goal even when it’s not comfortable. Self-control is stopping yourself from doing things that are unproductive and unhealthy by limiting guilty pleasures and immediate gratification.
In other words, discipline amounts to pushing yourself to get better while self-control amounts to stopping yourself from getting worse. So, it almost goes without saying, but when you are maintaining success, you have already done a lot to get better. In fact, being better is what made you a success.
Not Working to Get Better vs. Actively Getting Worse
Therefore, the worst thing that can happen after you reach success is NOT to take a break from getting better. As rest may be what you need to get better. On the contrary, the worst thing that can happen after you reach success is to start doing things that make you worse. This is what makes self-control more important than discipline in this case.
For athletes in particular, various studies show they won’t lose conditioning, muscle memory, or strength after as much as two weeks of rest. However, these studies don’t prove those same results when an athlete partakes in bad habits. Bad habits such as drugs, alcohol, overeating, dehydration, and not getting enough sleep is a matter of self-control, not discipline.
Simply stated, after you reach a success milestone it’s okay to take a break from your routine. However, it’s not okay to partake in bad habits during that time if you want to come back ready to get better. Remember, self-control first, then discipline. This is the key to taking a break and coming back stronger.