Self-discipline and students

Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.
—Abraham Lincoln

As we navigate the kaleidoscopic landscape of education, one crucial factor remains constant: self-discipline. Particularly in these times when digital distractions abound and attention span is shrinking, self-discipline in students has become sine qua non for their academic pursuits and successful careers. Angela Duckworth, an American academic writer and psychologist, defines self-discipline as “the ability to suppress prepotent responses in the service of a higher goal, and such a choice is not automatic but rather requires conscious effort.”

Self-discipline, often equated with willpower and restraint, goes far beyond just avoiding temptations. It encompasses time management, prioritising tasks, tenacity, and laser-focused work in the face of adversity. Wasif Ali Wasif says: “Every work has its time, and every time has its own work.” This proves the best mantra to stave off centrifugal attractions.

The institutions primed for nurturing self-discipline develop the habit of self-regulation in students through an organic learning and teaching process. The well-organised lectures and disciplined stay of students at schools instill in them self-discipline. The scheduled holding of curricular and co-curricular activities teaches students to make the most of the time available to them. The slightest lapse in showing concern for students and their education stirs a chain reaction of indiscipline that haunts them their whole life. When the learning process particularly at public schools suffers frequent disruptions wrought by the non-teaching duties of teachers, the seriousness of getting education is blown to smithereens, ergo making students flippant with their studies.

Aristotle says: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Students who are administered self-discipline in preschool and primary school have been diagnosed with fewer health problems, and with better personal finances in their later life. A study predicts that students with poor self-discipline would display unhealthy behaviours such as overeating, smoking, binge watching, time mismanagement and false adventurism. They fail to cope with stressful situations or disappointments as their tangent habits deplete their parasympathetic nerve impulses.

Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, says, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” The pressing urge as to why we want to accomplish a certain task forces us to take action in the direction of achieving our goal. The nobler our ‘why’ is, the more indomitable our perseverance is to make ourselves brace against all the odds. Schools must emphasise character development, incorporate life skills education into the curriculum and promote co-curricular activities that demand commitment and dedication.

It has become difficult but not impossible for students to resist digital distractions of this age. Mobile phone, the intrusive distractor for students, must be resorted to as a healthy resource of knowledge and entertainment, but not as an addiction. It is imperative to reduce temptations as the psychological concept of “ego depletion” stresses that willpower is a finite resource and that we have a limited amount of mental resources to withstand temptations. We utilise our willpower to thwart temptations everyday until the ‘reservoir’ is depleted. Consequently, we run out of willpower needed to stay focused to our goal.

It’s important to acknowledge that fostering self-discipline in students is not solely the responsibility of schools and teachers. Parents, too, play an ineluctable role in cultivating discipline in their children by providing at home a supportive and structured environment to develop healthy habits and a sense of responsibility. However, for students studying away from homes, self-discipline is vital lest they should be carried away by urban allure.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2023.

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