Is your thought tank full or empty? Do you want to learn to unleash your creative and innovative potential? Do you want to develop all your skills? If you are motivated to the hilt and want to implement what you have in your head at some point, then you need discipline! So claims keynote speaker, author and martial arts master Marc Gassert. He says, "I personally think discipline is one of the greatest virtues we humans can acquire. However, this is in contrast to the common belief: discipline smells like effort."
Would you like to get to know the mechanisms of discipline and willpower and use them in your life? Then here are the ultimate tips, tricks and tools for you. With them, you'll be able to give your inner bastardto face your lethargy, your fear of failure and your laziness a little better armed. Let's go!
First of all, let's look at the driving force, the mainspring of disciplined behavior. What actually motivates people to discipline? Marc Gassert knows that "people who demonstrate a certain resilience to suffering end up being rewarded." In short, you do without, you suffer, and you get a reward. Also interesting is the carrot-and-stick model. It's: if you perform, you get rewarded. If you don't, you get punished.
So is discipline another form of motivation? Marc Gassert: "I often have the feeling that motivation is just hot air. You go into something highly motivated, but then the air creeps out. In the end, none of the motivation is there anymore." Moreover, there are two types of motivation. One is that which is demanded from the outside. The other is the one that comes from within. Marc Gassert: "If the pressure from outside becomes too great, you destroy lives. But if the pressure comes from within, then life is created. True power always comes from within."
But what is the driving force of self-discipline? The expert knows: "In Asia they say: The fuel for discipline is willpower. We humans have a life force within us. Part of it is willpower. Whenever you're in a situation in your life where you have to clench your butt cheeks to stay on the ball, your willpower decreases a little bit."
So you need a healthy early warning system to know when the tank is empty. And you need the ability to refill the tank so that you are soon ready for life's new demands. The good news is that willpower is a lot like a muscle. If you exercise the muscle, it strengthens as you use it. If you neglect it, it gets smaller. So exercise your willpower regularly!
Marc Gassert: "We humans are insanely curious when we are allowed to learn something new. Our bodies thrive on it. We think it's great to learn - learning is important for our minds as well as our bodies." But at some point, there comes a point when you can't or don't want to anymore. You can train to reach that point - or your pain threshold. You can train yourself to endure it longer. That's willpower training.
How does that work? Marc Gassert: "There are motivational coaches who literally make other people walk over fire or broken glass. But I don't think that approach is justifiable. Because it should really be about a person's ability to block out everything else." You can do exactly that by stimulating your inner ear, for example. At that moment, your body automatically releases a hormone cocktail that allows you to dive into a state of concentration. Marc Gassert: "You can either do somersaults or jump on the trampoline or swing. All of that serves to stimulate the inner ear and opens up the possibility of diving into a special moment."
Basically, all people have a similar setup of strengths and weaknesses. These individual strengths and weaknesses can vary in size from person to person. Marc Gassert: "We humans are full of what makes us special. Full of goals, desires and memories. Full of the search for humanity and the unique capacity for compassion. There's the urgent desire to be liked. Or the search for a purpose that fulfills us - a calling. Close to our pursuit of happiness and true love. And then there is the infinite gratitude we feel."
One thing is clear for the expert: "With every decision we make and every experience we have, we rearrange our lives. We are always in search of harmony and perfection - driven by faith in ourselves. We use our discipline, our creativity, our creative power, our neocortex, and our gut instinct to create an environment we like."
But always when our life is going particularly well, always when everything seems to be perfect, something unexpected happens. Something or someone appears, who does not fit into the picture at all. Suddenly, our whole harmony is destroyed.
Marc Gassert: "But I believe that we humans have it in us to find a solution to almost any problem if we remain disciplined. If we build on the qualities, virtues and skills that we possess. Inden we try a little bit or play like children. But also when we gain experience and make decisions. Then we learn that many of the things that are seemingly impossible can be done quite easily in real life. And then it's absolutely perfect again."
