How do you improve your self control and develop good habits?
By: Dada Bhagwan
Tags: Goal Setting, Self Improvement, Habits, Life Lessons, Self-awareness

A life lived in normality will always lead to peace of mind, happiness in heart and harmony in society. Self-control is not something that you need to exercise in every little aspect of your life, for this will only irritate your mind.

It is certainly advisable to strictly maintain self-control in areas where crossing the limits could eventually harm you and / or those who you greatly love in life. If self-control is not exercised in such areas, going ahead you could develop strong bad habits which may become hard to change then. And these habits throw us backwards in life, they make us feel so low and demoralised and we experience such confusion and despondency, that we begin to lose the will and confidence to ever get back to a normal life.

However, it is never too late to exercise self-control and develop good habits in life!

Practicing good, moral and noble habits has a great impact of a positive influence on our life as well as others’ lives too. Therefore, it is very important that we always remain in favour of exercising good self-control and developing good habits in life.

How do we do that?

· Start off by assessing in which areas do you really and desperately ought to improve. These are the areas that matter the most in life and where you would like to take a great leap towards the positive.

· Good habits stem from your strong inner intent. Therefore, once you have determined the area(s), maintain a strong positive inner intent to improve your self-control in these areas and develop the corresponding good habits that you yearn for. A positive mind-set can change anything for the better.

· There may be times when your mind tells you ‘It is no good, it will never happen in my case’, but you remain firm. However, know that your inner intent is an extremely powerful tool that will take you through. If your inner intent is virtuous, it will yield good results for sure; just that you ought to remain sincere and hold onto your intent, come what may.

· The days you fumble or stumble, acknowledge what caused it and decide to be more careful and aware the next time.

· Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, reset where-ever you have lost control and march ahead. There is no need to punish or beat yourself up over it. Never let yourself get wrapped up in guilt, anger or frustration, because these emotions will only drag you down and further impede your progress.

· Be persistent and committed to your purpose. Importantly, never give up nor lose hope.

· Get inspired, draw strength and rejoice whenever you have exercised self-discipline and succeeded in it.

Thus, you will slowly begin to improve your self-control and start developing good habits.

And if you still have difficulty in figuring out where to begin this practice from, try out the following:

· Have a pure and deep inner intent to not hurt any living being to the slightest extent through your mind, speech and body. This is one of the best habits that you could develop in life and it will go a long, long way in returning good dividends to you. The value of not hurting any living being is a fundamental teaching given by the enlightened beings. Every morning, as you wake up, atleast five times ask for strength in order to go by your intent.

· Be charitable and help those who are less fortunate. Your help doesn’t necessarily have to be in monetary terms, it could be in the form of donating food to the hungry or even supplying medicines to the sick. Physically supporting those who are very ill or giving time and a patient hearing to the old and weary in your neighbourhood are noble habits that one must cherish.

· Live your life morally, honestly and with integrity. This in itself is a great service to society.

· Have a higher purpose in life. This will make you progress religiously and spiritually and soar to greater heights.