Do you find it difficult to take control of what you are doing every day? This could point out a wide range of behavior, from getting lost while scrolling through Facebook for hours to the temptation of trying out an illegal drug that your friends have been trying to pursue you for weeks. You might just brush it off saying; “Maybe I do not have much control over myself!” But did you know that you can practice and grow enough self-control to make the healthy choices in life? If you want to improve self-control, then here are five tips to get you started.
1. Have Specific, Realistic and Measurable Intentions
The most important and basic way to improving your self-control is to have small goals which are realistic and measurable to achieve instead of broad goals. For example:
Broad Goal: To lose weight
Specific Goal: To lose 5 kg each month
Broad Goal: Spend time more productively
Specific Goal: Spend up to an hour per day on social media platforms
You can boost your small goals by documenting your plans with set deadlines. Write them down and hang them in a place where you can easily see them often. This will act as subconscious reminders. Setting attainable goals for yourself is more practical and encouraging for yourself, where reaching to the finish line of each broad goal might become easier. Having broad goals will jeopardize your self-confidence quite easily as they are usually vague and unattainable.
2. Do not try to change too many things at once
When you make decision after decision, it is difficult to keep on making the right choice as the day goes on. Instead of focusing on building your willpower muscle, you are now having to fight against what you want to do several times in a day. This phenomenon is called decision fatigue and it leads you to losing much of your self-control.
For this reason, it makes sense to take small steps toward your goal.
Say your goal is to lose 20 kg in one month to reach your ideal weight. If you drastically change your diet and level of activity, you probably will not be successful in achieving your goal in the long run. Going from eating what you want and whenever you want and being sedentary to start a strict calorie restrictive diet and running for an hour every day is not something most people can sustain long-term. To be honest, it is not healthy too.
Instead, try with baby steps and make just one or two small changes at a time. Once eating fruit and yogurt for breakfast is a habit, you can move along to walking in the morning, then add salads for lunch and maybe a jog after dinner. Improve self-control by taking it slowly.
3. Modify your surroundings
Practicing self-control can only go so far if your surrounding is full of temptations. Just as a diabetic should not pay visit to the candy store every day, someone who is trying to spend too many hours on social media should not have their notifications turned on for every like and comment they keep receiving on a photo or post. Instead, you might opt for:
disabling social media profiles for a while
refusing to buy potato chips, chocolates, and ice cream
avoiding going to social gatherings where most people would tempt you to eat high-caloric food
It is a given that you would have to make difficult choices to come out some of your old and unhealthy habits and commit to your new plans to improve self-control. Having enough motivation to stick to the new regime needs willpower but of course you can get past this difficulty. Once you can get past it, the rest becomes much easier.
4. Practice Good Self-Care
It is difficult to make sound decisions whenever you are sleep-deprived and hungry. Not taking care of the basic needs of your health is one way to make self-control a big challenge in your life. Be mindful about your meal intakes and sleeping habits.
Besides fixing your sleeping routine, you may try to:
Eat a well-balanced diet – sugary and fatty foods can leave you feeling slow and lethargic, and you might be more likely to make poor choices in other areas of your life.
Exercise regularly – Get some fresh air and do any physical exercise of your choice regularly. Like: running, jogging, yoga, swimming anything that you like
Relax and enjoy – Make time to do things that helps you unwind and relieve stress, whether that’s yoga, meditation, reading, or playing with your pet.
When you have things to look forward to, those can help you improve self-control much more easily during the other parts of your day.
5. Shift your perceptions
We all need to work on this. So, you are not alone! You can improve your self-control a lot more once you change your perception towards what you have been doing and what you need to be doing instead.
Have you read about the famous marshmallow test performed on some preschool children? If not, then let me share with you.
Each child was offered a marshmallow. They could either eat it right away, or they could wait for a while and have two marshmallows. Some children decided to wait, while most ate their marshmallows right away.
How did some of the kids show their self-control?
Twist of this experiment was that some were guided to think of the marshmallow in front of them as simply being a picture of a fluffy cloud. Through which their perception was adjusted temporarily, and it helped them to resist the temptation of relishing the treat right away.
Likewise, you only feel tempted by certain food choices or certain habits because you find those too desirable. So, if you can frame those objects of your temptation into as something less desirable, then the power of temptation would lose over your new perception!
To sum it up, you can improve self-control by having realistic and small goals, make a habit of writing down your goals and achievements, reduce the number of decisions you make every day, adjusting your surroundings, and shift your perceptions. You may also reach out to a counsellor or therapist to help you learn to make better decisions and stick to them throughout life.