Self Discipline

Sixth Form Assembly 21 st September 2009

2 weeks in, where are we now?

Studies

Challenges

Academic

Personal

Social

Financial

What skills do you need to help everyone do their best?

Self-Discipline

What stops us?

I’ll become a slave to routine

I’ll lose my freedom

I’ll lose my sense of fun

I’ll drown in a sea of responsibilities

I’ll put too much pressure on myself

I wont be myself

I’ll fail

We all have a rebellious side, which wants to say ‘No’

“ Nobody can tell me what to do, not even me.”

A part of us does not want self-discipline

Do little things matter?

“ But … it doesn’t do any harm”?

Texting during lessons?

Talking over people?

Distracting people with other conversations?

Hoods up?

Shouting across playground?

Running down corridors?

Not studying in Study Area?

Being negative about people, as a joke

Actions which damage our school environment

What is stopping us being self-disciplined?

Cynicism

Negativism

Defeatism

Escapism

Delay-ism

“ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” St. Paul’s 1 st Letter to the Corinthians

Self-Discipline is not …

A personality trait that you either have or do not have

Forcing yourself to overcome your own resistance to action by using will power

Becoming less yourself

Self-Discipline is …

A skill that can be learnt

Becoming aware of our self-conscious resistance to actions, then overcoming those resistance

Being yourself within limits which respect yourself and other people

Our personality is a network of individual but connected elements - desires, emotions, needs, fears, thoughts, intellect, memories, imagination and others. In all human beings these elements operate in various degrees of conflict. Sometimes our emotions pull us in one direction while our intellect pulls us in another. Sometimes our desires try to lead us down a certain path but our fears won't allow us to follow.

“ Some people regard self-discipline as a