Types of Self-Discipline
Self-discipline can be a difficult thing to teach and learn. After all, it’s purely based around your mindset and the way you’re able to deal with, evaluate and act upon a variety of situations you might find yourself in. But what you might not realise is that there are many different types of self-discipline that we can use, because of those same situations. One style of self-discipline isn’t going to work for every possible scenario because the variables are too vague for the discipline to work – that’s why we categorise them. When it comes to self-discipline, Dr. Carjamin Scott, an award-wining author, has said that there are three main categories. These are Active Discipline, Reactive Discipline, and finally Proactive Discipline. But what do these refer to?
ACTIVE DISCIPLINE – Active discipline is all about controlling and discipling yourself in the present. If you go to study for an exam, and you decide to remove your phone, or disable your access to it, you’re actively disciplining yourself. Every time you think to do one thing, then decide to another better thing, for example eating healthily, or exercising rather than watching TV, then your being actively disciplining yourself. Of course, this isn’t to say that if you want something like a sugary drink that means you’re not in control, it just means that if you decide to go against something in the present that you’re aware of that you need to do, then you’re lacking self active-discipline.
REACTIVE DISCIPLINE – Reactive discipline is all about your reactions to something, and how you’re able to control them. For reactive discipline to work and come into use, then something must happen beforehand. Reactive discipline might occur when dealing with someone who is rude to you. If you want to avoid unnecessary conflict with this person then reactive discipline is needed to take actions like walking away or being the bigger person, however, it doesn’t have to involve another person. Any action that you take that keeps you in control after a specific event is reactive discipline.
PROACTIVE DISCIPLINE – the opposite of reacting after an event like with reactive discipline, proactive discipline is acting before an event. To use proactive discipline, you have to anticipate something happening. This could be creating a to-do list for the next day, and making sure that you’re ready to complete that list by getting a good night’s sleep. Proactive discipline can help you to either avoid certain situations, or deal with them in the most effective way, however, unlike active or reactive, they require you to know, or at least predict what will happen in the future.