What Is Lack Of Self Control? [& How Does It Relate To Your WA Business?]

byLouiseBT

8.4K followers

5 years ago

Today is not an easy day for me, for more than one reason, so I am really having to focus my thoughts. I do not want to delve into the reasons, however, because, though they are the catalyst for this blog, they are not the cause. Rather than allow the distractions to take over, I decided to examine the concept of self-control, what it is, and the opposite too:what is lack of self-control [& how does it relate to your WA business].

What Self Control Is

In short, I believe that self-control is all about empowering yourself

Lets explore this further.

According to Wikipedia, we have different types of self-control: emotional, thought and behavioral self-control and the also executive self-control as a cognitive function. For me, these are intertwined.

Lets first look at what Wikipedia says:

"Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses.[1][2] As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve specific goals.[2][3]

A related concept in psychology is emotional self-regulation.[4] Self-control is like a muscle. According to studies, self-regulation, whether emotional or behavioral, was proven to be a limited resource which functions like energy.[5] In the short term, overuse of self-control will lead to depletion.[6] However, in the long term, the use of self-control can strengthen and improve over time.[2][6]

From the above we can derive:

• Self control:
  • is the ability to regulate ones emotions
  • is the ability to regulate ones thoughts
  • is the ability to regulate ones behaviour
  • is necessary to achieve goals
  • can be practiced, improved over time and strengthened
  • can be overused and lead to having less (that is what is meant by depletion)

If we look at that list above, self-control then is all about abilities and achieving goals. It can be developed and strengthened (just like a muscle as stated by Wikipedia) and it can be overused which will result in having less (also just like a muscle).

Knowing and understanding what self-control is, for me, is really empowering.

What Self Control Is Not

In my mind, looking at what self-control is above, I would say that self-control is not only about self motivation, it is about so much more. So I went digging for examples of what self-control is not, or as I found it "Signs of Too Little Self Control".

A really interesting article by betterhealth.com speaks about this concept of too little self-control and I quote the following from the article:

"Someone who lacks self-control is easy to spot. Mostly because they have difficulty committing to a positive behavior or because they do not have the same ability to regulate their feelings or actions that most of their peers do. Signs of low self-control might look like:

• Little or no self-discipline
• Lack of goals or inability to reach goals
• Low motivation
• Little to no willpower
• Difficulty controlling emotions
• Lack of attention
• Quick to blame others
• Difficulty maintaining friendships
• Dangerous or overly passive lifestyle

Having little self-control (or none at all) has a major impact on day-to-day living. Not only is it difficult to build self-confidence, but it is also hard to work with others and make a difference in one's own life. If someone runs into the same barriers over and over again, it is likely their self-control needs some work. Likewise, if they seem to have a general lack of direction or come off as immature to others, self-control might be the cause."

I don't know about you, but I find this really fascinating. Learning what self-control is and what it is not, or too little of it is. If I look at what is listed above, I know from experience that a lot of those would also apply to someone who is depressed. Even more interestingly, depression leads to low motivation, lack of attention, difficulty maintaining friendships and an overly passive lifestyle, and that is a self-perpetuating downward spiral! So, I think it's safe to say that depression can also lead to a lack of or too little self-control.

Where On Earth Is She Going With All Of This?

Whilst wrestling with myself this morning, knowing that the issues distracting me are not issues that I can do anything about right here and now, I came across the following quote on Facebook (yeah, I was tempting myself with distraction on social media ... blush!), and this really spoke to me:

It was just the message I need to receive today. Maybe you too - I truly do hope this blog touches and helps someone else, it's doing wonders for me (I am actually writing a keyword rich WA blog!). By the way, that is also my little design on Canva - oh, i do love the tools that Canva provides - all for free!

Morgan Freeman must be a man of wisdom, I love what he says here. The only area I may disagree with is this "based on the insignificant actions of someone else". The actions of the another may even be significant, but that still does not take your power away.

Answering The Questions

I do believe the question of "What is Lack Of Self Control?" has been answered above. Lets discuss briefly the second question "How Does It Relate To Your WA Business?"

Today, I could have curled up into a ball and allowed what is going on around me to incapacitate me completely, and I almost did. Thank heavens for Morgan Freeman who caught me on the edge of wandering off into lala-land. Rather, i took the quote, gave it some thought and applied myself to doing some research, some critical thinking and created this blog to share within WA - which is also a SAC criterion. Tick, I did that too.

A lack of self-control today would have led me away from creating this blog, away from the next blog I am going to post on my site and the SEO work I had planned from yesterday. Instead, I am here writing and share with the WA Community - you have all become incredibly important to me!

More than doing the work here and on my site however, I am working toward building my online business, the income from which can and will make a difference in the lives of those I am concerned about today. Money does not solve all problems but it can bring about change! It can change lives, provide food for the hungry, clothes for the naked and education for the less fortunate.

There are three goals I have with my online business:

• Financial Freedom
• Geographic Freedom
• Freedom to make a difference in the lives of others

If I was curled up in that sad little ball today, my business would be another 23 hours away from generating the funds to meet those three goals. Today, the most important is "Freedom to make a difference in the lives of others".

Share With Me

• What do you think of this article about self-control?
• Are you in agreement with what it is and what it is not?
• Do you ever struggle with self-control yourself?
• How do you manage it?
• Would you agree that a lack of self-control will negatively impact your business and the lives of those around you?

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, writing this has helped me so much! As mentioned early, I hope it has helped someone else too.

I am very keen to see your reaction to this article: What Is Lack Of Self Control? [& How Does It Relate To Your WA Business?]

Blessings as always