The Difference Between Self-Control and Self-Discipline

If someone were to share the secret to success, it’s not actually a secret...

We all know what it takes to produce unbelievable, overwhelming results in our life - Consistency.

When we consistently make good choices, follow through on our daily commitments, and take action toward our goals… We become exponentially more likely to achieve them. Darren Hardy has popularized this as “The Compound Effect”.

Some of the key ingredients to consistency are self-control and self-discipline. They’re often used interchangeably, but there’s actually a significant difference between the two:

Self-control relates more to our ability to resist an urge or do what we feel tempted to do. It’s to avoid the allure of pleasure, or hedonism, knowing that overall we’re a lot better off without it. In many ways self-control is self-restraint, keeping you from doing what might feel good in the moment but actually does you harm - like overindulging on sweets, being unfaithful to a partner, getting distracted on your phone when you’re supposed to be focused, or whatever it might be.

Self-control is like will-power where you make yourself make a good choice that aligns with what’s most important to you, rather than what you feel like doing in the moment. Self-control is effortful.

And the important distinction is… Self-control is just one of the expressions of self-discipline. We conflate the two because it’s the one we’re most aware of, but if I’m being honest, it’s also the least significant.

Self-discipline relates to your overall ability to follow through on doing what most serves you, consistently, despite the circumstances. Only a small fraction of what we do on a daily basis is done consciously… Most of it happens without us even realizing it. Every day we take consistent action and we don’t even know it because it falls into this unconscious category.

So what guides self-discipline behind the scenes, in every moment when you’re not choosing self-control?

In one word: Environment.

Like a canoe on a river, your actions flow automatically in the direction of your environment, effortlessly downstream.

This means that if you want to master self-discipline, it’s much more a matter of changing the design of your environment than it is making yourself do things consistently.

What I’ve just described is so important that it’s what I call one of the 7 Fundamentals To Self Improvement. If you want to learn more about the power of environment, and how to get it working for you and not against you… And learn what the other 6 game-changing fundamentals are, click here and discover them for yourself!