Page 49 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

disciple. When you are self-disciplined, you have simply decided—in matters of

the will—to become your own disciple.

Once you make that decision, your life’s adventure gets more interesting.
You start to see yourself as a stronger person. You gain self-respect.

American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson used to talk about the
Sandwich Island warriors who believed that when they killed an enemy
tribesman, the courage of that dead enemy passed into the warrior’s living body.
Emerson said that the same thing happens to us when we say no to a temptation.
The power of that dead temptation passes into us. It strengthens our will. When
we resist a small temptation, we take on a small power. When we resist a huge
temptation, we take on huge power.

William James recommended that we do at least two things every day that
we don’t want to do—for the very reason that we don’t want to do them—just to
keep willpower alive. By doing this, we maintain our awareness of our own will.

33. Turn into a word processor

If you associate the word “willpower” with negative things, such as harsh
self-denial and punishment, you will weaken your resolve to build it. To increase
your resolve, it’s often useful to think of new word associations.

To weight lifters, failure is success. Unless they lift a weight to the point of
failure, their muscles aren’t growing. So they have programmed themselves,
through repetition, to use the word failure in a positive sense. They also call
what we would call pain something positive: the burn. Getting to the burn is the
goal! You’ll hear bodybuilders call out to each other: “Roast ‘em!” By
consciously using motivated language, they acquire access to inner power
through the use of the human will.

Zen philosopher and scholar Alan Watts also used to hate the word
“discipline” because it had so many negative connotations. Yet he knew that the
key to enjoying any activity was in the discipline. So he would substitute the
word skill for discipline and when he did, that he was able to develop his own
self-discipline.

Language leads to power, so be conscious of the creative potential of the
language you use, and guide it in the direction of more personal power.